Fawlty Towers - Series 1 - Complete (DVD)

Fawlty towers was and still is an outstanding comedy series of iconic standards. Comedy writers of today would just love to be able to come up with both an idea and a cast that could even come close to this brilliant show. I will now attempt to put into words just how good this comedy was for those of you who haven't seen it.

★The show in general★

The basic idea of the show is that Basil Fawlty (John Cleese) ...
...in the day-to-day running of Fawlty Towers. She is often at reception or waiting on tables in the hotel's dining room although her official job title was apparently supposed to be chambermaid. The truth is without her the hotel would likely close down and Basil wouldn't stand a chance against his wife as Polly constantly covers for him.

Manuel: Manuel's poor command of the English language and his perfectly acted dim-witted nature ... more

Fawlty towers was and still is an outstanding comedy series of iconic standards. Comedy writers of today would just love to be able to come up with both an idea and a cast that could even come close to this brilliant show. I will now attempt to put into words just how good this comedy was for those of you who haven't seen it.

★The show in general★

The basic idea of the show is that Basil Fawlty (John Cleese) is a hotel owner but not just any hotel, probably the worst hotel in Britain. The hotel is situated in Torquay and together with his wife Sybil (Prunella Scales) they don't so much as run the hotel as run it into the ground. They have the help of Polly (Connie Booth) the maid and Manuel (Andrew Sachs) the waiter and general dogsbody. Polly is a somewhat sexy level headed girl who constantly bails Basil out when he gets himself into trouble with his wife Sybil, who he affectionately calls the dragon and Manuel is a Spaniard who cant really come to terms with the English language and as well as that problem clearly isn't the brightest star in the sky either. Whilst Polly is on hand to help Basil poor Manuel gets the brunt of basils anger whether he's at fault or not. Each episode is based around a guest or guests who are frequenting the hotel at that time with hilarious consequences.

★The main characters explained★

Basil: Patient, polite, customer-focused are just some of the words that can't be used to describe this hotel owner. Basil runs around the hotel either sucking up to guests he feels are upper class or basically abusing the ones he feels to be riff raff. Basils trouble is that although the hotel he runs is sub standard he feels it is worthy of high class clientele and will not settle for anything less.

Sybil: whilst she feels she is keeping the hotel running smoothly and Basil is as good as useless, the fact is that she is actually quite lazy and spends more time getting her hair done and chatting to friends than she does running the hotel. If only she spent more time there then perhaps Basil would not make such a mess of things but the truth is she is only too happy to blame Basil for everything and make his life a misery.

Polly: Polly seems to carry out a number of roles in the day-to-day running of Fawlty Towers. She is often at reception or waiting on tables in the hotel's dining room although her official job title was apparently supposed to be chambermaid. The truth is without her the hotel would likely close down and Basil wouldn't stand a chance against his wife as Polly constantly covers for him.

Manuel: Manuel's poor command of the English language and his perfectly acted dim-witted nature are often the downfall of Basil's carefully-crafted schemes as well as infuriating the guests of course. No matter how much Basil tries to get through to Manuel his lack of understanding of the English language makes it almost impossible and leads to no end of hilarious situations.

★The episodes★

The first ever episode was entitled A touch of class, in this episode Basil who can be a pretentious snob is seen being very rude to a guest which you will learn is nothing unusual for him but he soon realises that the guest he is abusing is actually not the usual riff raff that he gets in his hotel but is in fact Lord Melbury so Basil sets about bending over backwards to make sure the Lord has a comfortable stay. Basil is soon to find out that things are not what they seem as he is in fact being taken in hook line and sinker by a conman. The "Lord" comes to Basil with a problem.... He has a cash flow problem and wishes for Basil to cash a cheque for him to the value of £200. Basil who is normally very tight fisted and would never part with this sort of cash doesn't hesitate because not only is he dealing with a man he thinks is a Lord but he also is taking care of the so called Lords suitcase full of valuables so he feels he has nothing to lose.

