However the Home Guard wasn’t all negative. They always stuck together and there was a tremendous morale. It didn’t matter how old or how young you were, or whether you’d had any previous war experience, everyone was treated equally, and rank wasn’t important.
‘Allo ‘Allo is another program that portrays war in comedy form, but this time does not deal with the Home Guard but with the French Resistance movement of the Second World War. Throughout all nine series of this situation comedy many serious issues have been skated over in madcap comedy, making it very popular but possibly a little offensive.
‘Allo ‘Allo is the story of a French café owner during World War II and his various entanglements with the German officers who are controlling the town, the French Resistance which is attempting to smuggle the downed British airmen back to England, and the beautiful waitresses who work for him and want him to leave his wife. All these various themes are woven into a tapestry of plot that extends from episode to episode, making it one of the few examples of a “continuous sitcom”.
The general story background is that during the Second World War, the German Army invades the French village of Nouvion. The invading army installs a commandment for the town, Colonel Von Strohm, and his assistant Captain Geering. The two decide to take this opportunity to line their pockets with as many confiscated goods as possible- and to that end they begin collecting any valuable works of art they can find in the village so they can hide them and accidentally discover them after the war.
Meanwhile the German high command has sent a Gestapo officer, Herr Flick, to commandeer the most precious works of art, in order to present them to Fuhrer in Germany. Unfortunately one of the most famous paintings in question, “Fallen Madonna” has already gone missing, thanks to the efforts of the Colonel and the Captain.
Meanwhile, René Artois, the owner of “Café René”, a small café in town, is wrestling with his conscience and his pocketbook. He can’t deny that the Germans occupying the town have money to spend and he is happy to take it, but he also dislikes what the war and the Germans have done to his town, so he reluctantly ends up co-operating with the French Resistance as well. The Resistance wants him to stop dealing with the Germans and the Germans want him to stop dealing with the Resistance.
As a central and busy location in Nouvion, Café René naturally becomes a crossroads and a junction for the Resistance, who are constantly bringing downed British airmen through to hide them temporarily while an escape plan is brought to function. Meanwhile, René himself deals with not unwelcome passionately affectionate advances from his beautiful waitresses (see appendix B) as well as various ridiculous situations, including attending his own funeral and getting trapped inside a British POW camp.
However, although this is very entertaining and it is very easy just to sit back and enjoy the hilarious circumstances the characters find themselves in, how does it compare to the reality of war?
During the Second World War many people were astonished at the mass genocide committed by the Nazi’s. Due to the horrors taking place many formed resistance groups. These groups composed of both Jews and non-Jews. Members came from all classes of society with one goal in common, to at any cost hurt the Nazi effort. The resistance groups were located in all parts of Europe. Activities included the bombing of bridges in order to slow down the cattle carts carrying many to their death. The men and women of these resistance groups risked everything for their beliefs. In order to become a member of the French Resistance you had to under go many tests of character. One being to see if you would kill a fellow member thought to be a traitor. The gun would be empty but the test was to see if they would pull the trigger. These tests of character were incredibly important to the cause. Members had to be strong willed and not let their emotions get in the way of reaching their goal. Many were put on the hit lists of the Gestapo, but that did not stop them, their need for killing to end just grew stronger.
It is interesting the way ‘Allo ‘Allo can extract comedy out of circumstances that to the people who lived during these times would have been not only horrific and terrifying but also disturbing. The only way they manage to do this is by ignoring the suffering and concentrating fully on the comedy of the relationships between characters. For example Lieutenant Hubert Gruber’s homosexual tendencies towards Réné and the beautiful waitresses who persist in making passes at Réné while his wife is not around.
The final program I studied to produce a suitable answer to the question in hand was Blackadder. Blackadder is a British comedy series, which spans all the way from the fifthteenth century to the Fist World War. The series we studied was the series based on World War One: Blackadder goes Forth. Throughout the series we witness the trials and tribulations of Captain Blackadder and his team. They joined the British Army when it was little more than a travel agency for gentlemen with an abnormally high sex drive, but it then got a lot more serious and the cast suddenly find themselves twenty yards away from a lot of heavily armed people who would like nothing more but to kill them.
Some people would say that within this series of Blackadder there was an element of black humour. We like to sit down in front of our television screens and watch it idly without thinking of the reality of the situations portrayed. For example, there is an episode where Captain Blackadder finds himself up against a firing squad and although we know perfectly well that somehow he will come out of it alive, to those who actually experienced these horrific wartime situations or perhaps lost an innocent loved one to a firing squad then it would appear anything but funny.
So, does laughing at the antics of Captain Mainwaring’s platoon or René’s struggles with Herr Flick and the bumbling officers of Nouvion detract from the bravery of ‘real’ war heroes? In my opinion the answer to this question is almost certainly, ‘no’. The characters in these programs are so ridiculous that we are never allowed to forget the purpose of the sitcom, which is to amuse and not to make fun. The characters are almost like caricatures in a program that is supposed to be a comedy. The amusement does not come from the aspects of war that are dealt with, but from the interplay of the characters who are all funny and loveable. The war to me appears just to be a backcloth, a setting for the comedy where the tragic events always occur in the background.
Take René Artois, the main character of ‘Allo ‘Allo as an example. René is the undisputed sex symbol of Nouvion, successful café owner, hero of the Resistance, collaborator and unfaithful husband. René’s supreme virtue lies in his complete dedication to his own self interest. It is in the name of this self interest that, despite being a charmingly honest coward René finds himself regarded as the bravest man in all of France, with Michelle and Denise threatening to have him shot as a collaborator if he does not help their Resistance groups. René has a quality that is ‘irresistible’ – everyone from the barmaids to Lieutenant Gruber falls for him, and even Captain Geering cannot help but notice his beautiful legs. This only increases his danger, as not only does he risk his wife Edith finding out about his various romantic entanglements, but also most of his armours have guns.
