Andre Maranne - the UK's favourite Frenchman

If James Burke was one of the most familiar names and faces on TV, Andre Maranne will barely register in most peoples’ consciousness at all. You may recognise him as Francois, the sergeant sidekick to Peter Sellers’ Clouseau in six Pink Panther films but, by the time I first saw any of these classic comedies, Andre was already a regular on the telly and a hit in our household. But he wasn’t always easy to find.

In the early Seventies, a regular feature of our Sunday mornings was the Beeb’s foreign language series for beginners. In readiness for our first overseas holiday as a family in 1972, Mum and Dad tuned in to the Zarabanda programme to help us get by in Spanish. Catherine and I also took an interest so the following autumn we began watching re-runs of Repondez s’il vous plait. We weren’t planning a hop across the Channel but I guess there as a feeling it might complement my lessons in school.

In thirty-odd weeks, viewers could learn conversational French with the help of studio sketches acted out by real, live Frenchmen and women. The one who stood out for all of us was Andre Maranne. In my head he always seemed to in a police uniform but at least he escaped being blown up by Clouseau.

Ah, that face, that voice, that accent. He couldn’t have been more French had he donned hooped shirt and beret, slung a string of onions around his neck, a couple of baguettes in his pannier and pedalled beneath the Eiffel Tower singing, “Nooooon, je ne regretted rien”. By 1976, personalities like Charles Aznavour and Sacha Distel were well-known in the UK but amongst the Smiths, we had established an unofficial fanclub of four in celebration of Monsieur Maranne.

Imagine our delight when the Beeb’s new, updated French education strand, Ensemble, included Andre in every episode. And this time in colour! That year his distinctive Gallic features were visible not only in the post-breakfast Sunday slot but also in primetime. I don’t remember some of these but my contemporary diary entries proved revealing. In those days, my diaries were tediously factual, often boring prose listing activities and TV programmes without anything remotely resembling illuminating opinion. Detailed results of Superstars or It’s a Knockout were recorded meticulously but if there were no numbers involved, forget it. In that, and subsequent few years, I evidently made an exception for mentions of Andre’s random appearances on shows which demanded a generic Frenchman, especially one in a flic’s uniform, for a sketch or drama scene.

There he was in BBC2’s Kenneth Williams Show and When The Boat Comes In, besides being a stooge for Dick Emery. I also noted his role in the Beeb’s all-star drama Suez ’56 in 1979 and 1984’s thriller The Secret Servant but was less diligent regarding his later parts in Bergerac and A Very Peculiar Practice. And yet Andre featured in two of Britain’s most famous sitcom episodes of all time.

In 1984 he played the EU Commissioner advocating the Eurosausage in the 1984 Christmas special of Yes Minister, at the end of which Jim Hacker becomes PM. But perhaps his most famous cameo appearance came in the unforgettable 'Gourmet Night' episode of Fawlty Towers. As the local restaurateur Andre (yes, really) it wasn’t a beefy part although it was his duck dish which so nearly saved Basil’s bacon. Nearly. Anyone for trifle?

But that’s enough meat puns. So how come he was so prolific, so available on UK television? Well, apparently this son of Toulouse became a naturalised Brit in the Sixties. Presumably as no obituary has been unearthed, Andre Maranne’s Wikipedia page suggests he is still alive albeit not working. While his Gallic eyebrows may have turned grey, after fifty-plus years living on this side of la Manche I do hope he never lost that wicked accent.