"A Touch of Class"  (19^th September 1975)

A member of the gentry arrives at the hotel, but is not all he seems……

The very first episode of Fawlty Towers was, by John Cleese’s own admission, something of an experiment, but then this is to be expected of something which hasn’t been tried before. However, it works so well - exceptionally well in fact - and is a truly solid foundation for the remaining episodes of the series. It does an important job in very quickly introducing the viewer to all the regular characters; Sybil, the nagging wife, Manuel, the ‘dago-birdbrain’ of a waiter, the bumbling and absent-minded Major, Polly, the only seemingly normal person within a ten-mile radius, and of course, Basil himself, the manic, rude, patronising, sarcastic and brilliantly funny owner of the hotel, around whom all the action revolves.

A Touch of Class features what is perhaps the most obvious example of Basil’s sucking up to the aristocracy, but in this episode it’s a case of ‘off-on-off’ with the realisation of who he’s dealing with, and in fact the complete sequence happens twice with two different parties; once with Lord Melbury and again very quickly at the end of the episode with Sir Richard and Lady Morris. Initially he treats Lord Melbury as ‘just another guest’ until he learns of his apparent true identity, and this moment of realisation is demonstrated wonderfully by Basil’s swift utterance of "Go away!" to whoever he was talking to on the telephone so that he can devote all his fawning attention on his distinguished guest. Of course, he’s utterly convinced by the bogus Lord Melbury’s act until he’s put in the picture by the ever helpful Polly, but as soon as he’s discovered the real reason for his guest’s checking in at Fawlty Towers, Basil immediately goes to the other end of the spectrum, to the point where he’s shouting "Bastard!" at the top of his voice across reception as the police apprehend the con-man. With Sir Richard and Lady Morris, Basil once again assumes they are Mr & Mrs Joe Bloggs until he realises their elevated standing within the local Torquay community. Of course, the grovelling starts immediately once it’s dawned on Basil, but his attitude towards them soon changes again when they suddenly exit the hotel on the realisation that they have stepped into a madhouse, the peak of his annoyance occurring when he runs out into the car park after them and hurls insults at the sight of their Rover V8 rapidly disappearing into the distance.

Not really a central issue in this first episode, with the exception of Basil putting an advert for the hotel in Country Life in order to ‘get rid of some of the riff-raff’’, and his comment about the people in room six never having sat on chairs before. There are, however, some delightfully acid comments from Basil towards Mr Brown, whom he immediately assumes is a bit common and thick with his bomber jacket and cockney accent, and conversely some lovely expressions of hate when he realises that this clearly isn’t the case.

Basil’s fear of sex and jealousy towards those who flaunt it is in evidence from the word go. Polly’s snog with her boyfriend over the counter at reception and her skimpy top immediately invites the sharp end of Basil’s annoyance, and it’s obviously something which plays on his mind as he later answers the telephone with ‘Hello - Fawlty Titties?’ as he thumbs through some of Polly’s sketches, some of which we have to assume used nude female models as subject matter.

Other than Basil’s initial misunderstanding of Lord Melbury’s ‘status’ and Mr Brown’s police credentials, this episode is devoid of any significant misunderstandings. I’m not going to include Manuel’s inability to understand the term ‘wine list’ or that he should throw the soiled grapefruit into the bin rather than at some guests as these are fairly normal goings-on, though of course this was the first time we experienced them.

There are some lovely moments in A Touch of Class. The whole ‘putting the picture up-vs-typing the menu’ issue from nagging Sybil is a delightful aside, as is her ignoring Basil’s futile forbidding of her opening the safe, withdrawing Lord Melbury’s briefcase and then opening it. His unbelieving reaction to the contents of the briefcase is also a joy to behold, and later we get our first glimpse of Basil’s mad side as he angrily waves a fist at a nearby plant pot which is just minding its own business. A unique aspect of A Touch of Class is that Sybil is shown to have a lazy side to her character which is never really touched upon in subsequent episodes. I’ll admit that throughout the series we often see her chatting to her friend Audrey on the phone about nothing in particular, or sitting at one of the dining tables reading and smoking as Basil runs round trying to cook for some late arriving guests, but in this opening episode she’s seen blatantly hob-nobbing with guests rather than attending to reception or serving behind the bar, even to the point where ironically she’ll actually get of her backside to come and remind Basil that something needs doing rather than doing it herself.

The performances from the regular cast are top-notch throughout the series, and in this episode I particularly like Andrew Sachs’ delight at Mr Brown’s ability to speak Spanish and then his wonderfully realistic chattering reply. In fact at no point in the entire series of Fawlty Towers would you believe that Sachs’ real nationality was anything other than Spanish. Michael Gwynn’s cultured performance as the slightly bumbling bogus Lord Melbury is ideal, whilst Robin Ellis as the basic but friendly Mr Brown is the perfect contrast.

The two remaining regulars in Fawlty Towers, Miss Gatsby and Miss Tibbs, do make a brief appearance in this opening episode, but the actors playing the parts are un-credited and in fact are not the same actors who played more recognised speaking parts for the remainder of the series.