Who would have thought that a show about a group of French villagers living in World War II Nazi occupied France would end up becoming one of the most popular television sitcoms from the 1980’s. It doesn’t sound like a premise for being funny really, does it? But ‘Allo ‘Allo somehow managed to take the situation and make much merriment from it thanks to a strong cast of characters and a barrowload of catchphrases.
The show aired from 1982 to 1992 and was written by David Croft and Jeremy Lloyd, the writing team behind other popular British sitcoms such as Are You Being Served? and Hi-De-Hi. Most of the storylines were set inside the Cafe Rene, a small restaurant and bar owned by Rene Artois, played by Gorden Kaye. Poor Rene usually found himself caught up in the middle of sticky situations when all he really wanted was a quiet life running his bar. Rene was picked on in some way or another by everyone, whether it be his tone deaf wife Edith, the French Resistance or members of the occupying German forces.