|
|
|
|
|
The Germans (24th October 1975)
Sybil goes into hospital leaving Basil to manage the hotel for a couple of days. Unfortunately, a party of German guests arrive at Fawlty Towers that very day, and Basil’s tact and diplomacy are put to the test………
Not really a subject dealt with in this episode.
Rather than encountering lesser beings in this episode, Basil has to deal with people who are just different, i.e. the Germans themselves. He does tend to assume that they’re a bit stupid because they can’t speak English, but he’s soon thrown somewhat when he discovers that some of them can.
Again, not really touched upon in The Germans
As you’ve probably realised by now, I tend to separate this episode into two halves, the latter being ‘The Germans’ and the first half being ‘The Fire Drill’. I remember watching the series on one of its many repeat runs about 12 years ago, and this was the first time I’d watched it as an adult and really been able to appreciate the series properly, and I particularly recall watching The Fire Drill and laughing until I cried. This collection of scenes is perhaps a showcase for the whole point (and success) of Fawlty Towers, in that it highlights all of the best elements of the series; high farce, sarcasm, the lack of understanding between different people, and of course Basil’s trademark blatant rudeness towards his guests. As I say, this section of The Germans is almost a mini-episode in itself; it starts out with the calm everyday scenario of the hotel staff preparing for a fire drill, and through some truly brilliant writing and structuring, the tension gradually winds up to become an abundance of confusion and chaos, mostly through Basil’s own frustration at people not paying attention or listening to him properly.
There’s a fair number of guest cast members in The Germans, all of whom are admirable in their respective roles, but it’s the regular cast that really shine in the episode. John Cleese throws himself with gusto into his portrayal of Basil’s frustration in the first half and sheer madness in the second half, Prunella Scales also delivering a brilliant performance, conveying Sybil’s smugness and superiority, along with her usual moaning and nagging, to perfection.
The more astute of you will notice that there’s no reference to the Hotel Sign in the review of this episode. That’s because The Germans is unique in that the opening shot of the episode doesn’t feature the hotel car park but an exterior shot of Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow, Middlesex, to depict the hospital where Sybil is undergoing the life-threatening removal of an in-growing toenail.
[Some more pics. Apologies if the page takes a while to load] "How is the old nail?"
Basil gets head "Who's this?"
I can't remember what's happening here but it looks quite funny
|
The
Germans is probably the best-known episode of Fawlty Towers, and certainly
the most easily quotable with the now immortal line of, "Don’t mention the
war!" Personally, this is the one episode which I find goes a little
too near that fine line between brilliant humour and bad taste. I
wouldn’t say that it necessarily crosses that line, but I’m not sure that
it could get any nearer. For me this only applies to the latter half of
the episode, and it’s ironic that the first half features what I regard as
one of the funniest scenes in the entire series, that of the fire drill.
Going back to The Germans as a whole for a moment, I can’t argue that the
latter half of the episode isn’t funny, but it just starts to become a
little uncomfortable to watch. There are in fact several moments
throughout the series which have this effect but this is because they are
excruciatingly funny; they make you squirm on your seat but you continue
to watch rather than feeling uncomfortable in a somewhat embarrassed sense
which is how I feel about the latter half of this episode. The Germans
also contains some very non-PC references to both Indians and West Indians
as ‘Wogs’ and ‘Niggers’, something which would of course not be acceptable
in a newly produced TV show these days but also something which should not
under any circumstances be removed from the show lest it lose all it’s
meaning and impact. You may as well wipe the master tapes if you’re going
to do that.
Where
do I start? The Germans has several different cases of misunderstanding
running through it. Firstly, there’s Basil’s initial encounter with some
of the non-English speaking German guests where he’s trying his best to
interpret their request and failing miserably. Then we have the utter
confusion of the fire drill where everyone involved starts off on the
wrong foot and just keeps going. Of course, there’s an entire episode
called ‘Communication Problems’ which deals with this scenario, but whilst
in that episode it’s due to deafness, here it’s purely down to basic
misunderstanding and misinterpretation between people whose minds
obviously work on completely different wavelengths, and the unstoppable
snowballing effect as the situation rapidly deteriorates. There’s also a
lovely little quiet scene in the middle of the episode featuring just
Basil and the Major in the foyer, and they manage to have an entire
conversation with each other without understanding what the other is
getting at.
Who
can forget Basil’s less than cordial reaction to the presence of the
no-nonsense ward Sister in his hospital room? His succinct comments of "My
God, you’re ugly, aren’t you?" and "You don’t need a doctor, you need a
plastic surgeon!" do nothing to improve her opinion of this madman who’s
ended up on her ward. This episode also features one of the best lines in
the entire series when one of the German guests accuses Basil’s continuous
references to the War as causing his fellow guests to become upset. "You
started it!" retorts Basil. "No we didn’t!" replies the guest, referring
to the growing tension instigated by his host’s tactlessness. "Yes you did
– you invaded Poland!" replies Basil. Sublime stuff. 
The
Fire Drill (if I may continue to refer to it as a separate entity) really
is a joy to watch because there are so many different things happening
simultaneously, but the actual humour itself works its way into the scene
in subtle ways. As writers, Cleese and Booth use sound to emphasise and
exacerbate the confusion, specifically the difference in pitch between the
burglar alarm and the fire alarm (something which the poor Major just
cannot get his head round, and of course the Major’s fuddled mind is in
itself is a constant source of annoyance and frustration to Basil), but
then the inspired addition of the telephone ringing a millisecond after
the alarms have stopped which once again breaks the silence which Basil
has so valiantly struggled to achieve is inspired. The fact that the
telephone call is from another cause of constant annoyance to Basil (his
wife, of course) which in turn brings yet another thread of the episode
(the in-growing toenail) into this one scene raises it to the level of
pure genius. An element of slapstick also creeps into The Fire Drill (and
also later on in the episode) with Manuel starting a fire in the kitchen,
and much waving of frying pans and falling over people ensues, ably
assisted by a faulty fire extinguisher discharging in Basil’s face.
