''Allo 'Allo!'' is set during
World War II, between the occupation of
France by German
Axis powers in 1940 and its eventual
liberation by Allied forces in September 1944. The story of the sitcom focuses on René Artois, a café owner in Nouvion and a reluctant member of the town's local
French Resistance cell who operates under the codename of "Nighthawk". Throughout the programme's broadcast, the sitcom features a number of overarching storylines, with two of these being the most conspicuous. The first, and most prominent, concerns the theft of a valuable painting from the town's chateau –
The Fallen Madonna by fictional artist van Klomp (it is usually referred to as "
The Fallen Madonna with the Big Boobies") – stolen by von Strohm, and the subsequent efforts by him to conceal the theft from his superiors and Herr Flick. René is notably forced into handling the stolen painting under threat of execution, but also due to being indebted to von Strohm for allowing him to fake his death when he is sentenced to execution for unjustified accusations of aiding the Resistance in an act of sabotage. The painting itself is at one point lost during its concealment, and when it is found a copy is forged. It is also sought not only by von Strohm but also Herr Flick who, rather than return it to
Berlin, intends to keep it for himself. The second storyline concerns the involvement of two stranded British airmen, shot down while over Nouvion. Because of their predicament, several plots in a number of episodes focus on the efforts of Michelle to devise plans that can help to send them back to England, with René not only forced to help hide them within his café or keep them under disguise, but also to help in her schemes, sometimes devised by London who relay these plans via a radio installed within the bedroom of Edith's mother. The schemes devised are so bizarre and complicated that they backfire, and usually collide with other schemes concocted by both von Strohm and the Gestapo, invariably leaving all three groups worse off than before. Other storylines include the efforts to remove von Klinkerhoffen's replacement from power, sabotaging the Germans' plan to invade England, and the subsequent build-up of German concern about an Allied invasion of France following the defeat of Italy.
Lloyd and Croft sitcom elements As with previous sitcoms created before ''Allo 'Allo!'', such as Lloyd and Croft's earlier collaboration
Are You Being Served?, much of the humour is derived from classic elements of comedy including classic farce set-ups, comedy of errors, physical comedy and
visual gags, alongside a large amount of
sexual innuendo, and a fast-paced running string of broad cultural
clichés. Like most characters devised for previous sitcoms, the cast for the programme were designed with notable elements to distinguish them throughout the series, be it a
catchphrase,
gimmick, or
saying. Like previous sitcoms devised by the creators, ''Allo 'Allo!'' ends each episode with the caption "You have been watching (in order of appearance)", followed by a short vignette shot of actors who performed in the episode — whether as a main or supporting character — identified by their name in caption within each sequence. Although the shots appear like a clip from the episode, the production team conduct a separate filming session aimed as a reenactment of a scene the actor was involved in, mostly pertaining to a specific camera angle or action conducted by their character, with the vignette sequence often done in order of their first spoken line; because of Rene's introductory monologues, actor Gorden Kaye is always first in the sequence, except for one episode of series 1 when Edith's background singing caused Carmen Silvera to be credited first.
"René Recaps" device As each episode builds on previous ones, viewers are often required to have followed the series to the episode they have reached in order to understand the plot. As ''Allo 'Allo!
revolved around individual story arcs spread across several episodes, the creators opted for using a comical version of the "As you remember ..." device, commonly used in serials, to act as a recap of events in the current story for the beginning of a new episode. This device within the sitcom was always conducted by René, who would open an episode by breaking the fourth wall (which Michael Bates did in It Ain't Half Hot Mum) to interact with the audience and provide a brief summary of events that had occurred previously, including notable events that had taken place, and also intermittently during episodes to make comic comments. This plot device was rare for comedy (including comedy animation), where plots are prominently gag-driven and self-contained, but its use in Allo 'Allo!'' had a major impact on audiences connecting with the characters. It also had considerable benefits for re-runs, as it allowed local TV stations who had reshuffled episodes for their schedule to ensure that their audiences could be aware of the plot events surrounding the story of the episode being broadcast.
"Foreign" languages The main characters of the series were of four nationalities – French, German, English and Italian. Lloyd and Croft portrayed this by having non-English characters speak English with the accent of the foreign language, while the English characters spoke in upper-class English accents. French, German and Italian characters could understand each other when speaking, but the English characters could not understand the others without someone "translating" for them and vice versa. The police officer Crabtree was introduced in the second series. Because the character was an undercover Englishman with a poor grasp of French, the actor,
Arthur Bostrom, spoke perfectly when the character spoke in English, but extensively deployed
malapropisms to represent when the character was speaking in French. Bostrom altered certain words in his sentences, substituting different vowels or consonants, changing them into different or nonsensical words, usually laden with
innuendo. An example is the line "
I was passing by the door, and I thought I would drop in," which Bostrom pronounced "
I was pissing by the door, and I thought I would drip in." Another example is Crabtree's greeting of "good morning," pronounced "
good moaning", which would become the character’s catchphrase.
The Fallen Madonna The Fallen Madonna, usually referred to as
The Fallen Madonna with the Big Boobies, by the fictional painter
van Klomp is a portrait of a bare-breasted woman, which provided a
running gag in the show. The first episode of the
first series of ''Allo 'Allo!
(1984), following the pilot, was titled The Fallen Madonna
. In an earlier pilot, the painting was referred to as The Reclining Madonna''. There were sustained attempts by the occupiers to appropriate the
Fallen Madonna, a local treasure, to provide a
nest egg after the war. The painting was seen and hidden in various guises; it was often secreted, with suggestive possibilities, in a long
knackwurst sausage. An incredible number of forgeries of the
Fallen Madonna were made, mostly by
Lieutenant Gruber and
Monsieur Leclerc, which were hidden in
knackwurst sausages in René's kitchen. The forgeries were subsequently destroyed in various ways (burned, blown up, minced, eaten by a dog, etc.). In the end of the ''Allo 'Allo!'' series the Fallen Madonna is found long after the war by an elderly René; he and his mistress
Yvette quickly elope to Spain with the painting to live happily ever after. Having previously sold for £4,000 in 2007, the original prop portrait from the series (
The Fallen Madonna with the Big Boobies) sold for £15,000 at East Bristol Auctions in December 2018. The picture was purchased by a buyer in
Nouvion. The BBC presented the
6th Marquess of Bath with a specially commissioned copy of the prop that was hung alongside
Old Masters in Lord Bath's ancestral home,
Longleat. == Cast ==