Allô Allô, uma retrospectiva... (V) - Rose Hill

A actriz Rose Hill encarnou durante todas a temporadas da série a personagem de Madame Fanny La Fan, a velhota rabugenta, mãe de Madame Edith.

Quem não se lembra das maçanetas da cama a piscar ("The flashing knobs!") quando os ingleses faziam contactos via rádio?

Da Wikipédia:

Rose Lilian Hill (5 June 1914 - 22 December 2003) was an English actress best known for her role as Madame Fanny La Fan in the British television series 'Allo 'Allo!.

Rose Hill was born in London and won a scholarship to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She started her career as a soprano in 1939, singing at the Sadler's Wells Opera (later English National Opera) in London; soubrette and lyric soprano roles such as Despina in Così fan tutte. For the Glyndebourne Festival she sang Barbarina in Le nozze di Figaro. In 1948 she sang Lucy in the world premiere of Benjamin Britten's adaptation of The Beggar's Opera.

Hill's career in film and TV started with the 1958 film The Bank Raiders and ended in 1994 with a guest appearance in A Touch of Frost. Her longest-running role as an actress was as Madame Fanny La Fan in the British sitcom 'Allo 'Allo!, in which she featured from 1982 to 1992.She slso appeared briefly in the Dad's army episode: Uninvited Guests where she acts as an elderly ARP warden by the name of Mrs.Cole.

She spent her final years in Denville Hall, a retirement home for actors, until her death in 2003.

Madame Fanny La Fan is a fictional character in the BBC sitcom 'Allo 'Allo!, which ran from 1982 to 1992. She was played by the actress Rose Hill.

An elderly woman, Fanny is also a misanthrope who often moans at anything or anyone with whom she comes into contact. Even her daughter Edith, who is one of the few people who makes an effort to be nice to her, can rarely meet her constant demands or appease her crankiness. She often uses a walking stick to bang on the floor of her bedroom so that the other characters below will hear and come to her assistance. More often than not, however, the reasons for the calls for help are nothing more than complaints about what was served for lunch.

René and (his mother in law) Fanny have a mutual hatred of one another, despite constantly both being caught up together in the plans of the French, English or German intelligence - René because of how "out of the way" his cafe is, and Fanny because since she is by and large bed-bound. While it is sometimes unclear whose side René is really on, Fanny is fiercely patriotic and extremely anti-German.

Fanny is rarely seen not lying in her bed. The bed itself (especially its "flashing knobs"), her chamber pot and other boudoir-related objects are constantly used to conceal or disguise radio communication equipment or various unorthodox weapons to be used in the cause of the French Resistance. Many of the show's characters, including Monsieur Alfonse, Monsieur LeClerc, and even René, have hidden beneath her bedsheets to escape capture by German army officials or the Gestapo. Lt. Gruber once found a book under her pillow with the title Wheelchair Jujutsu which contained, among other things, 12 ways to disable a man with a crutch. On the few occasions when Fanny ventures out of her bedchamber, she is usually seen consuming liquor at the café's bar or attempting to entertain its patrons with a song.

Fanny is also known for her many dalliances with men in her youth, some of whom later became famous. She mentions in one episode that she used to have a relationship with Vincent van Gogh (she called him Bobby), from whom she received a painting as a present as well as a part of his body ("by registered post"). Despite her own randy past (she claims to have once been the most talked-about woman in Paris), she constantly pressures her daughter Edith to remarry once Edith's marriage to René becomes officially ended.

Many allusions are made to her long-held disdain of all things German, including her bad experiences with German soldiers during the first World War and her possession of a clock once belonging to Marie Antoinette that was stolen by one of her ancestors. In fact, when someone merely says the words "German," "Gestapo," or the like, she will spit in defiance, even if food is in her mouth.