Last episode of 'Allo 'Allo! - René's son

I always watched 'Allo 'Allo years ago and although I don't find the series as funny now, I always remember the scene where Lieutenant Gruber and Helga visit Nouvion in the then present day at the end of the last episode. I remember René's son being at the cafe (he was played by Gorden Kaye as well) and when they meet René again (who is very old and in a wheelchair) he tells then that the son was "an orphaned baby, left on the doorstep, I told him that I was his father".

Something I don't get is when René tells this to Gruber and Helga, the audience roars with laughter. Am I missing a joke here? I also remember Colonel Von Strohm being Gruber and Helga's chauffeur - but wouldn't he have been too old? By looking at the last scene and the style of Gruber's Mercedes, it looks exactly like the then present day of 1992 - but wasn't the Colonel meant to be much older than René during the war?

It's been a couple of years since I watched that episode so am just going on your description, but I would imagine the joke was meant to be that the 'son' looked so much like him, it really did have to be his - and with his phillandering, it's hardly unlikely.

I always took those final scenes to have been set in 1992 and hadn't really thought about the ages. Ultimately though, some older people are healthier and more able than younger people. Likewise, people can appear older or younger than they actually are - or are meant to be. Just looking at one's own family will often prove that. I don't recall any particular implication of ages of the Colonel or René, but I wouldn't have put them at particularly different ages from each other.

The biggest stretch is that they're still alive at all in 1992 though, not their perceived ages! I mean, I'd have estimated René as - at best - in his mid 40s when Nouvion is initially occupied. That would place him just a few years shy of 100 in 1992, and the Colonel similarly!

Quote: Aaron @ January 18 2011, 10:09 PM GMT

It's been a couple of years since I watched that episode so am just going on your description, but I would imagine the joke was meant to be that the 'son' looked so much like him, it really did have to be his - and with his phillandering, it's hardly unlikely.

I always took those final scenes to have been set in 1992 and hadn't really thought about the ages. Ultimately though, some older people are healthier and more able than younger people. Likewise, people can appear older or younger than they actually are - or are meant to be. Just looking at one's own family will often prove that. I don't recall any particular implication of ages of the Colonel or René, but I wouldn't have put them at particularly different ages from each other.

The biggest stretch is that they're still alive at all in 1992 though, not their perceived ages! I mean, I'd have estimated René as - at best - in his mid 40s when Nouvion is initially occupied. That would place him just a few years shy of 100 in 1992, and the Colonel similarly!

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I understand what you mean about the son joke now.

I think you are probably right about the Colonel and René not really being different ages to each other. From what I can remember, René was supposed to be in his early forties in 'Allo 'Allo! (and Yvette was around twenty), which would mean René was in his early 90s at the end of the last episode.

Interestingly, I was doing some research today and noticed in The War Diaries Of René Artois Volume 1 (See Amazon product listing), that it states René's year of death as having been 1985.

Of course, the book was first published in 1988 - four years before the series in fact ended - and was written by John Haselden rather than Croft or Lloyd. But an interesting bit of trivia nonetheless.

Quote: Aaron @ February 1 2011, 9:33 PM GMT

Interestingly, I was doing some research today and noticed in The War Diaries Of René Artois Volume 1 (See Amazon product listing), that it states René's year of death as having been 1985.

Of course, the book was first published in 1988 - four years before the series in fact ended - and was written by John Haselden rather than Croft or Lloyd. But an interesting bit of trivia nonetheless.

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I remember seeing this book and obviously noticing that references to Rene's death were inaccurate.

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