Fawlty Towers: Britcom Blitz..

A long time ago, the Monty Python crew booked into the Gleneagle Hotel in the seaside resort town of Torquay, in Southern England. It was owned and run by Donald Sinclair, an ex-Navy Commander, who once said that it would be a great job if it wasn't for the guests. Sinclair was paranoid and incompetent, a man who John Cleese later described as "...the most wonderfully rude man I have ever met."

Eric Idle arrived at reception with his travel kit which included and alarm clock. Sinclair heard it ticking, yelled "My God, there's a bomb in there!" and threw it off a cliff. Later when he saw American Python, Terry Gilliam, eating with his fork, he picked up the knife and told him, "We don't eat like that here!" His other antics included locking guests out of the hotel at 11.00 pm and terrorizing his staff. He got so bad that when his wife had to go out shopping, she locked him in their room and told the staff "Don't let him out, he's only going to upset you."

All the Pythons soon sought lodging elsewhere except for Cleese, who apparently thought the man amusing.

In 1975, the BBC presented the first series of Fawlty Towers, a comedy written by John Cleese and his wife of the moment, Connie Booth, consisting of six 30-minute episodes. Four years later, they presented the second and last series consisting of six more episodes. All 12 episodes are presented here, along with several interviews and other background material.

Fawlty Towers is a small hotel in Torquay, a popular seaside resort on the south coast of Devon in Southwest England. It is owned and run by Basil Fawlty (Cleese) and his wife Sybil (Prunella Scales). Basil is a psychotic manic-depressive, with wild mood shifts swinging from amazingly rude to oily and fawning, with very little in between. Sybil is vile and supercilious. She has no time at all for him, and treats him like a stupid child rather than a husband. The hotel staff includes the maid, Polly (Booth), who is level headed and competent, but she needs the job and is forced to go along with the insanity. The other significant staff member is the waiter/bellboy and general dogsbody Manuel (Andrew Sachs), who is from Barcelona and does not speak English very well. They are aided in the chaos by a small group of regular guests.

Basil is an arrogant, racist, rude, stupid, violent, obsessive-compulsive middle-class idiot, who believes he is a smart, competent, upper-class savant. His despicable behavior is compounded by being almost infallibly wrong, and, on the rare occasion he is right, no one believes him.

The style of this show is not your normal sitcom. Instead it is the inimitably British style of humor known as farce, or sometimes as French farce as the Brits attempt to blame it on someone else. In farce, someone begins by doing something a little bit wrong, and covers it up with a lie. To avoid being found out, each lie is compounded by a bigger, stupider lie, until at the climax, the whole house-of-cards comes tumbling down. Sometimes it is not lies, simply misunderstandings, but the whole effect is the same.

While not everyone likes farce, if you do, it is incredibly funny. This show is undoubtedly the best set of short farces ever presented, managing to build to an incredible level of mayhem in just a brief few minutes. This is arguably the funniest of all the Britcoms, and is deadly, with only its short length preventing fatalities. If you like this style of humor, and most do, it will leave you with your sides hurting, gasping for breath. However, I must warn you that Fawlty Towers is politically incorrect to the nth degree, and has something to offend everyone.

This set is complete and contrary to the BBC norm has excellent and interesting extras. The show itself is outrageously funny and has hundreds of little hidden jokes within it that you can only notice with repeat viewings. I must have been on my fourth or fifth re-watch before I noticed the sign in the opening credits. (Check it carefully each episode.) This set will make a wonderful addition to anyone's DVD collection. Five Stars.

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Episode Summary:

As per normal, I will only reveal a minimal amount of the plot.

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Season 1, Episode 1: A Touch of Class
Original Air Date: 19 September 1975

Basil is fawning and obsequious when a member of the aristocracy stays at the hotel, and is unconscionably rude to everyone else. However, all is not as it seems.

*

Season 1, Episode 2: The Builders
Original Air Date: 26 September 1975

While Sybil is out, Basil hires the cheapest contractor to do some work on the hotel, despite her specific instructions not to use them. It all goes terribly wrong.

My H&G amigos will love this one.