When another guest approaches Basil to ask him if he has seen the Lord lately Basil rudely tells him he has no right asking about another guest especially one above his station but when the guest reveals he is in fact CID and has been keeping tabs on a confidence trickster namely the so called Lord Melbury, Basils face drops and this brings out a fantastic moment of classic Cleese type comedy as he remembers the case of valuables left in his care and opens it to find two bricks and just sits crying and banging them together in some vain hope that they are somehow not what they seem.

The second episode in the first series is entitled The Builders. Basil and Sybil are away for the weekend and Basil has arranged for the useless builder O'Reilly to do some structural alterations to the hotel. If Sybil was aware of this however she would go mad, Basil has promised her he will never use O'Reilly again after many run ins and problems with him in the past but being tight fisted Basil has once again put his faith in the useless Irishman rather than forking out for a reputable builder. Polly has been left in charge and sworn to secrecy should the dragon (Sybil) ask about who done the work but when things go tragically wrong it will take more than a few well placed lies from Polly to get Basil out of this scrape with his wife.

The useless Irishman has torn down a main structural wall to build a doorway and not only has he built the door in the wrong place but he has only replaced the surrounding area with plaster board. When Sybil sees the doorway on her return she instantly knows that Basil has had O'Reilly doing the work and soon finds out through the reputable builder MR Stubbs that the building is structurally unsound due to the missing supports. This brings her and Basil to blows and a very comical slanging match which ultimately ends up with basil taking everything out on the poor Manuel.

Thirdly we have The Wedding Party, one of my personal favourites. This episode opens with Sybil flirting with a man at the bar in the Fawlty Towers lounge. This annoys Basil of course and things get worse for the prudish Basil when he catches Polly kissing an apparent stranger in the reception area. Basil remarks "is this place twinned with Sodom and Gomorrah". Then comes the final straw for Basil when a couple clearly unmarried intend to share a double room. Basil has an uncanny knack of getting the wrong end of the stick and this leads this episode into total chaos.

Basil thinks that someone must have organised a "swingers" evening in his hotel as he stumbles across a selection of his guests all frequenting the one room but it turns out that they all know each other and are in Torquay for a wedding however before Basil realises this he orders everyone from the hotel telling them all to find somewhere else to carry out their degenerative behaviour, even the poor Polly is ordered from the hotel for her kiss in reception. When Basil realises his mistake he goes about trying to put things right in his own goofy manor which instead causes more friction and hilarious situations.

The fourth episode in the series is called The Hotel Inspectors and is a real side splitter. When you run a hotel and treat your guests the way Basil does the last thing you need is inspectors coming round. Sybil hears from a friend during one of her mammoth chats on the telephone that there are hotel inspectors in the area. Basil on finding out is in blind panic at the thought of them visiting his hotel and to make matters worse he is in the middle of trying to deal with a very annoying customer (Mr Hutchinson) who wants Basil to call him a taxi and wont use the phone in reception for fear of infection.

Whilst dealing with Mr Hutchinson another guest comes into reception and Basil shouts to Sybil (still on the phone) to tell her they have another guest then utters under his breath "well Sybil cant deal with him she's much too busy" and then immediately sets about being just as rude to the new customer as he was being to Mr Hutchinson. When it finally hits Basil that either of these two men could be the hotel inspector he suddenly changes his manor and starts to seriously suck up to the two men offering them everything they could want from a hotel and merrily trying to crack jokes with them. However Basil being Basil this doesn't last long and when he realises these men are not the hotel inspectors he launches some serious abuse at them including throwing his jacket and hat at Mr Hutchinson telling him to go and run the bloody hotel if he thinks he could do a better job. The episode closes with Basil glad to see the back of the two men who have caused him so much trouble and relieved as it seems there won't be any inspectors visiting. Just then three men walk in looking very important and carrying brief cases and the closing word of the episode from Basil is "AARRRGGGHHHHH"

On to the fifth episode, Gourmet Night in which Basil decides to take Fawlty Towers upmarket and get rid of the customers he classes as riff raff and bring in a quality clientele. Basil being Basil of course makes a real mess of everything to hilarious consequence. The episode starts out with Basils car breaking down and instead of getting it to the garage to be fixed he tampers around with it himself and you just know this is going to come back to haunt him. Basil has arranged for some of the most important people in the area to be attending this gourmet evening and is very excited but problems are already brewing behind the scenes.

