We used to watch a British comedy, ‘Allo, ‘Allo, about a French family, owners of a village tavern, trying to cope with the Germans’ occupation of their country during World War II. They helped the French Resistance as best they could, but had to be careful because there were always German officers dropping in for food and drink.
Because it was an English show pitched to an English-speaking audience, all the dialogue was in English. It was understood, though, that these were French characters speaking only French. But then they added a new character, posing new problems for the writers: a British secret agent disguised as a French policeman. Of course he had to speak French–but he wasn’t very good at it. Only good enough to fool the silly Germans.
So how do you write his dialogue? You’d think, maybe, subtitles. But the solution they came up with was amazingly simple and effective, and very, very funny!
This character spoke fractured English, which we were to take for fractured French: for instance, saying “Good moaning” for “Good morning.” He was a scream. You never knew what he was going to say next: it was always a surprise.
If you want someday to try your hand at writing fiction, here’s the lesson: always leave the door open for sheer creativity. Crazy ideas sometimes work!
There’s still a pretty fair amount of ‘Allo, ‘Allo available on YouTube. If you like wacky comedy as an escape from the nooze, you won’t do better than this.
