INLIBTD's Ten Greatest TV Shows

Number Nine - Fawlty Towers

It’s won more than enough awards for the following few hundred words to be entirely irrelevant. It’s a two horse race for the BBC’s money spinning Best Sit Com Ever title (between FT and Only Fools) and it generally competes with Doctor Who for the honour of being the nation’s favourite classic series.

Fawlty Towers has become so familiar to the viewing several that it’s greatest hits are easily as well known as those of the Beatles or Elvis Presley. But those bits are the singles – like Basil meeting the Germans (which only actually happens near the end of that episode) and doing the silly walk. Each episode of Fawlty Towers is like an album all of its own. The comedy on display is so varied each week that it comes as no surprise that its scripts were some of the longest the BBC’s light entertainment department had ever seen. Those in management couldn’t believe each one was for just thirty minutes of television. But, as the director says on one of the DVD commentaries, they were on BBC2 so they regularly got away with running a bit long.

Legend has it that John Cleese and Connie Booth used to write the first draft of each episode on a roll of wallpaper. Each sub plot would be in a different colour and they would be joined together via a series of lines. By the end of the process they not only had a comic gem but they could also find their way from Putney Bridge to Goodge Street with the minimum number of changes.

There were some wonderful verbal jokes. Manuel’s stupidity gave rise to such amusements as him asking a group of builders “Which of you is ‘man with beard’?” or Basil telling him “There is too much butter on those trays” as the Spaniard is carrying three trays upstairs.

“Que?”

“There is too much butter” continues Basil, now pointing at each tray in turn for emphasis “on those trays.”

“No no – not ‘on those trays’” corrects Manuel. “Uno, dos, tres.”

I like little things like that. Not just because they amuse me but because they make excellent message board signatures with a little Javascript and the valued patience of those who are irritated by me showing off.

The Americans once made their own version of Fawlty Towers and thought the one character most easily removed was Basil. No disrespect to any Americans reading but only a nation of absolute cretins could spawn an uber-cretin capable of such retarded ratiocination. Basil is quite simply the greatest comic character television has ever produced and John Cleese’s performance is beyond brilliance. Nature blessed him with a body and face that is both comedic and (to certain types of women) attractive. The former made him a star and the latter, now he has set his sights firmly on America, has kept him a star. The sight of Basil, all gangly fury, must warm even the stoniest of hearts. And I don’t just mean the scene of him thrashing his car. From his waving of an insanely angry fist at an innocent shrub in the first episode to his berating of guests who just won’t even pretend to take a fire drill seriously, Cleese knows exactly how over the top to take it and once he reaches his self imposed level he is able to control his rage and keep it funny. Basil is not a nice man but he’s not a nasty man either. He’s not scary or mentally ill. He’s just a harmless eccentric.

He’s also a terrible snob. As readers of other portions of this site will know, I love snobbish characters. People who are utterly inadequate themselves and yet still see themselves as above the common people. Most of the people I write about have these traits and I think I probably do too. When Basil writes “No riff raff” in an advertisement for the hotel’s Gourmet Night you can’t help but smile. It is never explained how Basil ended up running a hotel. It’s probably that British thing of falling into a job and somehow never realising that you could go and do something else. We seem to like trapping ourselves in the wrong shaped holes and getting angry about it. To paraphrase a show which will be appearing higher up this list, “We like activity – it’s our substitute for achievement.” So we get irritated by those who seem happy in their lives and brand them as plebs or proles because they don’t meet our repressed standards.

In the hands of almost anyone else, Basil would’ve either been lazy or greedy. Since he didn’t want to run a hotel for the benefit of the guests he would either have sought to do as little as possible or to make as much money as he could. Basil has no such motivations. Basil doesn’t seem to have any motivations at all. He gets up, he gets angry, he gets hassle, he gets angrier, he gets in bed. That is his life. But at least he gets to shout at his customers. Perhaps that’s part of the appeal. At least we envy him that even if we don’t envy him anything else in his life.

Every couple of years I used to get my Fawlty Towers videos out and watch them all in the bizarre and illogical sequence that the episodes were released (time and time again) by the BBC. I eventually bought the set on DVD and oddly haven’t watched it since. I’ve done some of the commentaries but they are rather dull without any of the cast. Just a lone director talking from time to time. I’m glad I’ve got them (even if the videos are too common to sell on) because I want to want to watch them again. I feel the time is rapidly approaching.

Is it the best sit com of all time? Well not quite in my opinion. But it is nevertheless a masterpiece of television. It has a density and energy that few other shows have. It showcases one man’s talent more than any other vehicle you can imagine. It gets the tiny details right (such as the needless up-and-down bit in the stairs which you can see from the first floor hall) and it gets the big moments right too. In short, each episode has a couple of hit singles but you have to check out the entire album as there is so much more to enjoy.

14th March 2004