Hmm, well I suppose it lies in the style of comedy. That standard sitcom setup where the main protagonist makes a complete Charlie of himself every episode always made me cringe! Like Terry & June or Please, Sir. I was far too prone to making a Charlie of myself back then to enjoy watching somebody else do it! I preferred the Two Ronnies, Dave Allen, Les Dawson and Monty Python!
'Allo? 'Allo? worked on several levels. The stereotypes: the stoic British with their inability to learn other languages; the Germans, bullying and sexually perverse; the amoral French, playing both ends against the middle; the boastful and cowardly Italians. But there was also another level. The farcical plans cooked up by London or the Resistance in the show were only slightly more ridiculous than some of the operations that were actually run. Some people were caught up in the middle, forced to co-operate with both sides. The Gaullist and Communist Resistance groups were rivals who often worked at cross-purposes. The German Army and the Gestapo were always plotting against each other. The show may have played it for laughs, but there was a level of realism there, as attested to by survivors.
The same applies to Dads' Army. The motley crew of superannuated soldiers and draft-dodgers that make up the Walmington -on-Sea platoon are a cross-section of society at the time. The pompous, self-important Captain Mainwaring, the louche, disgraced aristocrat, Sergeant Wilson, feisty old soldier Lance-Corporal Jones, wide-boy Walker and mothers' boy Pike, dour Scot Frazer and doddery old Godfrey. Daft as brushes, every one of them, but the Germans would have had to drive their Panzers over them to get to the town!
Perhaps the whole show is best summed up in one line. At the climax of the 1971 cinema film, the platoon confront the crew of a downed German bomber in a church. In a Mexican stand-off, Mainwaring persuades the German commander to surrender. The following day, Wilson comments to Mainwaring that the Germans' pistol had not been loaded. Mainwaring off-handedly replies "Well, if it comes to that, Wilson, neither was mine!"
