Fawlty Towers

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Fawlty Towers was a British sitcom made by the BBC and first broadcast on BBC2 in 1975. It is set in a fictional hotel named Fawlty Towers in the Devon town of Torquay on "the English Riviera". Only twelve episodes were ever produced, but the series has had a lasting and powerful influence on later shows. The show was written by John Cleese and Connie Booth, who also played the main characters, and was broadcast in two series: The first, in 1975, was produced and directed by John Howard Davies, and the second, in 1979, was produced by Douglas Argent and directed by Bob Spiers.

In a list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes drawn up by the British Film Institute in 2000, voted for by industry professionals, Fawlty Towers was placed first [1]. It was also voted fifth in the BBC's "Britain's Best Sitcom" poll in 2004, though many commentators considered this to be surprisingly low[2].

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Background and inspiration

Even before this programme existed, English seaside boarding houses and their proprietors had something of a reputation for firmness and intransigence, possibly stemming from the days when soldiers were billeted in small hotels during wartime or national service. Cleese had also parodied the contrast between organisational dogma and sensitive customer service in many personnel training videotapes issued with a serious purpose by his company Video Arts. Basil Fawlty's behaviour can often be taken to represent macho management at its worst.

Fawlty Towers was inspired by the Monty Python team's stay in the Gleneagles Hotel in Torquay [3]. Cleese and Booth stayed on at the hotel after filming for the Python show had finished. The owner, Mr. Donald Sinclair, was very rude, throwing a bus timetable at a guest who asked when the next bus to town would arrive and placing Eric Idle's suitcase behind a wall in the garden in case it contained a bomb (actually it contained a ticking alarm clock). He also criticised the American-born Terry Gilliam's table manners for being too American (he had the fork in the wrong hand to while eating), and it is reasonable to assume that his treatment of Gilliam partially inspired Basil's treatment of an American visitor in the episode "Waldorf Salad".

For the outside filming, instead of an actual hotel, the Wooburn Grange Country Club in Buckinghamshire was used. It served as a nightclub named "Basil's" for a short time after the series ended, until it was destroyed by fire in March 1991. The remnants of the building were demolished and the site was bought by developers.

Sinclair died in 1981, having emigrated to Canada in the 1970s where he was once tracked down by a British newspaper after Cleese named him in an interview. (Interestingly, Basil Fawlty displayed an affinity for Canada on a couple of occasions in the series, once joking that he would move there to escape his wife.) Mr Sinclair and his relatives have never been too happy about the way he has been portrayed, and his widow Betty is now campaigning to remove what she sees as a slur on her husband's reputation, but former staff and visitors have remembered actual events there that were allegedly as ludicrous as those depicted in the programmes. Also the children of Donald Sinclair confirm that it is an accurate rendition of their father.Template:Fact

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Credits

The cast:

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Characters

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
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Basil Fawlty

Basil is a snobbish, miserly, xenophobic and sexually repressed paranoiac who is desperate to belong to a higher social class. He sees the successful running of the hotel as a means of achieving this ("turn it into an establishment of class..."), yet his job forces him to be pleasant to people he despises or aspires to be above socially.

While he is terrified of his wife's sharp tongue, he wishes to stand up to her and his plans often conflict with her wishes. She is often verbally abusive towards him (describing him as "an ageing, brilliantined stick insect") and though he is much taller than Sybil, he often finds himself on the receiving end of Sybil's temper, expressed verbally or physically. Basil usually turns to Manuel or Polly to help him with whatever scheme he has planned, while trying his best to prevent Sybil from finding out.

Basil served in the Catering Corps of the British Army, possibly as part of his National Service, but makes it seem as if he was a soldier. He claims: "I was in the Korean War, you know, I killed five men" to which his wife jokingly replies to the threat, "he was in the Catering Corps; he used to poison them" He is often seen wearing a military tie and a military-type moustache. He also claims to have sustained an injury to his leg in the Korean War caused by shrapnel. It is assumed that, on leaving, he used his gratuity to buy a hotel.

John Cleese himself described Basil as thinking that he could run a first-rate hotel if he didn't have all the guests getting in the way.

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Sybil Fawlty

As Basil's wife, she's the only one who refers to him by his first name. She is often seen to be a more effective manager of the hotel, making sure Basil either gets certain jobs done or stays out of the way when handling difficult customers. Despite this, however, she rarely participates directly in the running of the hotel; during busy check-in sessions or meal-times, whilst everyone else is busy working around her she's frequently found talking on the phone to one of her friends (usually 'Audrey', who makes a rare on-camera appearance in The Anniversary) with her memorable "I knoooooooow", or chatting to customers. She is characterised by an arguably annoying conversational tone and laugh, which her husband compares to 'someone machine-gunning a seal'. Basil also refers to her by a number of epithets, occasionally to her face: these include "the dragon", "toxic midget", "my little nest of vipers", "my little piranha fish", "my little commandant" and — memorably — "a rancorous, coiffured old sow".

