Fawlty Towers

Fawlty Towers was a British sitcom made by the BBC and first broadcast on BBC2 in 1975. Only twelve episodes were produced, but the series has had a lasting and powerful influence on later shows.

The show is set in a fictional hotel named Fawlty Towers in the Devon town of Torquay on "The English Riviera". The series was written by John Cleese and Connie Booth, who also played two of 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.BFI TV100, URL accessed June 14th, 2006 It was also voted fifth in the BBC's "Britain's Best Sitcom" poll in 2004.Britain's Best Sitcom Top 10 URL accessed June 14th, 2006

Origins

Fawlty Towers was inspired by the Monty Python team's stay in the Gleneagles Hotel in Torquay. 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 while eating), possibly inspiring Basil's treatment of an American visitor in the episode "Waldorf Salad". http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/05/11/nfawlt11.xml " My husband was not like Basil", article by Richard Saville in The Daily Telegraph, 11/05/2002, URL accessed June 14th, 2006

Sinclair died in England in 1981 — despite rumours that he had emigrated to Canada, he never left Torquay. 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 some of his relatives have not appreciated the way he has been portrayed, although former staff and visitors have remembered actual events there that were allegedly as ludicrous as those depicted in the programmes. Also, the two daughters of Donald Sinclair confirm that it is an accurate rendition of their father. In fact, his eldest daughter Beatrice (Ann) left England for the United States at age 17 to escape her controlling parents, who had pulled her out of schooling at age 12 in order to work full-time at the hotel.

Even before this programme existed, English seaside boarding houses and their proprietors had something of a reputation for firmness and intransigence. 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.

Bill Cotton, the BBC's Head of Light Entertainment in the mid-1970s, said after the first series was produced that the show was a prime example of the BBC's relaxed attitude to trying out new entertainment formats and encouraging new ideas. He said that when he read the first scripts he could see nothing funny in them, but trusting that Cleese knew what he was doing, he gave the go-ahead for the series. He said that the commercial channels, with their emphasis on audience ratings, would never have let the show get to the production stage on the basis of the scripts.

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 behaves 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.

Characters

Basil Fawlty

Basil Fawlty, played by John Cleese, 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 fought in the Korean War, you know, I killed four 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.

Sybil Fawlty

Sybil Fawlty, played by Prunella Scales, is Basil's wife. 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 she is handling difficult customers. Despite this, she rarely participates directly in the running of the hotel; during busy check-in sessions or meal-times, whilst everyone else is busy working she is 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 "Oohhh I knoooooooow", or chatting to customers. She has a distinctive conversational tone and laugh, which her husband compares to "someone machine-gunning a seal". Being his wife, she is the only one who refers to him by his first name, although 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", "that golfing puff adder!" and "a rancorous, coiffured old sow".

Polly Sherman

Polly Sherman, played by Connie Booth, is employed as a waitress, although is often stuck doing many other jobs in the hotel. She is also a voice of sanity as 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 recognises ("I mean, what is it, a garbage dump with a tie?"). She does find time to sketch, and has managed to sell some occasionally to supplement her meagre waitressing income, even to the hotel guests.

Manuel

Manuel, a waiter played by Andrew Sachs, is a well-meaning but disorganised and constantly confused Spaniard from Barcelona with a poor grasp of the English language and customs. He is constantly verbally and physically abused 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 a Spaniard resulted in the character's nationality being switched to Mexican for the Spanish dub of the show broadcast to most of Spain Trivia at IMDb, URL accessed June 14th, 2006 and for the Catalan version broadcast to Catalonia, including Barcelona. BBC Page, URL accessed June 14th, 2006 He became Manolo the Italian for the version broadcast to the Basque region.

Other regular characters

Terry the Chef, played by Brian Hall, is the chef at Fawlty Towers. 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 Kurt (only seen in "Gourmet Night"). He used to work in Dorchester (not at The Dorchester).

Major Gowen, played by Ballard Berkeley, 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 workers' 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 & Miss Gatsby, played by Gilly Flower and Renee Roberts respectively, 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.

