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TV Series
Allo Allo first hit our TV
screens in December 1982. Created by the writing partnership of Jeremy
Lloyd and David Croft in what was considered by many to be the golden age
of the sitcom, it was reportedly based on the BBC drama series Secret
Army. Set in war torn France the story is centred on French café owner
Rene Artois (played by Gorden Kaye), his long suffering wife Edith (Carmen
Silvera), mother-in-law Madame Fanny (Rose Hill) together with the café
waitresses including Yvette played by Vicki, who all find themselves
thrust by default into the very forefront of the Resistance escape route.
The programme ran for ninety two episodes in nine series over ten years
before finally bowing out in 1992 which means it actually went on for
longer than the war! It has sold to over eighty different countries, more
than Monty Python or Fawlty Towers, been translated into countless
languages and is currently enjoying a whole new audience as a result of
constant re runs worldwide. Quite simply Allo Allo has become one of the
most successful and popular sitcoms of all time having transcended class,
time and race. For Vicki the role of Yvette has earned her not only fame
but sex symbol status with a huge fan following all over the world. She
still receives fan mail for her portrayal on a regular basis from such
places as India, China, Australia, the USA and of course Europe and the
UK. She was offered the role as a result of impressing the writers while
playing the part of a French robot maid in one of their earlier series
Come Back Mrs Noah. For Jeremy Lloyd, she was the obvious first choice for
the character although she did in fact read for the role of Michelle of
the Resistance as well. This role was eventually played by Kirsten Cooke.
It was to be eighteen months from the screening of the pilot to the
recording of the first series and even thought the show proved popular, a
question mark hung over future episodes for some time before public demand
took over and the rest as they say is history.
Stage Play
By the mid eighties Allo Allo
had reached cult status and the market was saturated with all manner
merchandise ranging from T shirts, mugs and key rings to books, board
games and even fake currency. A stage version of the series was written
also by David Croft and Jeremy Lloyd which opened at The London Palladium
where it completed two box office record breaking runs transferring to the
Dominion and Prince Of Wales theatres before touring to Australia, New
Zealand and of course all over the UK with the same result and where it
has been revived on numerous occasions, the last British tour being in
1996. A final performance of the play in Australia is planned for 2007.
The Return of Allo Allo
With the twenty fifth anniversary of the show
looming in 2007 and public demand still as great as ever, it was
predictable that some form of recognition of the programme should take
place to mark the occasion. What was perhaps more surprising was the
decision to create a final one off special entitled The Return of Allo
Allo which was coincidentally scheduled for completion at the appropriate
time.
Several of the available, original cast were reunited to perform
their roles for the very final episode which took over a year to bring to
fruition with Jeremy Lloyd once again penning the script. With a number of
the cast sadly no longer living, it was obvious a slightly new format
would need to be adopted in order to make the episode credible. This was
ingeniously achieved by devising a new storyline inter dispersed with
clips from past shows and interviews from the actors. Thus we arrive at
Café Rene some 15 years after the end of the war to find Rene writing his
memoirs. Yvette, still working at the café, is as ever by Rene’s side
longing for the day he is to make an honest woman of her, Officer Crabtree
has settled in Nouvion and remains as the village policeman while various
familiar faces come and go reviving memories of days gone by.
For Vicki it was both an exciting and emotional experience. ‘We
actually recorded the new episode in
Manchester,’
she explains. ‘As with the old series, it was performed in front of a live
audience most of whom came dressed as their favourite character.
Unbelievably we had over 4000 requests for 200 tickets. I don’t think I’ll
ever forget the reception we all got when we walked out, it was just
amazing. Being back on the set again gave me goose bumps, it was almost as
though I had never left it and we all just fell straight back into
character.’ The publicity the new show generated was equally incredible
with Vicki making TV guest appearances on This Morning, Richard and Judy,
Breakfast TV and GMTV in addition to radio interviews on
UK
and European networks.
The programme was broadcast on
BBC 2 on
Saturday 28th April 2007
at
9pm and was followed by a repeat of a classic episode from the
mid 80’s
Click here for a link to the BBC Entertainment Site for a clip from the
making of the show.
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