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Polly Sherman

Polly, played by Connie Booth (who was also married to John Cleese), employed as a waitress, is often stuck doing many other jobs in the hotel. She is also the voice of sanity, although she loyally attempts to aid Mr. Fawlty when he is trying to cover for a mistake he's made.

Polly is, in theory, only employed part-time, and is supposedly an art student: in one episode, she is seen to draw a sketch (presumably an impressionistic caricature) of Basil, which everyone but Basil immediately recognizes ("I mean, what is it, a garbage dump with a tie?"). Which art college she studies at, or indeed if she actually does, is not explained. She does find time to sketch, and has managed to sell some occasionally to supplement her meagre waitressing income, even to the hotel guests.

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Manuel

Manuel, waiter, is a well-meaning but disorganized and constantly confused Spaniard (from Barcelona) with a limited grasp of the English language and customs. He is constantly verbally and physically assaulted by his boss. He is afraid of Mr. Fawlty's quick temper and violent assaults, yet often expresses his appreciation for being given the position. When told by either Basil, Sybil or Polly what to do, he answers "¿qué?", which means 'what?', and "sí" which means 'yes'.

His less than flattering portrayal of the Spanish resulted in the character's nationality being switched to Mexican for the Spanish dub of the show broadcasted over most of Spain [4], and Manolo the Italian for the version broadcasted in the Basque region [5].

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Other regular characters

  • Terry the Chef is probably the next most important character after Polly and Manuel. Terry's cooking style is quite relaxed and Basil occasionally gets frustrated with his "It's all right" attitude. Terry arrives in the second season after the relief of Curt (only seen in Gourmet Night). He used to work in Dorchester (not at The Dorchester).
  • Major Gowen is a slightly senile old soldier who holds a permanent residence in the hotel. He enjoys talking about the world outside (especially the cricket scores and bemoaning worker's strikes) and is always on the lookout for the paper. He seems to have trouble forgiving the Germans due to the World Wars.
  • Miss Tibbs and Miss Gatsby are the other two (often inseparable) permanent residents, who are slightly scatty spinsters. They seem to take a fancy to Basil, though he switches from being overly kind to utterly rude during various talks with the two.
  • The paperboy, though not seen very often, is responsible for changing the "FAWLTY TOWERS" sign to read various (sometimes crude) phrases, such as "Fatty Owls", "Flay Otters", "Farty Towels", "Watery Fowls" and "Flowery Twats". The shot of the sign with the hotel appears at the beginning of every episode but one.
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Plot

The episodes typically revolve around Basil Fawlty's efforts to succeed, and his frustration at mistakes, both his own and those of others, which prevent him from doing so. Much of the humour comes from Basil's insulting and sometimes aggressive manner, engaging in angry but witty arguments with guests, staff and his wife, whom he addresses with insults such as "that golfing puff adder". Despite this, he frequently feels intimidated as she is able to insult him with equal venom. At the end of some episodes, Basil; succeeds in annoying the guests and sometimes gets it thrown back in his face.

The plots are intricate and farcical, involving coincidences, misunderstandings, cross-purposes, accidental meetings and missed meetings. The sex of the bedroom farce is sometimes present, often to the disgust of conservative Basil, but it is Basil Fawlty's eccentricity, not his lust, that drives the plots.

The guests at the hotel are typically comic foils to Basil's anger and outbursts, with requests both reasonable and impossible testing Basil Fawlty's temper. The show also uses mild black humour at times, notably when Basil is forced to hide a dead body, and some of the comments made by Basil both about Sybil ("Did you ever see that film, How To Murder Your Wife? ...Awfully good, I saw it six times") and about the guests ("May I suggest that you consider moving to a hotel closer to the sea? Or preferably in it?") border on the psychopathic. Basil is also known to behave violently towards Manuel for innocent mistakes, exacting on some occasions physical violence, including beating Manuel with a frying pan and hitting him over the head, despite Manuel's piteous pleading.