Basils new Greek chef turns out to be gay and has made a pass at poor Manuel, when Manuel tells him he's not interested the chef drinks the cooking wine and passes out drunk leaving Basil and Polly to try and sort the gourmet meals out for themselves. Realising they have no chance of doing it Basil gets in touch with a friend who runs a restaurant (Andre) and asks him to make the things on the menu and he will come and pick them up. Andre tells Basil it is impossible to make all the things he wants and can only cook him one large duck, leaving Basil the job of explaining to his guests that everything is off except the duck. Basil does this as only he could, trying to be funny he tells his guests "if you don't like duck then you're rather stuck, unfortunately for Basil no ones laughing. During the fiasco of getting the duck to Fawlty towers one of the most memorable scenes from the series emerges when Basil's car that he attempted to fix earlier once again breaks down and he scream s at it that if it doesn't start he will give it a right good thrashing.

The car does not start and Basil runs off and comes back with a large branch from a fallen tree screaming "right you bloody asked for it and you're going to bloody get it" he then starts to beat the bonnet of the car like a mad man, it had me in tears I can tell you. Once Basil has finished beating the car he lifts the serving platter that he has collected from Andre and starts to run back to the hotel. Once back he waltzes in to the restaurant area where his guests are waiting for their duck, starts to sharpen his carving knives and then whips of the lid of the platter to find he has lifted a trifle from Andres and not the duck. Any thoughts of a Michelin star are soon dispelled as Basil frantically dives into the trifle expecting to find a duck hiding in it and then utters the closing words of this episode "ducks off, sorry"

The final chapter in this series is entitled The Germans, mention Fawlty Towers to anyone and the chances are they will think of The Germans episode. When Basil finds out there is going to be a group of Germans staying at his hotel he immediately briefs the staff on the fact that they should never mention the war as the Germans lost and they don't like to be reminded of it, however Basil himself cant seem to do anything but mention it himself causing the Germans to think he is deliberately trying to offend them. Unusually, The Germans episode features some scenes that take place outside the confines of Fawlty Towers.

Sybil is in hospital to have an in growing toenail removed and poor Basil, in visiting her, is on the receiving end of a long list of tasks to be carried out. As Basil attempts to carry out his wife's wishes he starts with the fire drill, not realising that Manuel has actually set fire to the kitchen and when Manuel comes running from the burning kitchen Basil shouts at him " its only a bloody drill " and pushes him back in beside the blaze. Manuel finally escapes the kitchen blaze and promptly knocks Basil unconscious with a frying pan. Basil wakes up in hospital beside his wife but refuses to stay; constantly telling the doctors that he has a hotel to run and the Germans are coming.

Basil arrives back at Fawlty towers wearing a head bandage that makes him look crazier than ever just in time to see the Germans arrive. Basil starts running around the hotel like a mad man shouting "the Germans are here" and uttering what would become an iconic phrase "don't mention the war "Basil who has just signed himself out of the hospital and has a mad glint in his eye then welcomes the Germans who are all talking in their native tongue with the words "oh you are speaking German, sorry I thought there was something wrong with you" and from here on in continues to insult them at every given chance. When the fed up Germans asks Basil to stop going on about the war, Basil kindly reminds them that they started it. "We did not start it," protests one German. "Yes you did, you invaded Poland", replies Basil! When the Germans have finally tired of Basils antics they begin to insult England which leads to one of the funniest things I have ever seen, the mad Basil who remember is played by John Cleese (the master of silly walks) begins to goose-step round the hotel wearing his head bandage. Just writing about it has brought back the image to me and has me giggling now.

