Pop Culture Movies and More: Fawlty Towers (TV Series 1975-1979)

Inept, manic English hotel owner and manager, Basil Fawlty, isn't cut out for his job. He's intolerant, rude and paranoid. All hell frequently breaks loose as Basil tries to run the hotel, constantly under verbal attack (and sometimes physical) from his unhelpful wife Sybil, and hindered by the incompetent but easy target, Manuel, their Spanish waiter. Fortunately, he has an intelligent maid, Polly, who constantly helps him out of the various situations he gets into. I adore this show so much! It is most definitely up there with some of my favourite comedy shows ever made. Every episode is jam-packed full of great witty and quick-fire quips/quotes, hilarious slapstick and extremely bizarre scenarios. These qualities led to Fawlty Towers being dubbed the best British sitcom of all time in a survey by comedians and comedy writers/actors. It most certainly warrants this love and appreciation for being an absolute staple in the comedy genre, which shaped and developed most projects that followed for years to come. Written by John Cleese and his, at the time, wife Connie Booth, together they created a side-splitting comedy in which they both stared in with John as the manager, Basil Fawlty, and Connie as the maid, Polly. John Cleese is one of my favourite actors and has done so much work in the comedy genre most noticeably with the Monty Python comedy troupe, which made many iconic sketches and movies. He is no exception from his usual brilliantly hilarious performances in this series as he easily gets the most laughs with his hyper actions, crazy and exaggerated expressions alongside his many mental breakdowns. I think many can agree on Basil Fawlty being the star of the show and a wide favourite (especially mine) for his reactions to the many goings on. He seems to have a special skill at causing problems as the hotel just becomes littered with them in no time. Sometimes, however, he may not cause all the rising issues and merely tries to fix them only to make matters worse. His most iconic reactions involve him shouting, jumping around, whimpering, and throwing himself around, which he displays not only to his coworkers but even towards some of the guests. Most of the time he is fighting with Manuel when he goes into his breakdowns, which is incredibly funny as we see Fawlty flinging Manuel around to constantly attacking him and, on one occasion, bashing him over the head with a frying pan. It does however leave you feeling quite sad for Manuel as he always tries to do his best and is so kind but his main problem is not understanding English, which always gets on Fawlty's nerves. The hotel oversees some wild scenarios that only grow with each episode. From a customer dying overnight causing Fawlty to try hiding the body to Manuel's hampster, Basil (named after the manager himself), getting loose during a health inspection and failing at doing a fire drill only for there to be an actual fire. There are so many wacky situations that occur in this bed and breakfast. Alongside all the iconic scenes there are a considerable amount of quotable lines too that I love to recite, especially with my family, like: "I'm a doctor and I want my sausages!" to "Veal Substitute" and "Oh I know!" there are so many memorable quotes that you will be unable to stop quoting for days. Unfortunately, there aren't all that many episodes (only 12) which is such a big shame considering how phenomenal every single one is and how they manage to bring so much laughter to us. Having a lack of episodes, despite being unbelievably amusing, also feels quite similar to another comedy series: Police Squad! (TV Series 1982), which only had 6 episodes despite being above and beyond in its visual comedy, which again just feels baffling but the main thing to take away in both cases is that they are easily to binge through. Overall, this is one of the comedy golds, which is superb in every way and will never get old. Most definitely a show that can be enjoyed repeatedly, never losing its charm and if you haven't seen it, I'd highly recommend giving it a try.

Seasons & Episodes: 2 Seasons - 12 Episodes