*

Season 1, Episode 3: The Wedding Party
Original Air Date: 3 October 1975

When friend of Polly and their family stay at the hotel after a wedding, Basil wrongly assumes they are wife swapping, while they wrongly assume he is gay.

*

Season 1, Episode 4: The Hotel Inspectors
Original Air Date: 10 October 1975

Basil finds out that hotel inspectors are in the area. He fawns to one eccentric guest and is offensive to another. Has he got the right man?

*

Season 1, Episode 5: Gourmet Night
Original Air Date: 17 October 1975

Basil sets up a gourmet night for the cream of Torquay society - no riffraff. Unfortunately, his top-rated chef is drunk.

*

Season 1, Episode 6: The Germans
Original Air Date: 24 October 1975

Sybil is in hospital for a minor problem. Basil has a concussion but insists he can manage the hotel. He has a group of guests from Germany but he keeps having flashbacks to the war.

In my opinion, this is the funniest show of the first series, although extremely non-PC.

*

Season 2, Episode 1: Communication Problems
Original Air Date: 19 February 1979

Basil has won a large amount of money on the horses, but lies about it since he promised Sybil not to bet. Coincidentally, a rich and obnoxious guest, Mrs Richards, has lost the identical amount of money and believes it has been stolen.

*

Season 2, Episode 2: The Psychiatrist
Original Air Date: 26 February 1979

A pair of married psychiatrists are in one room; Next door to them, is a gorgeous Australian girl; Next to that, is the room of a man who has snuck in his girlfriend avoid paying the double rate. Basil correctly figures out he is being cheated, but how to prove it?

This is deadly -- the funniest episode of the entire series. It is made even funnier by Basil being both right and (for Basil) relatively reasonable. It is the way others naturally assume he is wrong that makes it funny. Don't watch this one first. You need to see the others to fully appreciate the humor here.

*

Season 2, Episode 3: Waldorf Salad
Original Air Date: 5 March 1979

Probably the weakest episode, where Basil runs afoul of some American guests over a Waldorf salad.

*

Season 2, Episode 4: The Kipper and the Corpse
Original Air Date: 12 March 1979

Sybil, Polly and Manuel try to handle the death of an elderly guest with dignity, but Basil fears that it was food poisoning.

*

Season 2, Episode 5: The Anniversary
Original Air Date: 26 March 1979

Basil arranges a surprise party for Sybil on their anniversary. Sybil naturally assumes he forgot again, and goes off in a huff. How this innocently leads to Sybil discovering Basil and Polly in very incriminating circumstances may prove dangerous to your health. Don't watch this one alone.

*

Season 2, Episode 6: Basil the Rat
Original Air Date: 25 October 1979

A visit from the public health department discovers many "minor" irregularities. The clean-up goes astray, because Manuel's pet Siberian hamster turns out to be a sewer rat. The final line is classic, but I won't spoil it here.

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DVD:

Special features:
- Director's Commentary
- Helpful Staff (Regular Cast Bios)
- Guest Registry (Other Cast Bios

Disc One:
- A Touch of Class
- The Builders
- The Wedding Party
- Hotel Inspectors
- Interview with John Cleese (1)
- A visit to Torquay (Home of Fawlty Towers)
- Footage of the Fawlty Towers hotel
- Customer Service tips (Clips)

Disc Two:
- Gourmet Night
- The Germans
- Communication Problems
- The Psychiatrist
- Interview with Cleese (2)
- Interview with Andrew Sachs (Manuel)
- How to manage your staff (clips)


Disc Three:
- Waldorf Salad
- The Kipper and the Corpse
- The Anniversary
- Basil the Rat
- Interview with Cleese (3)
- Interview with Prunella Scales (Sybil)
- Out-takes, Tips for a successful marriage (clips)

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Fawlty Towers (1975)

Directed by John Howard Davies (1975) and Bob Spiers (1979)
Written by Connie Booth and John Cleese

Cast:

John Cleese - Basil Fawlty
Prunella Scales - Sybil Fawlty
Andrew Sachs - Manuel
Connie Booth - Polly Shearman
Ballard Berkeley - Major Gowen
Gilly Flower - Miss Abitha Tibbs
Renee Roberts - Miss Ursula Gatsby

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