Fawlty Towers
Fawlty Towers, British situation comedy television series that aired on the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) network for 12 episodes over two seasons (1975 and 1979). Fawlty Towers has garnered critical acclaim in the years since its original broadcast, and it is considered to be one of the best-written situation comedies ever produced.
The series was created and written by American actress and writer Connie Booth and British comic actor and writer John Cleese, who had been a cast member in the acclaimed British sketch comedy television series Monty Python’s Flying Circus (1969–73). Booth and Cleese married in 1968 and have one daughter, Cynthia Cleese, who went on to act alongside her father in the comedy films A Fish Called Wanda (1988) and Fierce Creatures (1997). The couple divorced in 1978 before the second season of Fawlty Towers was broadcast.
Fawlty Towers is set in a fictional hotel on the southwestern English coast that is run by a hapless and rude host, Basil Fawlty (John Cleese), and his wife, Sybil (Prunella Scales), along with the hotel’s waitress and housekeeper, Polly Sherman (Booth), and its kind but often confused Spanish waiter, Manuel (Andrew Sachs). Much of the show’s humour derives from Basil’s fruitless attempts to refine his outdated hotel, along with the constant vitriol that he directs toward the (often upper-class) guests that he is seemingly trying to appease.
The idea for the show came to Cleese and Booth after an experience they had with Cleese’s fellow Monty Python cast members at a hotel in Torquay, England. The owner of the hotel, Donald Sinclair, was, according to Cleese, “the rudest man I’ve ever come across in my life,” who acted as if he wished there were no guests to get in the way of his running his hotel. Cleese based the character of Basil directly on Sinclair, including such idiosyncrasies as commenting on guests’ eating habits and ignoring guests when they arrive at the front desk to ask for assistance.
Many of the show’s plotlines stem from the farcical mishaps and miscommunications that occur during the daily routines at the hotel. In the episode “The Germans” (1975) from the first season, Basil struggles to conduct a fire drill at the hotel and later insults a group of German guests by constantly mentioning Germany’s involvement in World War II. Guests’ requests, whether reasonable or unreasonable, set off Basil’s anger, and his attempts to fulfill them inevitably end poorly. Manuel and Polly are usually involved in Basil’s misadventures, and he typically goes to great lengths to hide his schemes from Sybil, who mostly enjoys sitting at the front desk and gossiping with her friends on the phone.
Basil’s frustrations, when not vented at his guests, are typically taken out on the good-natured Manuel, whose loose grasp of the English language often causes unintentional miscommunication. The show has been criticized for ethnic stereotyping because of Basil’s mistreatment of Manuel, who is often mocked for his Spanish accent. Basil’s relationship with Sybil is strained and seemingly devoid of affection, and he occasionally addresses her with disparaging nicknames, such as “my little piranha fish.” Despite such insults, it is clear that Basil is terrified of Sybil, and he often cowers before her demands.
Polly, typically the voice of reason, is perhaps the most competent staff member at the hotel. She is often looped into Basil’s schemes, and she performs many more duties around the hotel than her position requires. In the episode “The Anniversary” (1979), Sybil angrily drives away from the hotel when Basil appears to have forgotten their wedding anniversary, though he secretly planned a surprise party for her. As the party guests arrive, Basil concocts a tale that Sybil is ill and resting in her bedroom. The guests insist on visiting Sybil’s room to wish her well, so Basil asks Polly to disguise herself as Sybil and act as if ill and recovering in bed. Although Polly is generally even-tempered and easygoing, she insists that Basil pay her off for participating in this ruse.
In 2000 Fawlty Towers was ranked first on the British Film Institute’s list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes. Cleese and Booth reworked a handful of the show’s episodes for a stage production called Fawlty Towers Live, which premiered in 2016 at the Comedy Theatre in Melbourne. As of 2023 a reboot of the series is in the works, and Cleese and his daughter Camilla Cleese are set to write and act in it.