Physically, Helga is an extremely pretty and healthy-looking young Aryan woman, with thick, shoulder-length golden hair usually twisted into Princess Leia buns are milk-maid braids, a famously dynamite bust and beautiful legs. These attributes quickly caught the attention of both Herr Flick and General von Kilnkenhoffen.
Certainly, Helga is as devious, avaricious and adept at "interrogations" as her betrothed, but Herr Flick was apparently pathetically unable to realise just how true to herself Helga is. Helga's ability to seek out the best situation for herself leads her to betray all "sides" in Nouvion with chamelonic facility, including her own fiance. Helga carries tales back and forth, judging her own position carefully and playing for the best profit. Although she is not needlessly cruel, Helga has a distinctly ruthless streak, and does not hesitate to blackmail or threaten her way to her aims.
Rene: Helga, I do not like being seen in the square fraternizing.
Helga: Would you like to be seen in the square dead?
Rene: I will fraternize. [...] Thank you for warning me, Helga. I will set out for Switzerland at once.
Helga: You will not get ten yards!
Rene: How do you know?
Helga: Because I can shoot ten yards.
However, depite her wheelings and dealings and somewhat unreliable personality, Helga seems astonishingly well-liked and well-trusted by all sides. Certainly they continue to, sometimes with good cause and sometimes stupidly, rely on and trust in her...
Her sex life is perhaps the most interesting aspect of Helga. She seems to get a very strong erotic kick out of being dominated, and a thrill out of being interrogated by her beloved. However, her self confidence and diva attitude mean that she becomes a tad annoyed if pushed too far. Her self-interest also means that while she enjoys, say, being strapped to a chair in her (extremely fetishisitc) underwear, she becomes very compliant when there seems to be a chance of getting seriously hurt (e.g., if hot irons are mentioned.) She also has more than enough sex drive and passion to make up for Herr Flick's shy coldness, and frequently becomes annoyed at his lack of apparent response.
Helga (hopefully): Your place or mine?
Herr Flick: You vill go to your place and I vill go to mine.
She certainly is erotically attracted by the mystique of the Gestapo:
Helga (in tightly-controlled tones): Some of those leather shorts are very - well-fitting...
Herr Flick: Now ve are playing leap-frog. Ha-ha! That is zhery amusing. We have all fallen down on top of each other. Ve are struggling to distengangle ourselves from each other.... Now ve are breaking the ice for a cold svim.
Helga (who has been watching incredible intensity): Probably just as vell...
And she seems oddly fond of, and definitely attracted to, her fiance. But just how seriously she takes their engagement is another question, especially as she seems to have another fiance on the Russian Front.
Helga is not averse to using her charms, in a business-like manner, to get her own way, efficiently showing a leg, she does not tolerate lechery or sexual harassment. Any offender is mercilessly beaten about the head or threatened with the Russian Front.
Lt. Hubert Gruber is the softly-spoken, charming and very camp Tanks Corps officer with the lovely singing voice and massive crush on Rene.
He was introduced in one of the all-time most hilarious
scenes in 'Allo 'Allo, in the very first episode.
Rene had just been warned by Michelle to expect an agent
who would ask Rene to light his cigarette - when back came
Lt. Gruber, fresh from the horrors of the Russian Front.
An increasingly confused exchange followed, in which Rene
attempted to discover if Gruber was the agent, and Gruber not
unnaturally thought he was being picked up. Rene finally realized his mistake when
his desperate "Are you one?" was answered with a self-conscious,
"Vell, it vas very lonely on the Russian Front." A new catch-phrase was introduced,
and one of the longest-running comic situations in 'Allo 'Allo
was set up, all in one hysterical scene.
Kind-hearted, unfailingly courteous and by far the most civilised of the Germans, Lt. Gruber is nevertheless not entirely a pushover. Apart from Rene, his true love is his little tank, of which he is inordinately proud. (His driver, Clarence, is a bit of a mystery man.)
At first a neutral part in the many wheeling-and-dealings, Gruber slowly became involved through his attachment to Rene and his artisitic leanings, which make him both the only person to be able to tell which of the many paintings circulating are genuine and an excellent source for further forgeries. After Hans left, Gruber more or less assumed his position as the Colonel's protegee and confidante, and became more strongly allied with the Colonel/Helga/Rene conspiracy.
Rather cruelly given his feelings, Gruber was forced to lead the firing squad which "executed" Rene, and it was never revealed to him that Rene in fact survived the shooting. However, Gruber quickly became even more devoted to the "second" Rene, who obviously did not hold a grudge and had the appeal of being a self-confessed Nancy boy.
One of my favourite parts of 'Allo 'Allo are the sequences in which
Gruber is persuaded to perform in the cafe. His emotional renditions of such standards as "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man O' Mine"
bring sentimental tears and gazes of adoration from the many young German officers who cluster around him at such times, including Hans.