50 years ago the classic hotel sitcom Fawlty Towers opened for business on the BBC. And while it only ran for 2 series, it’s no exaggeration to say that it blessed us with 12 of the greatest half hours of comedy that have ever been broadcast on British TV.
The huge popularity of this BAFTA-winning programme continues to grow to this day as well, most recently aided by the stage show that has just been broadcast on TV to mark the anniversary. It just goes to show that, unlike many old sitcoms which ended up being very much of their time, Fawlty Towers still holds up perfectly well, and still blows all of the modern comedies out of the water, which is a remarkable achievement.
Created by John Cleese with his first wife Connie Booth and set in Torquay (though they never filmed there), and accompanied by Dennis Wilson’s beautiful theme tune, it has an excellent mixture of characters who find themselves caught up in a variety of highly amusing and increasingly farcical scenarios.
While manager Basil (played by John) constantly hopes for a relaxing day with normal guests, and strives to find ways to have a fancier class of clientele visiting his establishment, it never takes long for things to unravel, driving him to frustration. It doesn’t help that his sharp-tongued, fear-inducing dragon of a wife Sybil (Prunella Scales) is constantly nagging him, and that his keen and well-meaning yet confused Spanish waiter Manuel (played by the dearly missed Andrew Sachs) is impossible to communicate with. He does at least have support from waitress Polly (played by Connie), who provides some sanity to keep Basil grounded, but he makes life difficult for her sometimes too, by using her in his attempts to get out of sticky situations.
The show has a solid hit rate of verbal, visual and physical gags, along with plot strands that come together nicely, and a first-rate cast who bring it to life so brilliantly. And such was the amount of action packed into each episode that the scripts were twice as long compared to other sitcoms and had twice as many camera cuts.
The humour is quintessentially British too, so much so that 3 attempts to remake the series in America and one in Germany all inevitably failed. It has inspired several other sitcoms though, with the makers of shows like Father Ted, Cheers and 3rd Rock From The Sun all acknowledging it as a major influence. And in general it set an incredibly high benchmark that few sitcoms (if any) since have come anywhere close to.
I’ve watched the series countless times over the years, but now is the perfect excuse to watch it yet again and actually write a bit about it to celebrate the occasion. So I’m going to go through the episodes and the extras on the Blu-ray set I have, as well as checking out the stage play on TV, which I didn’t get around to seeing in person in the West End. Plus I’ve put together a Youtube playlist of highlights and bonus material to go with this. So I hope you enjoy!
Well Eye Never 