|
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, both of whom played 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. It was also voted fifth in the BBC's "Britain's Best Sitcom" poll in 2004.
Origins Fawlty Towers was inspired by the Monty Python team's stay in the Gleneagles Hotel in Torquay in May 1970. 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 on the suspicion that it contained a bomb (it actually 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". 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--in particular--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. In this, and in other exaggerated physical mannerisms of Basil, Fawlty Towers employs physical comedy. 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 beneath 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. Basil Fawlty
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 her sole on-camera appearance in "The Anniversary") with her memorable "Oohhh I knoooooooow", or chatting to customers. She has a distinctive conversational tone and braying 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 she 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. Like Manuel she has a room of her own at the hotel, so perhaps this explains her part time status and doing more than just waitressing 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 and for the Catalan version broadcast to Catalonia, including Barcelona. 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 as relief for 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, a mostly 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 George), 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 last 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. 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. 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. It was also voted fifth in the BBC's "Britain's Best Sitcom" poll in 2004 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 and inspiration Three attempted remakes of Fawlty Towers been started for the American market, with two actually making it into production. 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 later dropped. A third remake called Payne was also produced, but was cancelled shortly after. Another American sitcom which was loosely based on Fawlty Towers was Newhart, starring Bob Newhart, set in a hotel in Vermont. There also was a German sitcom based on Fawlty Towers and Guest House on Pakistani television also resembles the series. 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. Trivia Real Fawlty Towers? Several hotels and guesthouses have called themselves "Fawlty Towers", including: Further reading | ||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||
 |
|
| |