Another example of a ridiculous, unrealistic character would be ARP Warden Bill Hodges. Hodges was the local greengrocer and Mainwaring’s main antagonist. He was forever harassing the inhabitants of Walmington with his cries of:
“Put that light out”,
and gleefully booking them if they did not. Control of the Church Hall was paramount after the ARP moved in to share the premises with the Home Guard once their hut was bombed, and careful negotiations were essential. Hodges nicknamed Mainwaring ‘Napoleon’ and had the habit of doing his utmost to spoil the plan of manoeuvre instigated by his platoon, using the verger from the Church Hall to assist him with inside information. More often than not, the more he tried to foil them the more he got involved, and normally ended worst for it.
You just have to watch one episode of either Dad’s Army of ‘Allo ‘Allo to discover that the characters and their experiences do not at all relate to the suffering and bravery of our ‘real’ war heroes. The producers of these situation comedies always make it clear that the main focus of the program is the relationships between the characters for if we lost sight of this fact there would definitely be no comedy involved.
To decide whether or not it is right to turn war into a laughing matter it is not enough just to watch the programs and judge using your own opinion. It is necessary to ask the opinions of others who have viewed the television sitcoms, especially of those who lived through these troubled times. To do this we compiled a questionnaire (see appendix A) and distributed it to people of different age groups.
To summarise the results I would say that the general opinion was that Dad’s Army was very realistic in it’s portrayal of wartime circumstances whereas Blackadder on occasions went over the top and sometimes became offensive. Everyone we asked recognised the horrors of war and said that the world wars were definitely no laughing matter. However, this did not mean to say they thought these situation comedies should not be broadcast on television. In their opinion the main aim of these sitcoms is not to make a mockery or to offend those who have been affected by war but to focus on a certain aspect (Home Front or The Resistance) and exaggerate it in a light hearted manner for comic affect.
Neither Dad’s Army or ‘Allo ‘Allo deal with situations which may appear to some people to be disrespectful and abusive. One of the questions we asked was:
“ Are there certain situations of war, which should not be humourised under any circumstances?”
The response to this question was adamant. People are very sure of what they don’t want to be shown on these programs. It is thought by most that situations involving religion, colour or race, violent death, informing next of kin and the Holocaust should not be made a mockery of. These situations were and still are extremely serious. It is not right to laugh at the taking of millions of innocent lives as we forget, there are still people alive today who lost many friends and family members in this troublesome time they will never forget. We need to consider these peoples feelings and be sympathetic towards them, as we will never even begin to imagine the tragic, horrific and disturbing situations they were forced to experience.
In general terms I would say that people aged fifty-one and above were more aware of how close to reality Dad’s Army and ‘Allo ‘Allo were in their portrayal. Whereas those of younger generations were not as wary and did not seem to recognise how these programs deal with a very delicate subject which could give offence to older people.
To us the war seems like ages ago and some people may think that because of this it is all right to laugh at or even ridicule the decisions made in those times. Unfortunately to those who fought in the war or contributed in some way the tragic turmoil still haunts their every day lives, the memories are always with them and the suffering will never be forgotten. The better programs, which portray wartime issues, recognise this fact and simply use the war as a framework, a context to produce comedy and make the audience laugh. Both ‘Allo ‘Allo and Dad’s Army are successful as they ensure that although they are amusing they also avoid serious contemplation of war and suffering.
In the group we were working in to gather together research and compile our questionnaire, we discussed how close to reality we thought these programs are. We came to the conclusion that they were not at all accurate and although there were some elements of truth, what dominated the programs was the one main aim, to fulfil the comedy criteria and so the wartime scenarios were vastly exaggerated in order to appear humourous. However we were proved wrong when reading the questionnaire of one elderly lady who said that Dad’s Army was very accurate, she found it very entertaining and not at all disrespectful.
In our groups we also decided that you could Dad’s Army or ‘Allo ‘Allo as many times as you wanted without learning anything about war. This proves that the aim is to focus on the relationships and interplay between characters and not to abuse the delicate situation of war.
I am someone whose feelings about war have been derived purely from propaganda, TV, books and films such as Saving Private Ryan and Schindler’s List. With this in mind I would say that although it is wrong to trivialise and laugh at human misery, successful war comedies do not do this, they make us laugh at other, less horrible aspects of war such as collaboration, resistance, volunteer armies and making the enemy appear stupid. There are many people who have been involved in war who refuse to watch programs such as Dad’s Army and ‘Allo ‘Allo as they either hold such a strong grudge towards the enemy or just don’t want to be reminded of the horrific situations they had to live through. In my opinion the humour portrayed in these television sitcoms can be a healthy outlet for pent up feelings, it can relieve stress, break down barriers and get rid of a lot of underlying anxieties. We must always remember that these programs certainly do not laugh at suffering. They show how it is possible to extract comedy out of tragic situations. Far from trivialising suffering Dad’s Army and ‘Allo ‘Allo seem deeply respectful of the historical truth while at the same time encouraging us to laugh at imaginary characters. Blackadder is different because the comedy has a harder, blacker more controversial edge. Producers of these sitcoms need to know when to draw the line, in the first two they seem to have got it right but I am not so sure about Blackadder.