Christmas DVD Box Set Review – ‘Allo ‘Allo!’

‘Good moaning’ everyone! 🙂

Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!

“Listen very carefully! I shall say this only once.”

Yes! I’ve seen the complete series of the BBC sitcom ‘Allo, ‘Allo’, starring Gorden Kaye as René Artois and Carmen Silvera as Edith, René’s wife. This was the Christmas present I gave to my Dad last year. My parents and I spent about three months watching this comedy series and we’ve enjoyed it!

Since we saw ‘Get Smart’ from 2015 to 2016 and we saw ‘It Ain’t Half Hot Mum’ from 2016 to 2017, I felt, why not purchase another sitcom series that my parents and I have never seen before for Christmas. ‘Allo, ‘Allo’ was the perfect sitcom series for us to get into, as it’s full of laughs all around.

This sitcom series was made from 1982 to 1992 and is created by Jeremy Lloyd and ‘Dad’s Army’ co-creator David Croft. ‘Allo, ‘Allo’ is set during the Second World War in occupied France and focuses on the life of café owner René Artois in the town of Nouvion, who also helps the French Resistance.

I really like how this sitcom series focuses on occupied France and how it gets affected in the Second World War through a humorous comedic way. There are some naughty bits that can’t be ignored in this series, but the characters are fun to watch in their many escapades and antics to cause trouble.

Gorden Kaye’s performance as René stands out for me in ‘Allo, ‘Allo’. I love it when he talks to us as the audience at the beginning of each episode. I wonder why other people don’t question René as to why he’s talking to an off-screen audience. Also, how we can understand the French in this series? 😀

Carmen Silvera is equally enjoyable as Edith. I’ve seen Carmen Silvera before in ‘Mum’s Army’ from ‘Dad’s Army’ and ‘Invasion of the Dinosaurs’ from ‘Doctor Who’. Edith always falls for René’s excuses, as he makes love to Yvette. She gets called “You stupid woman!” and she isn’t a good singer.

As well as Gorden Kaye and Carmen Silvera; there’s also Vicki Michelle as Yvette, Sue Hodge as Mimi, Kirsten Cooke as Michelle of the French Resistance, Arthur Bostrom as Officer Crabtree, Rose Hill as Madame Fanny, and Kenneth Connor as Monsieur Alfonse. All these French ‘peasants’ are wonderful.

I also mustn’t forget Francesca Gonshaw as Maria, who appeared in the first three seasons of ‘Allo, ‘Allo’. I’m saddened Maria wasn’t in all of ‘Allo, ‘Allo’. There’s also Jack Haig, who was in ‘Dad’s Army’, as Monsieur LeClerc as well as Derek Royle and Robin Parkinson as another Monsiuer LeClerc.

On the German side; there’s Guy Siner (who I’ve seen in ‘Genesis of the Daleks’) as Lieutenant Gruber, Richard Marner as Colonel von Strohm, Kim Hartman as Private Helga Geerhart, John Louis Mansi as Herr von Smallhausen, and Hilary Minster as General von Klinkerhoffen. They’re superb!

There’s also Sam Kelly as Captain Geering, who appeared in the first four seasons of ‘Allo, ‘Allo’ and briefly for one episode in Series 7. There’s also Richard Gibson as Herr Flick, who appeared for most of the series, only to be replaced by David Janson for Series 9. I prefer Richard Gibson as Herr Flick.

There’s also Captain Bertorelli played by Gavin Richards and Roger Kitter in the series, but he was only from Series 4 to 7 and I found him rather annoying at times. There’s also John D. Collins as Fairfax and Nicholas Frankau as Carstairs, the British airmen that get hidden away a lot in ‘Allo, ‘Allo’.

The DVD box set contains all 84 episodes of the ‘Allo, ‘Allo’ series, which are nine seasons and two Christmas specials. Most of the episodes are in order on DVD, except the 1991 Christmas Special called ‘A Bun In The Oven’, as it’s put at the end of Series 9, which should have been at the beginning of Series 8.

So the last episode my parents and I saw was not ‘A Wrinkle In Time’, but ‘A Bun In The Oven’. How could the DVD makers have screwed this up when putting the DVD box set together? Anyway, it doesn’t matter. We saw all of ‘Allo, ‘Allo’ and it was good to watch the complete series since Christmas 2017.

I highly recommend ‘Allo, ‘Allo’ to watch as a comedy series on DVD as well as a Christmas present. The comedy is really good. Despite some naughty bits, I could get into the characters and enjoy the storylines. This is especially since the arc of ‘Allo, ‘Allo’ was like a saga and not standalone episodes.

Thanks for reading!

Bye for now!

Tim. 🙂

Advertisement