BBC | 374 mins. | 1974/79 | Not Rated
Basil Fawlty, the brazenly rude hotel proprietor created and portrayed by John Cleese in his brilliant British sitcom, is the most insolent, boorish, hilariously obnoxious character in the face of customer disservice. Fawlty is a man who sees his customers as a hindrance to running his business and his staff as idiotic annoyances in his daily life. The only exceptions to this rule are rare visits from the aristocracy and other members of the upper crust. Of course, when these important people come around, Basil becomes an insufferable toady. His wife Sybil (Prunella Scales) put it best: “You’re crawling all over them, licking their boots, or spitting poison at them like some Benzedrine puff adder.”
Though Fawlty Towers only ran a total of twelve episodes over two six episode seasons, the first in 1975 and the second in 1979, I have always considered it one of the best comedies of all time. Much of the series constant humor derives from Basil’s dealings with others in the hotel. While John Cleese is the series focal point, the talented supporting cast serves as his comic foils. Connie Booth, who was also a co-writer on the show (Cleese’s real-life wife at the time of the first season and daughter-in-law of comic actor Bert Lahr), plays Polly, the maid, who is usually enlisted to help Basil cover-up the disasters created by his penny-pinching shortcuts and ill-advised ideas. Andrew Sachs plays Manuel, the Spanish waiter just learning English (“You’ll have to forgive him. He’s from Barcelona”). Every episode involves Basil becoming enraged at Manuel over something; no matter how trivial. Ballad Berkeley plays Major Gowan, the hotel’s oldest resident guest, an amusingly slightly senile fellow, who doesn’t hear too well and seems to be lacking much common sense. However, Basil seems to actually like him, because his former military status represents the establishment our boy Basil craves.
Fawlty Towers is one of those shows that you have to see in order to fully appreciate the humor. It’s quick fire stuff, one joke after another. Whether Basil is berating a clueless Manuel, flogging a temperamental car or launching into goose-step in an impromptu (and outrageously inappropriate) impersonation of Adolf Hitler, this is truly comedy at its best.
Here’s a rundown of the twelve episodes involved. If you’re already a fan of the series, you’ll recognize them instantly by their titles alone. If you’re new to the series, get ready to laugh.
Season One
“A Touch of Class”: As is his custom, Basil fawns all over a guest believed to be a member of the aristocracy; meanwhile, Sybil orders Basil to hang her picture up.
“The Builders”: hires the cheapest contractor he can find, O’Reilly (David Kelly), to do some work inside the hotel. Needless to say, O’Reilly screws things up royally, forcing Basil to remedy the situation before Sybil finds out.
“The Wedding Party”: Basil’s prudish nature gets the better of him when he thinks some of the guests are up to a bit of hanky-panky. He does his best to seek out and break up sin wherever he finds it, this time leading to misunderstandings of monumental proportions.
“The Hotel Inspectors”: When Basil hears of hotel inspectors roaming Torquay incognito, he realizes with horror that guests he has been monstering could easily be one of them. Basil becomes increasingly obsessed with trying to determine which guests are hotel inspectors, but his suspects turn out not to be, to his frustration.
“Gourmet Night”: When the chief gets drunk on “gourmet night” at the hotel, Basil has to hunt up reliable substitute meals by running around Torguay in his most unreliable car.
“The Germans”: With Sybil in the hospital with an ingrowing toenail, a moose’s head to hang up and some German guests arriving the next day, Basil has his work cut out for him. After an attempted fire drill goes wrong and Basil lands up in the hospital with concussion, he succeeds causing much offence to the German guests after finally escaping back to the hotel.
Season Two
“Communication Problems”: A demanding old lady with a hearing problem checks into the hotel, only to announce that somebody has stolen her money.
“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. A very attractive Australian girl also visits, who goes on to have certain awkward interactions with Fawlty as he seeks to catch a non-paying guest he believes Mr Johnson (Nicky Henson) has in his bedroom. (My personal favorite)
“Waldorf Salad”: With the chef away, Basil must make a meal by himself.
“The Kipper and the Corpse”: When a guest dies in the hotel, Basil is mortified about how it will look and whether people will think it was food poisoning. His attempts to cover it up only make things worse.
“The Anniversary”: Sybil thinks Basil has forgotten their anniversary, unaware that he has planned a surprise party for her. When she leaves in a huff, he goes on with the party.
“Basil the Rat”: The local health inspector issues a long list of hygienic aberrations which the staff must immediately sort out, or else face closure. After Manuel’s pet rat escapes from his cage and runs loose in the hotel, the staff must catch it before the inspector finds it first. At the same time, they must try and discern which veal cutlets are safe to eat after one covered in rat poison gets mixed up with the others.
The video engineers remastered all twelve episodes from original program masters, and the results are impressive for a show that is more than thirty years old. The episodes are presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, with no noticeable color fading. For standard definition, the object delineation is fairly sharp, although there are traces of edge enhancement that may show up on larger-screen TVs or on close inspection. Black levels are reasonably deep, and color bleed-through is minimal.
Although the Dolby Digital monaural audio is rather ordinary, it does convey a clean, clear, realistic midrange, which reproduces the dialogue that makes up the bulk of the soundtrack. Surround Sound obviously isn’t available.
Discs one and two of this three-disc set contain the two seasons of the series, six episodes per disc, with separate audio commentaries by producer-director John Howard Davies and star John Cleese.
Disc three contains the bulk of the bonus materials. There are thirty-eight minutes of extended interviews conducted in 2009 with the show’s four principal stars, season one’s producer and director, and a number of the show’s cast in specific episodes. Next, three more recent interviews, these with John Cleese, Prunella Scales, and Andrew Sachs, running about fifty-two minutes, twenty-four minutes, and seven minutes each. After that, we have text-and-audio profiles of the artists and guest stars, followed by several featurettes: “Torquay Tourist Office” is an eleven minute segment that provides information on how Cleese came up with the idea for Fawlty Towers from a real-life inspiration; and that’s followed by “Cheap Tatty Review” and then a few outtakes.
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