Allo! Allo!

A wonderful episode that sees the return of a favourite character and pokes fun at the English. Let's face it, the French and the Germans provided the ammunition for most of the jokes on this show. The English only had to suffer the disgrace of Crabtree's awful French. (Carstairs and Fairfax, the two pilots, were just endearingly eccentric.)



With René and Edith in England we get a new clash of civilisations. So now English food, English beauties and British intelligence become the butts of jokes. The highlight, though, is the return of Hans Geering, complicating the multicultural plot. It's rare to see an actor enjoying his part as much as Sam Kelly does here. One thing confused me. Why did he meet René and Edith in Mr Rumbold's office? (I could have sworn I saw that set on Are You Being Served?".)



Although "Allo Allo" was primarily a farce, it did once in while show a serious side. Perhaps not as often as "Dad's Army" or "It Ain't Half Hot, Mum", but there were little scenes that emphasised the real danger of war. In this episode the scene in the teahouse ends with an air raid that adds nothing to the plot. It does remind you that life was hard for the Brits as well...