When he is supposed to be speaking French, he misspeaks English with an awful French accent, and when he is supposed to be speaking English, he speaks perfect Oxford English in a posh accent. Who ever it was that dreamed this idea up is a sheer genius!
I can only imagine how difficult it must have been for the cast to keep a straight face and not burst out laughing because I laughed so hard I was literally crying. Greatest show of all time.
The thing I loved about Crabtree was that at a time when even some mild swearwords would have been frowned upon in TV shows, he was able to get away with (1) swearing but disguising it with his "bad pronunciation", e.g. "dickhead" => "duckhead", and (2) turning regular words into what would be considered as swearwords, e.g. "pass" => "piss". And it was damn genius.
From a linguistic point of view, his lines were a brilliant piece of script writing. And luckily, there was always one of the servant girls there to help interprete his sentences for the audience. This TV show is timeless. 🙂
I also thinks he lived down Cheltenham Road in my native Peckham. Not sure how true it is but apparently wasn't a fan of people passing him in the street and saying "good moaning"
Benny Hill was also fluent in French. Admittedly, it's not relevant for this show, but two British comedic actors whose characters either messed up French or despised French for comedic purposes is great.
I was in my 20's when this show was shown on Australian Broadcasting Corp. My English girlfriend also liked the show. We watched it live stage show in Sydney with this cast except Rene as he had an accident hitting his head. These actors are amazing. Crabtree and Heir Flick are very skinny and tall. Heir Flick was doing cartwheel on stage whilst wearing the leather long coat.
Best part when he says “ they’ve drawn poctures of the sispocts” and Rene goes *wtf* “sispocts?”. If you skip bk and phone then Crabtree just confirms confidentiality “sispocts!” Becomes a loop of giggles for me (ps sispocts is now a suggestion by my iPhone after “sis” beating sister and other real words)
I was waiting for the scene where he was marrying the couple, I don't think I ever there is anything funnier or I laughed when I saw that scene. That is the best scene for Officer Crabtree!!!!! the whole show is pure genius, they way the thought of speaking English in French accent as French. I was chatting with a British guy once and he said that this was common from long time ago, so it was not something unfamiliar to the British people. but still great and AlloAllo is the funniest comedy show ever!
What I love is how Rene usually understands him, but every so often Rene's lost and his expressions are priceless. There're a couple times Rene goes into a soliloquy basically asking the universe how it's possible that only he & his employees notice how nearly incomprehensible his French is. They're brief but truly gold!
Great old British comedy nuff said I have the complete season s on DVD now they cost me $ 100 AUD money well spent Thanks for the upload from Kim Everrett Tasmania Australia
1:19 to 1:32 - "pissed out" and "fartitide". *"BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA!"* ..... (after regaining composure) been trying to recall that sequence for years. Absolutely Marvelous!
When this was first on tv I didn’t really watch it, didn’t think it was sophisticated enough for my taste but here I am in 2024 pissing myself laughing. Or should I say passing mooself loofing? 😂
“Go to the Jonction outsodd the toon & I’ll fond you on my bercycle. You’re full of plans today. My Brunn is working like the clippers. I’ll meet you at the Jonction at half piss socks” 😂😂😂😂
Love the English - French speaking Police Officier - like me in France and the other cast playing Frenchies, Germans - with Heir Flick and Grubber (not Alan Rickman) being my favorites
Yeah, characters speaking English with an accent are speaking French or German but "translated for audience's convenience" (I guess it's ambiguous what the Germans are speaking when alone vs with the French) and when speaking posh English they are actually speaking English in-character. And then there's Crabtree who speaks broken English ie. broken French... It's absolutely brilliant way to get the distinction of different languages across.
And he played it so so well of course for sure too! Hats off to him and really of course all the other cast members in the series for doing so too. Well done of course.
He's actually a British Spy, hence why his french (when he speaks with a french accent) is terrible but when he's speaking English (when he speaks with an English Accent) is perfectly normal.