★Some of my favourite scenes★

1) After a big row with Manuel in which Basil has been trying to explain something simple to him, Basil turns to Manuel with a spoon in his hand and says " try to understand this, me Basil, you Manuel, this spoon" and then whacks Manuel right between the eyes with the spoon.

2) Manuel has been learning English and is crouched down behind the reception desk proudly announcing "My English is very good! I learn it from a book!" just as the dim witted major (a regular guest at the hotel walks in and sees only a moose head sitting on the counter and thinks the moose head is speaking!

3) From the episode the builders comes the phone call between Manuel and Basil. Basil keeps phoning the hotel to check everything is going according to plan but Manuel being Manuel, doesn't realise the man on the other end of the phone, whom Manuel thinks is asking for Basil, is in fact Basil himself. Manuel in true Basil Fawlty fashion is equally rude to the caller as Basil would be. Only on the third or fourth call does he realise that it is Basil. Whilst this may not sound too funny written in text believe me when you see it performed its brilliant.

4) From the hotel inspectors comes the moment when Mr Hutchinson is telling everyone that this is the worst run hotel he has ever visited and that Basil is the rudest man he has ever met, Basil believing there may be a hotel inspector in the room somewhere and that this could ruin him begins to throttle Mr Hutchinson under the pretence that a bit of cheese has become lodged in his windpipe, ending up with Mr Hutchinson being knocked unconscious, face down in his cheese salad! Another brilliantly acted crazy moment.

5) One of my all time favourite moments and already mentioned in this review comes from the episode, The Germans. As Basil finally looses the plot altogether and wearing the bandage he has on due to the knock on the head he had begins to goose-step around the hotel mocking his German guests, it truly is one of the funniest things I've ever seen.

★The cast★

John Cleese ... Basil Fawlty (12 episodes, 1975-1979)
Prunella Scales ... Sybil Fawlty (12 episodes, 1975-1979)
Andrew Sachs ... Manuel (12 episodes, 1975-1979)
Connie Booth ... Polly Shearman (12 episodes, 1975-1979)
Ballard Berkeley ... Major Gowen (12 episodes, 1975-1979)
Gilly Flower ... Miss Abitha Tibbs (12 episodes, 1975-1979)
Renee Roberts ... Miss Ursula Gatsby (12 episodes, 1975-1979)
Brian Hall ... Terry (6 episodes, 1979)

★The DVD★

The DVD I own of this is the 2 disc edition although there are many other releases of this series available. It is suitable for all ages but is rated PG, it is filmed in full screen and only has mono sound but this does not distract from the brilliance of the show. There are some extras on the disc; they are as follows - an Interview with John Cleese, Exclusive Interview with Prunella Scales, Commentary by Producer John Howard Davies and the usual scene selection. I paid £10 for this DVD a long while ago, it can now be found for slightly less than that but whatever you pay for it you will not be disappointed.

★My summary★

If you have read any of my earlier reviews than you might have come across other comedy classics I have written about such as Only Fools and Horses and Blackadder, whilst this series differs greatly from those two it is still a big favourite of mine. Unlike Only Fools And Horses and Blackadder this show is more about great character performances than great writing and funny lines, although there are plenty funny lines in Fawlty Towers a lot of the humour comes from the way the great john Cleese ( Basil) and Andrew Sachs (Manuel) put the humour across. Some of the scenes between the two of them are as hilarious when watched for the hundredth time as they were the first. In my opinion although there were only 12 episodes of this brilliant comedy ever made it will live on for ever as one of the best ever British comedies.

If you either haven't seen this show before or haven't seen it in a while then might I suggest going and getting a copy of this DVD as soon as possible and treating yourself to either some great memories or a brilliant first time experience.

Thanks for reading!! 

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