Arthur Bostrom (born January 6 1955 in Rugby, Warwickshire) is an English actor, most famous for his role as Officer Crabtree in the long-running BBC sitcom 'Allo 'Allo!.
The character of Crabtree was played as an idiotic English under-cover officer, disguised constantly as a French gendarme during the Second World War. Much of the character's humour derived from his supposed inability to speak good French, which, on an English-language television programme, was represented by ludicrous exaggeration and mispronunciation of ordinary words. For example, "Good Morning" would be pronounced as "Good Moaning!" and, famously, "I was just passing round the corner" would be "I was just pissing roond the corner". This is somewhat ironic, as in reality he is fluent in French.
In 2005, he guest-starred in Dead Man Walking, an audio drama based on the television series Sapphire and Steel.
A tall and distinguished looking man, he attended Lawrence Sheriff School in Rugby and is a graduate of St Chad's College, University of Durham. Bostrom continues to act on the stage regularly, and is a trained life coach. He currently resides in Manchester.
On the 8th of January 2008 he appeared in an episode of Big Brother's Big Mouth on E4. He discussed events in the house after introducing the show in the character of Officer Crabtree.
Speaks French fluently, unlike his role in Alló Alló.