Audrey, an unseen character, had one onscreen appearance in The Anniversary. Audrey is Sybil's lifelong best friend, and mostly appears in the form of gossiping, trivial telephone calls to Sybil. Audrey is used as a source of refuge for Sybil from the hotel and from Basil's ludicrous situations. When times get tough for Audrey (she has a dysfunctional relationship with her husband), Sybil will offer solutions and guidance, often resulting in the infamous catchphrase ooh, I know... - when Mrs. Fawlty tries to understand her problems.

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 latter is the only anagram that can be made using all of the letters. The shot of the sign with the hotel appears at the beginning of every episode but one, The Germans, when a shot of a hospital is used, as Sybil is having an operation on her ingrown toenail.

Episode guide

Fawlty Towers was first broadcast on BBC 2 from September 19th 1975 to October 25th 1979. The first series was directed by John Howard Davies, the second 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.

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 have been printed in some programme guides. In addition, some of the early BBC audio releases of episodes on vinyl and cassette included other variations, such as "Mrs Richards" and "The Rat", for "Communication Problems" and "Basil the Rat" respectively.

There have been persistent rumours about a 'lost' 13th episode, "The Robbers", which involved a blackout at the hotel. IMDb trivia page, URL accessed June 14th, 2006 Discussion at Fawltysite.net, URL accessed June 14th, 2006 It is rumoured to have been filmed, and supposedly exists in unedited form.

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.List of awards at IMDb, URL accessed June 14th, 2006

More recently, 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.BFI TV100, URL accessed June 14th, 2006 It was also voted fifth in the BBC's "Britain's Best Sitcom" poll in 2004Britain's Best Sitcom Top 10 URL accessed June 14th, 2006 and second only to Frasier in The Ultimate Sitcom poll of comedy writers in January 2006. Basil Fawlty came top of the Britain’s Funniest Comedy Character poll, held by Five on 14 May 2006.

Remakes & Inspiration

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.Fawlty Towers at the BBC Guide to comedy, URL accessed 14th June, 2006 A third remake called Payne was also produced, but was cancelled shortly after. There also was a German sitcom based on Fawlty Towers.

The popular sitcom Cheers has cited Fawlty Towers as an inspiration, especially the dysfunctional "family" in a workplace and Arthur Mathews and Graham Linehan have cited Fawlty Towers as a major influence on their sitcom Father Ted. Other programs, such as One Foot in the Grave have followed similar farcically structured storylines, that were quite obviously based upon Fawlty Towers.

Trivia

Although the series is set in Torquay, most of it was not shot there. For the exterior filming, instead of an actual hotel, the Wooburn Grange Country Club in Buckinghamshire was used. It later 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. Photographs of fire at Fawltysite.net, URL accessed June 14th, 2006 Other location filming was done mostly around the Harrow area of north London. In the episode "gourmet night", the exterior of Andre's restaurant was filmed on Preston Road in the Harrow area. The laundrette next-door to the restaurant still exists today and Andre's is now a chinese restaurant called 'wings'.
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).
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.
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 (being a Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany) and when the series was dubbed for broadcast in Germany he also voiced the German translation of Manuel, with a Spanish accent. When broadcast in Basque, the character is changed to an Italian.
John Cleese will play Basil Fawlty for the first time in 27 years, for the FIFA World cup Germany 2006 song "Don't Mention the War", named after the phrase in "The Germans"^*.

Real Fawlty Towers?

Several hotels and guesthouses have called themselves "Fawlty Towers", including:

A youth hostel in Darwin visited in an episode of the travel documentary Full Circle with Michael Palin.
A motel in Eilat, Israel''.
A hotel in Sidmouth which was painted like a Union Flag
A hotel in the tourist town of Yangshuo in southern China
A hotel in Rome, near Termini Station
A youth hostel in Fingal, Tasmania, now a campus of Scotch Oakburn College
A hotel in Cocoa Beach, Florida located a block from the beach, which displays British flags and a large sign displaying a picture of the hotel from the show. The typeface used on this sign is nearly identical to the one used in the opening title of the show.

The title has also been altered as a pun for other establishments:

In Newquay, Cornwall, there is a bed and breakfast establishment called "Salty Towers".
In Christchurch, New Zealand, you will find a private youth hostel named "Foley Towers".
There are many Indian restaurants throughout the United Kingdom called "Balti Towers".

References

External links

Television databases

Fansites

BBC television sitcoms | British cultural icons | Fawlty Towers | Fictional hotels | WikiProject_Fawlty_Towers

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