The show had serial elements, and the sheer number of episodes, 85 in total, meant that similar themes often surfaced, including the continuing attempts to transport the airmen and Herr Flick's pursuit of a valuable painting (The Fallen Madonna With The Big Boobies, by Van Clomp). Early on in the series, to escape the wrath of the SS, René fakes his own death and continues through the remainder of the episodes as his own fictitious twin brother. This deception prompts aged lothario Monsieur Alfonse into pursuing René's 'widow', with a view to marriage. This prospect had its attractions because it would allow René to plight his troth with Yvette, but the drawbacks - losing the café and his savings - prove overwhelming and so he thwarts the courtship. Other characters in the show include the fat, thick German Von Strohm and his colleague Hans Geering; ice queen Helga, Herr Flick's right-hand-woman; diminutive waitress Mimi La Bonque; and Edith's mother Fanny 'Fifi' Lafanne, who eventually marries Leclerc. The original Leclerc was played by Jack Haig but following the actor's death the writers invented Leclerc's twin brother who was played initially by Derek Royle and later by Robin Parkinson. David Janson appeared as Hitler in an episode of series eight and he returned to the cast for series nine, this time taking over the role of Herr Flick.
The show had a cunning method of dealing with language problems. French characters spoke their native tongue with pantomime-style exaggerated French accents, but when they spoke English they adopted equally exaggerated posh Oxford accents. The English characters spoke English normally, but when they spoke French it was with a poor, almost incomprehensible cod French accent. This was especially true of the Englishman named Crabtree, who survived in Nouvion disguised as a gendarme and whose strangulated English-French gave the show its most memorable catchphrase with his customary greeting 'Good Moaning'. The show's other principal catchphrase was resistance leader Michelle's, 'Leesen verrry carefully, I weel zay zis only once...'. Throughout the cast, the characterisations were uniformly broad and the show was an equal-opportunity offender when it came to stereotypes: it depicted the French as greedy and sex-obsessed, the Germans as inefficient bumblers and the British as upper-class twits.
