What an Old British Sitcom Has to Say About Language and Worldbuilding

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

So, the other day I tracked down an episode (sadly not one of the better ones) of the old British sitcom ‘Allo ‘Allo! The show was a 30 minute sitcom that ran for 9 seasons from 1982 to 1992. It’s set in…occupied France during World War II.

A bit of Nazi mocking is quite relevant right now, but one aspect of the show led me into some thoughts.

And those thoughts are about language.

Bad English in ‘Allo ‘Allo!

So, please bear in mind when this show first ran. It is older. (So am I, sadly).

But they did one thing which I haven’t personally seen elsewhere. The show is, of course, set in France and produced in England. Which brings up the basic fact that the characters would all be speaking French, but the actors are, of course, speaking English.

Any English person knows how a French person struggling with English sound. (And, of course, any French person knows the opposite).

The British resistance characters, who would not be fluent in French, would be speaking French in the way of an English person who struggles with French.

But the actors are speaking English.