Communication Problems  (19th February 1979)

A somewhat aurally challenged middle-aged lady arrives at the hotel. Basil has a crafty flutter on the horses. The two incidents become inextricably linked, as only they could at Fawlty Towers, and when Sybil finds out about her husband’s illicit gambling, Basil doesn’t come off lightly………..

Probably my favourite episode of the series, Communication Problems, as its title suggests, revolves around a lack of communication between various guests and staff within the hotel. This is a typical episode (if there is such a thing in Fawlty Towers) in as much as each scene is little pocket of calm which rapidly descends into a chaos for Basil as he struggles to dig himself out of whichever hole he happens to be rapidly descending into. I rather sympathise with him in this episode because all he wants to do is have a brief moment of excitement and happiness in his otherwise dreary life by having a quiet ‘flutter on the gee-gees’.

For once, Basil isn’t trying to better himself in this episode.

Again, this week there’s no-one around for Basil to denigrate.

With Mrs Richards as the main guest character, it’s just as well that sex isn’t an issue in this episode. *shudder*

Those of you who are familiar with the main protagonist in this episode, Mrs Richards, will know that she is as deaf as the proverbial post. From the very start of the episode her aural impediment causes problems wherever she goes and whoever she comes into contact with, whether it be about toilet paper, telephone calls, stolen money or expensive vases. However, it’s not just her lack of hearing faculties which creates problems with communication in this episode, there’s also the usual language barrier with Manuel and the addition of the Major in one of his particularly absent-minded and senile moods.

There are some beautifully written and acted scenes in this episode, particularly the wonderful moment when poor Polly, who as usual is being used as a scapegoat for Basil’s schemes, is trying valiantly to remember the name of the horse on which ‘she’ apparently laid a winning bet. As Polly faces the questioning Sybil, Basil stands behind his wife franticly trying to mime his way out of trouble and give Polly a visual clue as to the name of the horse, and there are some classic responses from Polly such as "Small!" as Basil points to his flies, and "Flying Tart!" when he’s pointing at Sybil with some accompanying gestures, and Polly corrects herself brilliantly by following her outburst with "Oh, I mean it got off to a flying start!".

I also love watching Basil’s futile attempts to initially explain to the Major about why he wants him to keep his winnings overnight, and subsequently trying to remind him the next day why he wants the money back. This wonderful scene culminates in the fuddled Major saying "What was the question again?" after Basil has spent at least five minutes trying to explain.

The episode is full of wonderful moments with Mrs Richards herself, too numerous to all be mentioned here, but a few of my favourites are the scene where she’s lost her glasses and Basil hast to resort to shouting to her face and even writing it down in big letters that they’re on her head, and who can forget the classic ‘hearing aid’ scenes, both in the office as he mimes to her in order for her to turn it up to full volume and then shout at her, and in the bedroom where she can’t hear the radio he says under his breath ‘I’ll see if I can fix it you scabby old bat!"

I enjoy watching John Cleese in this episode as I think it shows just what a great actor he is. I love watching his hands and fingers getting more and more twitchy the closer he gets to either that final hurdle before successfully concealing his winnings, or his final alibi faltering at the last minute before the realisation dawns that he could be found out by Sybil. I couldn’t complete this review without mentioning the late great Joan Sanderson who is nothing short of sublime throughout the episode as Mrs Richards. Her portrayal of the character gives further credence to my opinion that most of, if not all, the guest characters in Fawlty Towers couldn’t have been played successfully by any other actors other than those that were cast.

One of the side effects of being a Doctor Who fan is that you tend to notice continuity errors not only in our favourite show but in every other TV programme that we watch. To that end I’ve noticed a very obscure error in Communication Problems where Polly says very sarcastically to Mrs Richards in one scene that she doesn’t use her brain "……..because it wears the batteries down." This is obviously a reference to an earlier scene in the bedroom with Basil where Mrs Richards states that she doesn’t use her hearing aid because it wears down the battery, but Polly wasn’t in that scene so how was she able to make reference to it at all……..?

Next Episode: The Psychiatrist!