{{short description|English actor (born 1955)}} {{BLP sources|date=January 2013}} {{Use British English|date=June 2014}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2014}} {{Infobox person | image = | caption = | image_size = | name = Arthur Bostrom | birth_name = Arthur Bostrom | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1955|1|6|df=yes}} | birth_place = Rugby, Warwickshire, England | death_date = | death_place = | other_names = | years_active = 1981–present | spouse = | website = {{URL|arthurbostrom.com}} }} '''Arthur Bostrom''' <small>FRGS</small><ref>{{cite web|url=http://steveorme.co.uk/news/never-a-dull-moment-for-actor-arthur/|title=Never a dull moment for actor Arthur – Steve Orme Productions|publisher=|accessdate=9 October 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141014221643/http://steveorme.co.uk/news/never-a-dull-moment-for-actor-arthur/|archive-date=14 October 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref> (born 6 January 1955) is an English actor, best known for his role as Officer Crabtree in the long-running BBC TV sitcom '''Allo 'Allo!''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.lep.co.uk/news/big-interview-arthur-bostrom-1-136196|title=Big Interview - Arthur Bostrom|website=www.lep.co.uk|language=en|access-date=2020-01-21}}</ref>

==Biography== ===Early life=== Bostrom was born in Rugby, Warwickshire and attended Lawrence Sheriff School, where he was a contemporary with Kevin Warwick. He graduated from St Chad's College,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.stchads.ac.uk/notable.html |title=Notable Alumni |accessdate=9 October 2014 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203074843/http://www.stchads.ac.uk/notable.html |archivedate=3 December 2013 }}</ref> University of Durham. In 1977 he performed at the Edinburgh Festival as part of Durham University Sensible Thespians (DUST).<ref>{{cite journal |title=Spotlight on the Durham Revue |journal=Durham First |date=2013 |issue=34 |page=25 |url=https://issuu.com/durhamfirst/docs/dug2695_durham_first_34_aw2_pp/25 |accessdate=3 August 2019 |language=en}}</ref> Besides his television career, he acted on the stage regularly, also being a trained life coach. He lived in Manchester for a long time.

===Professional career=== Bostrom appeared in Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie's 1983 sketch show pilot ''The Crystal Cube'' which was not commissioned for a series.{{citation needed|date=January 2025}} He had a small role in ''Miss Marple'' series 1 ''The Body in the Library'' in 1984.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01lc9s4 | title = Miss Marple - The Body in the Library Episode 2 of 3 | website = BBC | access-date = 2025-07-06 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170902014903/https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01lc9s4 | archive-date = 2017-09-02}}</ref>

He also had a small role in S01 E04 of Just Good Friends ( 1983) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just_Good_Friends playing a gay guy in a pub, that Penny tried to pick up

Bostrom played Officer Crabtree in '''Allo 'Allo!'', a recurring character first appearing midway through the second series and remaining until the show's finale. Crabtree was played as a hopeless British undercover officer, disguised constantly as a French local policeman during the Second World War. Much of the character's humour derived from his supposed inability to pronounce French words correctly in conversation, which, on an English-language television programme, was represented by ludicrous exaggeration and mispronunciation of ordinary English words. For example, "Good morning" would be pronounced as "Good moaning", and "I was just passing by your window" as "I was just pissing by your wondow".{{citation needed|date=January 2025}} Bostrom actually speaks fluent French.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.alloallo.org.uk/castcrew/bostrom.html |title=Arthur Bostrom |publisher=www.alloallo.org.uk |accessdate=21 September 2009 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20091022220839/http://www.alloallo.org.uk/castcrew/bostrom.html |archivedate=22 October 2009 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all }}</ref>

In 2005, Bostrom guest-starred in ''Dead Man Walking'', an audio drama based on the television series ''Sapphire and Steel''. From December 2007 to January 2008, he continued his pantomime run when he appeared in a production as an ugly sister in ''Cinderella'' in Middlesbrough. On 8 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 familiar character of Officer Crabtree.

On 3 March 2010, he appeared as a vicar in the BBC One daytime soap opera ''Doctors'' and again in ''Doctors'' (17:163) on 25 January 2016 as sommelier Murray Bathurst.

Bostrom appeared (alongside fellow '' 'Allo 'Allo!'' alumnus Sam Kelly) in the BBC radio dramatisation of ''The Good Soldier Švejk'' by Jaroslav Hašek in November 2008, playing the part of Wendler.

In November 2012, Bostrom appeared in ''Hebburn'' as a newspaper editor.

In 2017, he appeared in the BBC series ''Father Brown'' as Richie Queenan in episode 5.12 "The Theatre of the Invisible".

In 2017, he appeared on a celebrity edition of ''Pointless''.

In October 2018, he reprised his role from ''<nowiki/>'Allo 'Allo!'' in the book ''Good Moaning France: Officer Crabtree's Fronch Phrose Berk'', in which he attempts to teach others to 'spook the Fronch longwodge'.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://public.ebookcentral.proquest.com/choice/publicfullrecord.aspx?p=5510766|title=Good Moaning France!: Officer Crabtree's Fronch Phrose Berk.|first1=Arthur|last1=Bostrom|first2=Rick|last2=Wakeman|date=17 July 2018|publisher=Waterside Press|via=Open WorldCat}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.watersidepress.co.uk/acatalog/Good-Moaning-France--Officer-Crabtrees-Fronch-Phrose-Berk-9781909976597.html|title=Good Moaning France!|website=www.watersidepress.co.uk}}</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== *[http://www.arthurbostrom.com Official website] *{{IMDb name|id=0098284|name=Arthur Bostrom}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bostrom, Arthur}} Category:1955 births Category:Living people Category:Actors from Rugby, Warwickshire Category:People educated at Lawrence Sheriff School Category:Alumni of St Chad's College, Durham Category:English male stage actors Category:English male television actors Category:Life coaches Category:Fellows of the Royal Geographical Society Category:20th-century English male actors Category:21st-century English male actors Category:Pantomime dames Category:Male actors from Warwickshire