Fawlty Towers

Fawlty Towers
Genre	Sitcom
Created by	John Cleese Connie Booth
Written by	John Cleese Connie Booth
Directed by	John Howard Davies Bob Spiers
Starring	John Cleese Prunella Scales Andrew Sachs Connie Booth Ballard Berkeley Brian Hall Renee Roberts Gilly Flower
Theme music composer	Dennis Wilson
Opening theme	"Fawlty Towers"
Ending theme	"Fawlty Towers"
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of series	2
No. of episodes	12 (list of episodes)
Production
Producers	John Howard Davies Douglas Argent
Editors	Susan Imrie Bob Rymer Bill Harris
Running time	30 minutes
Production company	BBC
Original release
Network	BBC2
Release	19 September 1975 (1975-09-19) – 25 October 1979 (1979-10-25)

Fawlty Towers is a British television sitcom. It was broadcast by the BBC in two series, one in 1975, the other in 1979. Only twelve episodes were ever broadcast. However, the show is still liked by millions of people. Fawlty Towers has influenced other comedies.

It is set in a hotel in the coastal Devon town of Torquay.

Main characters

The owners of the hotel are Basil Fawlty (played by John Cleese) and his wife Sybil (Prunella Scales).

They are helped by Polly, a young British maid (Connie Booth) and Manuel, a clumsy waiter from Barcelona in Spain (Andrew Sachs).

In series two there is also a chef, Terry (Brian Hall).

Basil is a rude, angry man, who fought in the Korean War. He has been married to Sybil for fifteen years. Sybil and Basil do not love each other. Polly has a talent for painting, and this is shown in some episodes when her artwork is laid upon the front desk, annoying Basil. Manuel speaks only a little English and he often makes mistakes due to misunderstanding things. When he makes a mistake Basil usually apologises to the guests by saying, "I'm so sorry, he's from Barcelona."

Other characters

The Major (Ballard Berkeley) is a regular guest. He is old and forgetful. The aged and easily shocked Miss Tibbs (Gilly Flower) and Miss Gatsby (Renee Roberts) are also regular guests.

Episodes

There were twelve episodes of Fawlty Towers made.

The first six episodes were made in 1975, the last six in 1979. Fawlty Towers still has many fans, and many people regard it as the best comedy series made by the BBC. It was voted 5th in a poll in Britain to find "Britain's Best Sitcom" 2004.

One of the most famous episodes is "The Germans". In that episode, people from Germany are visiting the hotel. Basil dislikes Germans, because he blames them for starting World War II. He tells his staff not to mention the war ("Don't mention the war!"). He himself continually mentions the war, and even imitates Adolf Hitler.

One of the most famous scenes occurs in the episode "Gourmet Night" where Basil's car breaks down and refuses to start and then proceeds to give it a "Damn good thrashing!" by taking a large tree branch and hitting the car with it.

The episodes, in order with date of first showing, are:

Season One

• A Touch of Class (19 September 1975)
• The Builders (26 September 1975)
• The Wedding Party (3 October 1975)
• The Hotel Inspectors (10 October 1975)
• Gourmet Night (17 October 1975)
• The Germans (24 October 1975)

Season Two

• Communication Problems (19 February 1979)
• The Psychiatrist (26 February 1979)
• Waldorf Salad (5 March 1979)
• The Kipper and the Corpse (12 March 1979)
• The Anniversary (26 March 1979)
• Basil the Rat (25 October 1979)

Legacy

Naming Fawlty Towers among the shows he loved growing up, comedy writer Graham Linehan cited the "farce elements" of the show as an influence for his much acclaimed sitcom Father Ted.

In 2025, John Cleese published a book about the series titled Fawlty Towers: Fawlts & All, marking the show's 50th anniversary. William, Prince of Wales told John Cleese in November 2025 that he was enjoying introducing and rewatching the series with his children.

Home media and Rebroadcast

Fawlty Towers was originally released by BBC Video in 1984, with three episodes on each of four tapes. Each was edited with the credits from all three episodes put at the end of the tape. A LaserDisc containing all episodes spliced together as a continuous episode was released in the US on 23 June 1993. It was re-released in 1994, unedited but digitally remastered. It also was re-released in 1997 with a special interview with Cleese. Fawlty Towers – The Complete Series was released on DVD on 16 October 2001, available in regions 1, 2 and 4. A "Collector's Edition" is available in region 2.

The original DVD contained a slightly edited version of "The Kipper and the Corpse", in which Basil's line "Is it your legs?" (said to Mr Lehman when asking why he wants breakfast in bed) is missing. This line was restored in later remasters.

Series one was released on UMD Video for PSP. In July 2009, BBC America announced a DVD reissue, released on 20 October 2009. Titled Fawlty Towers Remastered: Special Edition, it contains commentary by Cleese on every episode as well as remastered video and audio. All episodes have been made available for digital purchase on platforms such as Amazon Prime Video and iTunes in the U.K.

In 2020, John Cleese criticised the BBC when the episode "The Germans" was removed from the streaming platform belonging to UKTV due to "offensive language" used by the character of the Major; the channel, of which the BBC is a parent company, said it at the time it planned to add the episodes back with content advisory messages. The BBC has also aired cut versions of the episode on broadcast television during reruns in some instances in 2013 and 2021, in part citing UK "watershed" time period broadcasting regulations

In 2021, all episodes were made available on BBC iPlayer. The series was available on demand through British channel U&GOLD via Sky UK as of 2026 as well as being rebroadcast on the network.

Other websites

• Fawlty Towers on IMDb