Breaking the silence.

[sister_luck]

I haven't been posting lately - too much work and not enough to say.

Easter break is coming up and that's very welcome. We've even got some travelling planned.

Oh and ProSieben/Sat1 (who seem to be on a bit of a British television shopping spree) have bought 'Allo 'Allo. I'm not sure how to feel about that. The BBC article quotes a BBC spokesman who explains that the show "had not been picked up in Germany until now due to the subject matter". I'm convinced they're going to dub it and I've been wondering all week how in god's name they're going to translate "the fallen madonna with the big boobies". It will probably turn out to be unwatchable.

I first discovered 'Allo 'Allo in New Zealand as a 16-year-old exchange student. The German past had always been important for me and I couldn't imagine that it could be dealt with as anything but a serious matter. It was quite a shock! I sort of enjoyed it, but wasn't sure if I was allowed to laugh at it as a German, but then I just had to.

Strangely enough, we've had Hogan's Heroes on television for years and years and I've never heard that it caused any controversy.

Comments

[gillo]

'Allo 'Allo

was based initially on a wonderful straight drama called

Secret Army

, starring Bernard Hepton as a Belgian café owner and key member of the Resistance. The parody is very strong in the first few series and much funnier if you saw the original.

I find it weird that they are buying a sitcom of that age anyway, but that they chose that particular one is bizarre. So much depends on the accents (God Moaning) and the fact that all national stereotypes are sent up mercilessly. It's funny, but very British. I gather they sold it to France once, though.

It's funny - it's now quite rare to find stuff about the war in that vein here, but no doubt it will make it look once more as if we are still obsessed and can't get over stuff that happened over sixty years ago.

Mind you, the war came home to us today rather strikingly.

[sister-luck.livejournal.com]

Yes, I saw your post - didn't quite know what to say. It would be very German to apologize!
Finding unexploded bombs happens quite regularly here - last time we had a really big one in my city with lots of streets cordoned off and the police busy evacuating houses, a bunch of gangsters saw an opportunity and robbed an upmarket jewellers'.

I've got a conspiracy theory why they keep buying the BBC back catalogue: Sat1 quite blatantly ripped off The Office without paying any licensing fees and I think they settled it quietly by making them acquire their products...

[gillo]

Goodness, I don't hold you, or any German now living, responsible. It was war. And the bombs your people find were probably left by my relatives. (My husband's father navigated Lancasters, so I mean that quite literally.) I might just as readily apologise for the atrocity that happened to Dresden, commonly seen as revenge for Coventry.

And we've had a longer period of peace in Europe than in the last two thousand years. That's the good thing that came out of that war.

Interesting theory. Certainly stuff from that period was made entirely by the Beeb, so they would rake in all the profits. I find it hard to imagine a dubbed version having much appeal, though.

[sister-luck.livejournal.com]

Nah, I didn't think you would feel that way - it was more of a comment on how some Germans deal with the past - and they're the same ones who just won't get 'Allo 'Allo.

I'm quite curious as to how the dubbed version will turn out. For Hogan's Heroes they used all sorts of silly German dialects, but the fake French accents required for 'Allo 'Allo will probably just sound unfunny.

[frances-lievens.livejournal.com]

They have broadcasted it for years and years in Belgium. I think I even caught an episode just a few weeks/months back, and I thought "they're still broadcasting this thing?" Used to love watching as a kid.

[sister-luck.livejournal.com]

But then you got it in its original version, right? Was it popular with the French-speaking Belgians as well?