Cheap 'Allo 'Allo - The Complete Series One (DVD) (John B. Hobbs, David Croft, Martin Dennis) Price

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Customer Reviews of 'Allo 'Allo - The Complete Series One

The first 7 episodes of the classic Britcom are featured on this collection, and they are the start to a most wonderful, long-running show. The story starts during WWII, when France is being occupied by Germany. Our protagonist is Rene Artois, who runs a cafe. He is the (mostly) sane center to a storm of off the wall characters. Rene's wife, Edith, is older than he is, and is a terrible singer. The local Gestapo agent, Herr Flick, is a psycho with a limp. The German officers are all nutty, and one of them even fancies Rene. The women of the French Resistance are always sneaking into the cafe to cajole Rene into daring missions for France, and then there are also the British airmen -- shot down over France, and now in hiding at Rene's cafe. They don't speak the language, and their appearances in each episode are always good for a laugh. Rene is also quite keen on his bar maids, Yvette and Maria. It is a secret he must keep from the ever-suspicious Edith.

All of this, I'm sure, sounds like a lot of information to take in. And it is. "Allo Allo!" rarely slows down the pace, and this eventually leads to Rene opening every episode talking to the audience, bringing them up to speed on the previous episode's events. The storylines flow from one show to the next, and over the years we are treated to a host of madcap adventures. I think it takes until Series 3 before "Allo Allo!" really finds its groove, but Series 1 is still a solid start to a truly great television show.

Once the disc is over, I'm sure you'll want to see more. And it only gets better. There are many more episodes of "Allo Allo!" to come. I hope that we get to see the rest of them released on DVD someday. The show deserves it.

If you love British humor, 'Allo 'Allo grows on you and
keeps you wanting more. Our friends in NJ told us about the show and the premise sounds strange, but the series gains momentum, as you start to understand all of the characters. The Gestapo roles are some of the funniest and despite one reviewer's opinion, this show is nothing like Hogan's Heroes. Rene's timing becomes a thing of beauty, Hans steals most scenes, Herr Flick is outstanding, Monsieur LeClerc has a few choice moments, and once you get to know Crabtree, the bumbling Brit whose French is atrocious, you own vocabulary will change!! My whole family loves this and we re-watch episodes when our spirits need picking up. Mr. Bean and 'Allo 'Allo, the 2 best Brit comedies of the last 20 years.

Not perfect but a must see
I actually bought a multi region DVD player so I could buy Allo Allo from the UK to show people in CA. The cast of characters is far wider than you get in virtually any other comedy. To describe it as a mixture of other things is neither fair nor adequate. The writers will use anything to get a laugh, and it works. You may recognize some of the ideas, the whole idea of the cafe used for escaping prisoners is taken directly from "Secret Army" which was a sucessful drama, but there is nothing quite like Allo Allo.

One similarity to Red Dwarf is that it takes a couple of series to really get into its stride, but unlike Red Dwarf the first series are essential in setting the stage for what follows.

Nobody escapes the characature, the british pilots are upper class twits, the british secret agent can't speak french to save his life, the german regular army will do anything for a quiet life, the gestapo are incompetent... and into a bit of cross dressing, the tank commander is gay and sweet on the lead character, the french resistance are naughty school girls in trench coats, the wife is the singer at the cafe and could break glass, and that's only half the cast of a regular episode.