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Post by Col on Feb 26, 2020 13:13:25 GMT 12
I've been watching re-runs of Allo Allo and though Police officer Crabtree delivers the occasional amusing word in broken French, it can be annoying hearing nearly every second word mispronounced.
Thank goodness Corporal Jones isn't as bad. I'm sure others enjoy the character but it does get tiresome after a while in my opinion.
Any Perry/Croft characters that you find tiresome or even surplus to requirements in a cast sense?
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Post by petere on Feb 26, 2020 18:56:06 GMT 12
Well I agree about Crabtree and I have noticed that when I ”binge watch” a series some characters get very annoying ! Maybe Crabtree was a lot funnier back in the days when the show originally ran, because back then you had only one episode per week. I read somewhere an interview with some media expert who said that very few tv-series - in particular older ones - are made for watching several episodes in a row. (In my country Allo Allo was originally aired Saturday night, I of course don’t know if this was the case in the UK.) So maybe Crabtree is a character that you need a week’s break from.
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Post by Molly on Mar 9, 2020 19:57:07 GMT 12
Funnily enough I really liked Crabtree  I really enjoyed his dreadful French pronunciation. I found Monsieur Leclerc mildly annoying, but only because I thought the character was a bit pointless. I really like Jack Haig although I am glad he didn't end up taking the part of Jones in Dad's Army as I believe was a possibility - only because I can't imagine anyone other than Clive Dunn playing the part. Still, I"m sure Jack Haig would have done a good job of it too. The stand-out actor in Allo Allo for me was Carmen Silvera, closely followed by Gordon Kaye. They were so good together. |
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Post by jonboy on Mar 14, 2020 0:09:06 GMT 12
I always felt that 'Allo 'Allo went on a couple of series too long, after Richard Gibson & Gavin Richards left & were replaced & David Croft bailed out I didn't watch it much anymore, though Gordon & Carmen were still good the plots & script were very predictable in my opinion..
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Post by Alan Hayes on Mar 17, 2020 5:39:52 GMT 12
Of course, 'Allo 'Allo isn't Perry and Croft; it's Croft and Lloyd.
I don't find Crabtree irritating, but those bloody English airmen are wildly annoying.
Thinking about it, I don't really find any Croft and Perry characters annoying, though some are probably meant to be. |
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Post by Dave Homewood on Mar 19, 2020 0:11:55 GMT 12
Allo Allo is still good fun to watch, and it is nowhere near as predictable and annoying as Are You Being Served, which by comparison went on much too long, and these days is seriously badly dated and lacking in much actual clever humour.
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Post by Alan Hayes on Mar 19, 2020 6:29:19 GMT 12
I certainly prefer 'Allo 'Allo to AYBS, which frankly was never my cup of tea.
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Post by jonboy on Mar 21, 2020 2:33:12 GMT 12
Yes, AYBS did go on too long as well & really just became The John Inman Show for the last couple of series..
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Post by petere on Mar 21, 2020 4:20:38 GMT 12
Of course, 'Allo 'Allo isn't Perry and Croft; it's Croft and Lloyd.
I don't find Crabtree irritating, but those bloody English airmen are wildly annoying.
Thinking about it, I don't really find any Croft and Perry characters annoying, though some are probably meant to be. Oh yes those airmen! Not so funny after a couple of episodes... I always thought that they were put there in the story somehow for an international audience. We Scandinavians for example, are familliar with British culture/humour, so I always thought that these two characters were there to somehow give a satirical take on the British ”stiff upper lip” - or something like that.... Allo’ Allo’ was shown in a lot of countries around Europe- and the World, I think! |
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Post by Dave Homewood on Mar 21, 2020 8:04:14 GMT 12
Allo Allo was a spoof on the brilliant television drama series Secret Army. That show was all about Lifeline, the secret organisation that got downed Allied airmen out of occupied Europe and back to Britain. So it really had to include British airmen in it. But unlike Lifeline in Secret Army, the branch in Allo Allo was so inefficient that they never manage to get the airmen anywhere. I think it's pretty funny.
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Post by petere on Mar 21, 2020 23:47:53 GMT 12
I remotely remember that show - wasn’t there also a Gestapo-officer with a bad leg?
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Post by Alan Hayes on Mar 22, 2020 11:16:08 GMT 12
Allo Allo was a spoof on the brilliant television drama series Secret Army. That show was all about Lifeline, the secret organisation that got downed Allied airmen out of occupied Europe and back to Britain. So it really had to include British airmen in it. But unlike Lifeline in Secret Army, the branch in Allo Allo was so inefficient that they never manage to get the airmen anywhere. I think it's pretty funny. Yeah, I get the joke (and of course was well aware of what the show was spoofing), but the English airmen subplot wears exceptionally thin very quickly. If perhaps they were less annoying, it'd be easier to live with them being in the show for so long.
Talking of which, I really need to resume watching the series...
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Post by Alan Hayes on Mar 22, 2020 12:02:56 GMT 12
(BTW, Dave, you are aware that your forum avatar just says 'Dave Homewood Avatar'?)
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Post by Dave Homewood on Mar 23, 2020 7:45:09 GMT 12
Yes something has happened to my webserver's ability to link photos to forums like it used to. I cannot work out what the issue is but it's getting an upgrade this week and I hope it might repair the problem, fingers crossed.
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Post by petere on May 4, 2020 8:51:38 GMT 12
Just watched the 1971 film again and John D. Collins who plays Flt. Lt. Fairfax in ’Allo ’Allo also appears there, in the final moments of the film he comes in as a Naval officer.
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Post by Dave Homewood on May 6, 2020 0:47:14 GMT 12
John D. Collins is one of the very few actors to have appeared in all the popular David Croft comedies - Dad's Army in the film, four different roles in It Ain't Half Hot Mum, three roles in Are You Being Served, the Bailiff in Hi-De-Hi, regular role of F/O Fairfax in Allo Allo, and the regular part as Jerry in You Rang M'Lord. He was also a passenger twice in Croft's less popular show Oh Doctor Beeching!
Collins had an extremely busy career appearing in loads of TV comedies and dramas. And funnily he actually had a reoccurring role as Inspector Paul Delon in Secret Army, the very series that Allo Allo was spoofing!! He was the police chief who sometimes helped Lifeline, so the 'real life' Crabtree.
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Post by Alan Hayes on May 7, 2020 23:57:16 GMT 12
Another thematic link is that he also appeared in the Esmonde & Larbey National Service sitcom Get Some In.
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I really enjoyed his dreadful French pronunciation. I found Monsieur Leclerc mildly annoying, but only because I thought the character was a bit pointless. I really like Jack Haig although I am glad he didn't end up taking the part of Jones in Dad's Army as I believe was a possibility - only because I can't imagine anyone other than Clive Dunn playing the part. Still, I"m sure Jack Haig would have done a good job of it too.
