BBC refuses to remake the classic World War II comedy 'Allo 'Allo because bosses fear

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Nazis may offend people.

Plot twist of 2016??

The wartime generation laughed at the Nazis and this carried on into the 1980s.

It started before WWII with Chaplin's The Great Dictator and ended with Freddie Starr and Kenny Everett. What they show stock footage of either of them, they very rarely show the Nazi send-ups.

However Allo Allo was specifically a send up of BBC's Secret Army

Reply 21

Observatory

None of these shows should be remade. The BBC should make something new. The quality of its new output has however been dropping for 10 or 20 years and perhaps this is a recognition they're just not up to it any more.

Reply 22

Observatory

Anyway, the real reason is surely not that people will be offended by the mere sight of comedy Nazis. The real reason is surely that some BBC person thinks that doing a comedy European accent is a political crime. No doubt they also see the show as a veiled send-up of the EU.

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 23

nulli tertius

Original post by Observatory

As far as I was aware they were remaking episodes lost from the archives and none of Allo Allo is lost. It is a bit late for The Wiping Disease.

Reply 24

AnneFrankIy

Lots of anti-German propaganda pushed by the Jews/Communists. Yeah they committed some terrible crimes, but most crimes were no worse than those they fought against. Their big crime, is a hoax.

If there was a Holocaust of any people, there was a far greater Holocaust of SLAVIC people

You know, those who perished under famines like Holodomor, millions worked to death in GULAGS!

Yet you never learn about their Holocaust and suffering. Why is that hmm?

All we hear of is the big lie of six million when actually it was in the low hundreds of thousands who died in camps largely from disease epidemics.

Lovely pool for a camp we're told were used for extermination. What of the theatre? what of the orchestra? they claim they starved people to death but maybe food was short near the end of the war, what about the kitchens and giant mess halls did they build all of these for nothing?

Don't be so bloody naive.

Here are Jewish inmates delousing clothing. Why would a camp used to exterminate do something at that prevents death? can anyone explain this to me please? didn't think so..

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Reply 25

username402722

It was a poor programme and in any case it was to poke fun at WW2 dramas of its era, so any jokes would be lost. Classic comedies if they stand the test of time should not be re-made in my opinion.

Reply 26

Observatory

Original post by AnneFrankIy

If there was a Holocaust of any people, there was a far greater Holocaust of SLAVIC people

You know, those who perished under famines like Holodomor, millions worked to death in GULAGS!

I feel compelled to ask if you at least accept that the Nazis also killed millions of Slavs?

Reply 27

nulli tertius

Original post by Joinedup

timidity about commissioning new comedy would be my guess...bring on new comedy talent is one of the things the BBC has done that I think we'll miss if it bites the dirt.

once upon a time ITV made another 3 series of this stuff...

after the BBC had produced the first series of blackadder

At least it spared us any more of Ben Elton as a stand up comedian

Reply 28

Trinculo

I've seen a bit of Allo Allo - years ago when I was very small, and then recently.

As much as I'd like to stick the boot into the BBC and PC brigade - I think it's one of those programmes that's had its time and is best left as it was rather than remade. If a person is a fan, or a new fan, they can go back and watch the old programmes on satellite or download or whatever.

I see Allo Allo as the spiritual child of Carry On, and it was more or less the last time this kind of humour could be done - it's just not funny or relevant anymore.

At the time- the mid 80s or whenever, I'm sure it was lol funny. Today....really? Not so much the Gestapo, but all the rest of the stuff that's no longer the subject of jokes. The gay German officer, women in lingerie, telling the old woman to stfu and of course the funniest joke of all time - big tits.

If you were to try and re-make Allo Allo without the above - what would you really have? It would be like making Blackadder again without Baldrick or AbFab without Joanna Lumley.

Reply 29

TheThiefOfBagdad

Original post by Trinculo

All of this.
Thanks for typing out my thoughts so I don't have to.

Reply 30

Trinculo

Original post by nulli tertius

At least it spared us any more of Ben Elton as a stand up comedian

I appreciated Double Seat

Reply 31

nulli tertius

Original post by Trinculo

We will see whether this is all true when the BBC remake Up Pompeii. If Allo Allo was the spiritual child of Carry On; Up Pompeii was its identical twin. Carry On Vesuvius if you will. If new Up Pompeii works, then we can expect to see a lot of similar comedy on television.

You say a lot of this comedy is no long the subject of jokes. That isn't really right. It is no longer the subject of television. Ken Dodd is at the Playhouse in Whitley Bay tonight; Jim Davidson is playing Great Yarmouth on Monday, Roy Chubby Brown is playing Scarborough next Saturday

Reply 32

Trinculo

Original post by nulli tertius

I just don't see it. Thinking about Carry On, and Are You Being Served? - ok they were what they were. I just don't see a new sitcom coming on TV that has central running gags that are - "this guy here is a screaming homosexual".

You say a lot of this comedy is no long the subject of jokes. That isn't really right. It is no longer the subject of television. Ken Dodd is at the Playhouse in Whitley Bay tonight; Jim Davidson is playing Great Yarmouth on Monday, Roy Chubby Brown is playing Scarborough next Saturday

I genuinely, genuinely thought Roy Chubby Brown was dead.

Reply 33

nulli tertius

Original post by Trinculo

One of the things with situation comedies is that character development is pared down. Characters have no traits that are not part of the humour. If you don't have characters who are funny homosexuals, you don't have gay characters at all.

There are very few situation comedies where a major attribute is not played for laughs. I can think of Lenny Henry in Chef, where his blackness is ignored in the humour, but few others.

Reply 34

Observatory

Vera Lynn is still singing There'll Always Be An England for paying audiences but I think that ship has sailed.

Reply 35

Brahmin of Booty

Original post by Drewski

It wasn't that funny anyway, so even of its true it's no loss.

One or two half decent jokes... That it then repeated every episode. No ta.

You're right that they're not funny, but they have that feel good factor. Only fools and horses is not laugh out loud funny, but it's enjoyable.

Reply 36

nulli tertius

Original post by Observatory

Vera Lynn is still singing There'll Always Be An England for paying audiences but I think that ship has sailed.

Or been reborn as Hayley Westenra

Reply 37

username1799249

Original post by slaven

Who would be offended by this and why?

Because it is a rather sad state of affairs that the best the BBC can come up with is remakes of 30 year old sitcoms. Where is the new stuff?

Reply 38

AperfectBalance

For anyone that is saying oh it wasn't good so they shouldn't make one anyway or it was of its time if the bbc Said they will not remake it as they did not feel they could do as good a job etc that would be fine. but saying because it could be offensive is stupid. Its not the show it is the reason why they are not doing another

Reply 39

Jjj90

Do you know? I am sick to the back teeth of thick members of the public basing their opinions and emotions on headlines without taking half a minute to actually read the article and think.

It may shock you but... the newspapers are full of lies and half truths. Read the article.