Basil displays blatant elitism, expressing disdain for the "riff-raff" that he believes currently stay at the hotel, in order to climb the social ladder. His desperation is apparent, as he makes increasingly hopeless manoeuvres and painful faux pas in trying to gain favour with the wealthy, yet finds himself forced to serve and help people he sees as far lower than him. As such, Basil's efforts tend to be counter-productive, with guests leaving the hotel in disgust and his marriage stretching further and further towards breaking point.

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Episode list

First broadcast on BBC 2 on September 19, 1975. The episodes of the first series were:

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First series

"A Touch of Class"
Basil is delighted when a member of the aristocracy chooses to stay at the hotel, snubbing the normal guests who frequent the hotel. Unbeknownst to Basil, however, the man is not a Lord, but a confidence trickster who attempts to purloin Basil's collection of rare coins. As Basil's desperation to keep such an 'upstanding' guest increases, Basil becomes increasingly tolerant towards the man's behavior, only to have the guest arrested in a CID raid on the hotel.
Featuring Michael Gwynn as Lord Melbury.
Sign outside the hotel reads: FAWLTY TOWERS. Sign is wider and font is fancier than the plain, Times New Roman-like font it would use later on.
"The Builders"
When some work is required on the hotel lobby, Basil goes for the cheapest quote, an Irish builder by the name of O'Reilly, the moment his wife is out of the way. O'Reilly and his workers botch the job, fitting doors where they shouldn't be and visa versa. As a result, Sybil is forced to call in a proper builder, only to suffer embarrassment when O'Reilly returns to fix the mess he made. However, Sybil soon realises that the hotel is no longer structurally sound.
Featuring David Kelly as O'Reilly and Michael Cronin as Murphy.
Sign reads: FAWLTY TOWER
"The Wedding Party"
Wherever he turns, Basil sees guests fraternising in what he considers an immoral way. But he is the one who ends up with his trousers down in public.
Featuring Trevor Adams as Alan.
Sign reads: FAW TY TO∑ER
"The Hotel Inspectors"
When Basil hears of hotel inspectors anonymously roaming Torquay, he realises with horror that the man he has been monstering could easily be one of them.
Featuring Bernard Cribbins and James Cossins as men who turn out not to be hotel inspectors.
Sign reads: FAW TY TO ER
"Gourmet Night"
Basil is thrilled when local VIPs accept an invitation to a gourmet evening ("no riff-raff"). Basil then proceeds to embarrass himself and annoy the guests by addressing the short Mrs. Hall as "Mrs. Small" and fainting when introducing the Colonel, who has an unfortunate twitch, to a Lionel Twitchen. Meanwhile his new chef gets drunk and can't cook, forcing Basil to order a duck from a local restaurant. On the way to collect it, his car breaks down, and when he finally reaches the hotel, finds he has accidentally collected a trifle instead.
Featuring André Maranne as Andre, Allan Cuthbertson as Colonel Hall and Ann Way as Mrs. Hall.
Sign reads: WA RTY TOWELS
"The Germans"
A fire drill leaves Basil concussed in hospital, but somehow he still manages to nip back to the hotel in time to treat his German visitors to some of his unique welcoming methods.
Featuring Brenda Cowling as Sister.
This is the only episode in the entire series that did not feature the hotel as the backdrop for the titles: footage of the Northwick Park Hospital in Middlesex was used instead. Thus, the sign is not shown.

All six episodes were directed by John Howard Davies. Andrew Sachs, playing Manuel, twice suffered serious injury during the making of this series. Firstly John Cleese mistakenly picked up a real metal pan, rather than a fake rubber one, to knock him unconscious in 'The Wedding Party'. Secondly, when his clothes were treated in order to make them give off smoke after he had been let out of the burning kitchen in 'The Germans', the corrosive chemicals used went through them and gave him severe burns.

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Second series

The second series was transmitted three and a half years later, with the first episode being broadcast on February 19, 1979. The episodes of the second series were:

"Communication Problems"
The arrival of the "guest from hell" — Mrs. Richards, a deaf and hot-tempered widow — interferes with Basil's attempts to prevent the money he won on a racehorse from being discovered by Sybil, who disapproves of gambling.
Featuring Joan Sanderson as Mrs Richards.
Sign reads: FAWLTY TOWER
"The Psychiatrist"
A psychiatrist and his wife — also a doctor — come to the hotel for a weekend break, and cannot help but notice the eccentricities of their host, who is perturbed when he discovers their professions.
Featuring Elspet Gray as Mrs Abbott and Luan Peters as Raylene Miles.
Sign reads: WATERY FOWLS
"Waldorf Salad"
Basil is not altogether keen on an American guest who demands a higher class of service — and food — than Fawlty Towers is accustomed to providing.
Featuring Bruce Boa as Mr Hamilton.
Sign reads: FLAY OTTERS
"The Kipper and the Corpse"
A guest dies of natural causes in bed, another faints at the sight of the body, and Basil frantically tries to hide the out-of-date breakfast kipper which he is convinced was responsible — besides attempting to move the corpse downstairs unseen.
Featuring Geoffrey Palmer as Dr Price.
Sign reads: FATTY OWLS
"The Anniversary"
Basil organises some friends for a surprise wedding anniversary party, but Sybil assumes he has forgotten their anniversary and storms off, leaving her husband and Polly, in disguise, desperately telling the others she is 'ill'...
Featuring Ken Campbell as Reg and Una Stubbs as Alice.
Sign reads: FLOWERY TWATS
"Basil the Rat"
The local health inspector issues a long list of hygienic aberrations which the staff immediately sort out. Sadly, they had not reckoned with Manuel's pet — a 'Siberian hamster' — escaping on the same day.
Featuring John Quarmby as the Health Inspector.
Sign reads: FARTY TOWELS

All six episodes were directed by Bob Spiers.

Production of the last two episodes was disrupted by a strike of BBC technical staff, which resulted in the recasting of the actor who had originally been cast as Reg in 'The Anniversary', and delayed the episode's transmission date by one week. The episode 'Basil the Rat' was also delayed, and was not screened until the end of a repeat showing six months later, due to the tape going missing.

Not the Nine O'Clock News was originally scheduled to debut after an episode of Fawlty Towers and Cleese was to have introduced Not the Nine O'Clock News in a sketch referring to the technicians' strike, explaining (in character as Basil Fawlty) that there was no show ready that week, so a "tatty revue" would be broadcast instead. However, the 1979 general election intervened, and Not the Nine O'Clock News was pulled as being too political. Later that year, Cleese's sketch was broadcast, when by a stroke of luck the final episode of Fawlty Towers went out before the first series of Not the Nine O'Clock News, though the original significance of the sketch was lost.

Note: When originally transmitted, the individual episodes had no on-screen titles. The ones in common currency were first used for the VHS release of the series in the 1980s. There were working titles, such as 'USA' for 'Waldorf Salad', 'Death' for 'The Kipper and the Corpse' and 'Rats' for 'Basil the Rat' which had been printed in some program guides.

There have been persistent rumours about a "lost" 13th episode, "The Robbers," which involved a blackout at the hotel [6].

Template:Endspoiler

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Influence from Fawlty Towers

Three remakes of Fawlty Towers have been produced for the American market. The first, Chateau Snavely, was produced by ABC for a pilot in 1978, but the transfer from coastal hotel to highway motel proved too much and the series was never produced. The second, also by ABC, was Amanda's, notable for switching the genders of Basil and Sybil. It also failed to pick up a major audience and was dropped [7]. A third remake called Payne was also produced, but was cancelled shortly after. The popular sitcom "Cheers" also has cited Fawlty Towers as an inspiration, especially the dysfunctional "family" in a workplace.

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Awards

Three BAFTAs were awarded to people for their involvement with the series. Each of the two series were awarded the BAFTA in the category for "Best Situation Comedy", the first won by John Howard Davies in 1976, and the second by Douglas Argent and Bob Spiers in 1980. John Cleese won the BAFTA for "Best Light Entertainment Performance" in 1976.

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Trivia

  • Gilly Flower (Ms Tibbs) is still alive today.
  • Fawlty Towers finished second to Frasier in The Ultimate Sitcom poll of comedy writers in January 2006.
  • Cleese and Booth were married at the time of the first series (1975). By the second series (1979), Cleese and Booth had divorced after ten years of marriage (1968–78).
  • Basil and Sybil's wedding anniversary is on 17 April.
  • Brian Hall who played Terry the Chef only appeared in the second series. He died of cancer in 1997.
  • Gilly Flower and Renee Roberts, who played Miss Tibbs and Miss Gatsby in the series, reprised the roles in a 1983 episode of Only Fools and Horses.
  • Andrew Sachs, who plays Manuel, is actually English. His Spanish accent when in character is an integral part of the show. Sachs speaks German natively (having been born there) and when the series was dubbed for broadcast in Germany he also voiced the German translation of Manuel, with a Spanish accent.
  • Although the series is set in Torquay none of it was shot there. The building used for outside shots of the hotel was Wooburn Grange Country Club in Buckinghamshire; other location filming was done mostly around the Harrow area of North London.
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References

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External links

Template:Wikiquote

Television databases

Fansites

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