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KATS

The KATS web site is at www.kats.org.uk. Facebook. Twitter: @katsorguk

Last production

Where

Upper Bucklebury Memorial Hall, RG7 6QH.

Box Office

www.ticketsource.co.uk/katsorguk.

Review of ’Allo ’Allo2 – the Camembert Capers

30th July to 1st August 2026

Review from the Newbury Weekly News.

Franglais fun with KATS

We return to café René for some frantic fromage capers

KATS took us down memory lane last week for a visit to René's café in German-occupied France – and a hilarious helping of the popular 1980s sitcom ’Allo ’Allo.

The cast and the setting were very familiar, but the story was a new one, adapted from the Jeremy Lloyd and David Croft original by David Pibworth, David Lovesy and Steve Clark. In the latest plot – with more innuendos than Fanny could shake her stick at – the hapless René is still battling to repatriate the British airmen while events conspire to make life as difficult as usual. Forced to find 50,000 francs to appease General von Klinkerhoffen, he becomes embroiled in a series of events involving – among other things – an exploding Camembert, some very unlikely dancing girls, and a cast who all have different plans for the general's money.

In the midst of all this mayhem, David Richardson was superbly cast as René, constantly dodging disasters but always finding time for a brief amorous encounter with his waitresses Yvette (Rhianna Gadd) and Mimi (Leanne Marshall), who won over the audience with their endearingly flirtatious performances.

Mandy Cole was excellent as the long-suffering and tone-deaf Edith, nicely supported by Nick Prince as her admirer Monsieur Alphonse. Gemma Cole reprised her role of Michelle with great comic timing, and a special mention to Billy Wild as Officer Crabtree, which must be a fiendishly difficult part to learn. Jamie Ledwith clearly relished the part of Herr Flick, very nicely matched with Jenny Woolf as Helga. Kevin Miller, John Hicks and Dave Marsh worked together brilliantly as Colonel Von Strohm, Captain Geering and the very camp Lieutenant Gruber respectively, and we'll all be haunted for some time to come by the sight of the general (Mike Cole) dancing around the stage in his Y-fronts! Rounding off the cast, Jeff Brooks provided a nice cameo as the bumbling Leclerc, Jude Cockerill made the role of Madame Fanny her own, and Luke Johnson and Ceri Lawrence as the airmen popped up in the most unlikely places, much to René's increasing alarm.

Congratulations to director Kevin Miller and producer Kayleigh Dibble, who captured the essence of a hugely popular show that many of the cast would be way too young to remember. Well done, too, to David Helyer and his backstage team, who achieved some very impressive scene changes in the searing heat at the Bucklebury Memorial Hall.

Listen very carefully - we shall say this only once. It was a great show guys – well done all!

MARK & JENNY LILLYCROP

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