Prime Audiences: Despite more than twenty broadcasts on TV, has the film “La grande vadrouille” with Bourvil and De Funès managed to take the leading position on France 2?

France 2 broadcast last night a great classic from the small screen with Bourvil and de Funes, “La grande vadrouille”, which has been shown on television around twenty times since its cinema release, but which remains essential. But nevertheless, it is not the most broadcast film on the small screen, contrary to what some think0

To the greatest surprise, the most broadcast film on French television since 1957 is none other than “La Tulipe Noire”, a 1964 swashbuckling film directed by Christian-Jaque with Alain Delon in the lead role. It was broadcast 24 times. Follows another cloak and dagger film, “Le Capitan”, with Jean Marais and Bourvil, scheduled 22 times, the same number of broadcasts as the third film in the ranking, “Ne nous fâchons pas”, a thriller by Georges Lautner worn by Lino Ventura.

La Grande Vadrouille takes place in Paris, in 1942. Three English aviators, shot down by the DCA, are forced to parachute. The first lands among the seals of the Vincennes zoo, the second disrupts the roller strokes of a building painter, Augustin Bouvet, busy renovating the facade of the Kommandantur, and the third lands on the roof of the opera house, while conductor Stanislas Lefort leads a rehearsal there.

Obliged to take care of their unwelcome visitors, Bouvet and Lefort, who are otherwise opposed to each other, make common cause and decide to help the aviators reach the free zone. A noble project, which however proves difficult to achieve.