"Fawlty Towers" at 30

September 19, 1975, on BBC Two – a new comedy from John Cleese, “Fawlty Towers,” set in a hotel in Torquay. Featuring Connie Booth, Prunella Scales and Andrew Sachs. Tonight: “A Touch of Class.” It only ran 12 episodes, two seasons of six installments each. And yet, this Britcom has won viewers polls the world over. After 30 years, it’s obvious why – there wasn’t a single detail glossed over. As the new TV season begins in the States, a look back at what works only illustrates how tough it is to do TV well, and why it so often bores.

The entire idea came from a stay the Monty Python crew had at a hotel in Torquay called the Gleneagles (and not as legal counsel advises one should stress the Gleneagles Hotel in Perthshire, Scotland). The hotel manager was dreadful. The late Graham Chapman said the fellow was “completely round the twist, off his chump, out of his tree.” “He seemed to view us as a colossal inconvenience right from the start,” said Michael Palin. Of such things are comedy made.

However, an odd-ball character doesn’t make a show work all on its own. Mr. Cleese and his then-wife Connie Booth wrote a painfully precise and reasoned out script for every episode. One thirty minute show took almost a month of writing and rewriting. For instance, in the first episode, Basil tries to tell his Spanish waiter Manuel that he has too much butter on the breakfast trays. “Hay mucho burro ali” he explains in something resembling Spanish. Inevitably, the reply is “Que?” So Basil says, “there is too much butter [and points on each syllable to a butter patty] on those trays.” Manuel replies, “No, no, not on those trays, uno, dos, tres.” A great deal of work for a bilingual pun that only establishes that Manuel is from Spain, but typical of the program.

That is not to say the show relied solely on the writing. John Cleese, a stick insect of a man if ever there was one, used his proportions to great effect during the episode called “The Germans.” After a blow to the head, Basil tries to deal with some guests from Germany. Not only does he constantly mention the war, but he goosesteps through the hotel kicking higher than any Rockette at Radio City ever dreamed of doing.

In addition, the program required lines to be delivered verbatim and with the proper comedic timing. Ms. Scales told the BBC recently, “John, quite rightly, was extremely rigorous about learning the script, and if you didn't he could get quite cross, which was fair enough.” Imagine, a writer insisting that the actor deliver the line right, and having it happen. Not in LA. Perhaps this is why two attempts at remaking this series for American audiences (as if Americans can’t watch anything with an accent that isn’t their own) have failed.

Ms. Scales also said, “When you watch some old sitcoms, however charming they are, they have often lost speed over the years. The speed of Fawlty Towers has lasted the distance.” Twelve good episodes and out was the secret. And Alison Graham at the Radio Times has said, “There were no wasted words in Fawlty Towers.” Probably because they didn’t mention the war.


© Copyright 2005 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.
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