TV Series          Stage Play          The Return of Allo Allo         RTS Awards         25th Anniversary Tour

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.

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.

Photos © Limelight

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.  

Photos © Rex Features Ltd.

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 28^th 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.

During the summer of 2007, Vicki was delighted to receive a telephone call from Objective North, the production company responsible for the making of The Return of Allo Allo, informing her that the show had been nominated for two Royal television Society (RTS) Awards. The RTS Awards are the Gold Standard of achievement in the television community and recognise excellence over the entire range of programme making and broadcasting skills. The Return of Allo Allo was nominated in the categories of Best Comedy Programme and the highly prestigious top award of Best Network Entertainment Programme.

The episode was written by Allo Allo’s now legendary original writer Jeremy Lloyd and filmed in two sections, the cast interviews taking place at Objective Productions studio in County Hall, London during the February of 2007. The scripted performance was filmed in Manchester some two moths later. Directed by Martin Dennis, the programme boasted a large production team all of whom were present at the awards Ceremony in Manchester at The Hilton Hotel. The event was hosted by Coronation Street’s Kym Rider and the multi-talented Bradley Walsh in front of a star studded audience. As nearly always the case in such instances, Vicki was completely unaware of the forthcoming outcome as she travelled to Manchester for the ceremony. “I had absolutely no idea of any of the winning shows”, she explains. “I thought we had a pretty good chance given the massive demand for tickets and audience response but I don’t think any of us really expected it would be the big one”. But the big one it was as The Return of Allo Allo scooped the top award of Best Network Entertainment Programme. Vicki and Jeremy Lloyd accepted the award accompanied by the production team.  “It was the most amazing feeling”, said Vicki “So exciting and yes, we did all get just a little bit drunk”!

The 25^th Anniversary Claibre stage production of Allo Allo opened at the Gordon Craig Theatre, Stevenage on the 29^th August to a packed house, howls of laughter and thunderous applause. It was quite simply, the kind of First Night every actor dreams of and well founded as the show continued to attract near capacity audiences and similar response throughout its initial three month run across the UK. This not only emphasised the iconic status to which Allo Allo has risen but reinforces the fact that the comic genius of Lloyd and Croft’s creations are able to transcend the  boundaries of political correctness and time and simply make their audience laugh out loud, irrespective of age or background. Such was the success of this tour that the show will visit another eighteen venues nationwide beginning in March 2009. The new production uses the original stage script of the 1980’s which enjoyed great success both in London’s West End and on tour around the UK, Australia and New Zealand. There are a few additions and tweaks here and there but the basis of the original conception has been left the same.

Photos © Joe Bangay & Robert Workman

Only Vicki, reprising her role of Yvette remains from the original cast. She does so with as much energy and sex appeal as she did twenty five years ago prompting many critics to write that for her, ‘time appears to have had stood still’. It is no surprise therefore that she generates great audience reaction to which end no one is more delighted than Vicki herself not least as she never expected to be playing the role again. Vicki feels the tour largely came about as  the result of the immense success of The Return of Allo Allo which won an RTS television award in 2007, however, she does admit to thinking long and hard before accepting the role. Indeed it was at one point muted that she might play the role of Madame Edith but this idea was quickly squashed by the writers. ‘I really was in two minds about the whole thing’, she explains.  ‘Then Jeff rang me and said he was going to play Rene and he is a good mate that I thought it would be great to work with him again. But I didn’t make up my mind completely until the producers suggested I go and see their version of Dad’s Army which was touring at the time. It was so brilliantly done, I couldn’t refuse’.

Taking on the mantle of Rene Artois is the brilliant Jeffrey Holland best known for his portrayals of Spike in Hi de Hi, Twelvetrees in You Rang M’Lord and Cecil Parkin in Oh Dr Beeching. They are joined by Judy Buxton as Michelle of the Resistance and a host of very talented actors all of whom bear an uncanny resemblance to their predecessors.

Photos © Joe Bangay & Robert Workman

When the tour resumes in 2009 there will have been a two month break. Does this mean Vicki will have to look at her script again? ‘That’s the best bit’, she laughs. ‘I’ve done this play so often it all comes back the minute you start’. So does Vicki think this is the last time she will play Yvette?  ‘I think so now’. She replies thoughtfully. ‘It was such an iconic series, you don’t really want to do anything to detract from it and this hasn’t I think but I can’t play Yvette forever’, she laughs again.

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