'Allo 'Allo

At first sight, frolics in Nazi-occupied France may have seemed a dubious subject for humor, but the show's purpose was not to make fun of the war so much as war-based film and TV dramas (and in particular a BBC1 drama about the resistance movement in Belgium called Secret Army). A good deal of high farce and plenty of bawdy badinage also helped move 'Allo 'AlIo! away from reality and offense. The fact that it was a huge hit on French TV (it was shown there on Canal+) indicates that writers Lloyd and Croft (responsible for the equally long-running and broad Are You Being Served?) succeeded in getting the right balance.