All language subtitles for 01 - Re-Opened

Sprechen Sie Deutsch?
I beg your pardon?

Entschuldigung Sie, bitte.
Können Sie Deutsch sprechen?

I'm sorry. Could you say that again?

You speak German?

Oh, German! I'm sorry, I thought
there was something wrong with you.

30 years since it left our TV screens,
Fawlty Towers is still acknowledged

as the benchmark by which all
other sitcoms are measured.

'Funnily enough, the
people who seem to find

it hardest to enjoy
are the hoteliers.'

And they sit down thinking
they're going to enjoy it

and after three minutes
they think, "Oh, no,"

'cause they can see
what's going to happen.

Argh!

Sorry, sorry.

The popularity of Fawlty Towers,
I think, today

is a lot to do with John.

This - smack on head.

Also the ordinary situations,
because they're something

that our kind of time was, people
can relate to these taboo subjects.

Tonight, for the very first time,
John Cleese and Connie Booth,

the show's writers and co-stars,
are both breaking their silence

to share their secrets of how
this classic comedy was made...

...including an insight into
their strained marriage.

It didn't save our marriage,
but I think Fawlty Towers

became a kind of refuge for
our demons and angels.

...the true cost of
Manuel's comedy stunts...

'I thought I was going down, I
could hear the angels singing.'

I thought, "Thank heavens it's the last
shot of the show, 'cause I can't get up."

...and how the BBC almost let this comedy
crown jewel slip through their fingers.

Head something, light entertainment,
"I'm afraid I thought this one

"as dire as its title, which I can't
see being anything but a disaster."

Perhaps it's a dream!

No, it's not a dream,
we're stuck with it. Right!

There were just 12 half-hour
episodes of Fawlty Towers

screened between 1975 and 1979,
yet it remains a timeless classic.

'Fawlty Towers survives because
it's brilliantly made,'

brilliantly written, immaculately
performed precision comedy.

Do try to be agreeable this weekend,
Basil. Now, have I got everything?

Handbag?
Knuckle-dusters? Flick knife?

It always feels to me as though
there were many, many more episodes

and that's because of the richness
of the stories and the characters.

Come on, then, give us a smile!
That's it!

'It was beautifully
written and beautifully directed'

and John, Connie and Andrew are
wonderful people to work with

and I'm proud and grateful for that.

Thank you very much, yes.

DISHES SMASH

'It's like falling on a
banana skin.'

It's funny if
it's not happening to you.

If it does, it can be tragic.

You could describe Fawlty Towers
as a tragedy with laughs.

If the good Lord...

Is mentioned once more, I shall move
you closer to him. Now, please...

I've been in some of the worst sitcoms
- and will again - ever produced,

and from the first moment in Fawlty Towers
you thought, "Oh, this is the best."

He's only choking! Don't worry, a
bit of cheese went the wrong way!

The best bit about working on
Fawlty Towers was the show itself

when it went out,
and the reaction from everybody,

and the fact that it's still
being shown all over the world

and they keep sending
us little cheques.

I'm sitting here.
Is no lunch till 12...

I'm still having breakfast.

Breakfast kaputt.
I'm having sausages.

Is not allowed. Put that back.

Look, I'm a doctor,
I'm a doctor and I want my sausages!

It's nice to have that
in the CV - "I did a Fawlty Towers",

and I worked with Ralph
Richardson, Paul Scofield.

Laurence Olivier, John
Gielgud, and John Cleese.

She's hysterical, slap her! Murder!
Slap her, slap her. Murder!

Oh, spiffing, absolutely spiffing.
Well done.

Two dead, 25 to go.

Quick, Polly! Polly, quick.

John Cleese unleashed the rudest man in
sitcom - the daddy of the dysfunctional,

a character so tragic, so flawed,
and yet so hilariously funny.

Oh, there it is!

John has created a wonderful
comic creation in Basil Fawlty.

He's just one of the classic comic
characters of all time.

There's something about Basil which
makes him a very good character

for our times, I think, for our hyped-up,
anxious sort of rush-around times.

He is the sort of symbol of
mania and hysteria.

But there's more to this classic
sitcom than just Basil Fawlty.

Basil?!

There's his domineering,
acid-tongued wife Sybil,

dependable Polly,
the overworked chambermaid,

dotty resident guest the Major,
and Manuel,

simply the most famous
TV waiter in history,

who's from Barcelona,
don't you know?

There is too much butter
on those trays. Que?

There is too much butter
on those trays. No. No, no, senor.

Not "on those trays."

No, sir, "Uno, dos, tres."

After 30 years,
the show's original producer

has returned to the BBC
archives to unearth

the Fawlty Towers production files,
and rediscover their dusty details.

Ah, here we have the programme costs.

For the first episode in 1975, it was
about £20,000, just over.

John Cleese probably only got
about £400 or something like that.

We were real cheapskates,
terrible when you think about it.

Absolutely amazing how little things cost
in those days, but it was a cheap show,

as demonstrated by
the flexibility of the scenery.

That's why it wobbled a bit
from time to time, because we

never had enough money to really
structure it so it didn't wobble.

Thank you and good night!

We've got a drawing here of
the original set. There...

And it's instantly recognisable,

even though this was made long before
the sets were actually designed.

Apart from being bashed,
crashed into and knocked down,

Fawlty's set also once
famously flirted with flames.

Huh! Oh, no. No, no, no, please.
No, no, no, no. Huh?

No, no...

The fire sequence -
yeah, I was hurt in that.

That smoke was created with the
use of two chemicals on each other

and they create the smoke and you
don't feel it through the jacket.

This was the theory.

ALARM RINGS
Fire, fire, fire!

No, no! Yes! Si, si!

Look, will you get back in there?
Yes, yes! No, no!

'I was getting very warm. I thought,
"Well, this can't be right."'

"Can we just take my jacket off?"

Took the jacket off and it was red
raw, it had acid burns.

Is fire, is fire, is fire!

It started hurting, so if you ever see
that episode, be sympathetic to my pain.

He's always whinging on about that.

I'll let him whinge when
he writes me a good part.

Coming up, we reveal the real life
inspiration for Basil Fawlty...

"You want ME to ring you at quarter
to seven? You want breakfast as well?"

It was exactly that reaction. I thought,
"This is odd, he's running a hotel".

He was so gratuitously rude because,

like all British hoteliers,
he operated on the principle of,

"I could run this hotel properly
if it wasn't for the guests."

And hear first-hand the inside story
of scriptwriting within a marriage.

I think John and I wrote together
better than we lived together.

So stay tuned for the grand reopening
of Torquay's notorious hotel.

This - Basil. This - smack on head.

30 years on from its departure,
Fawlty Towers still retains its

ability to make the British public
roar with laughter.

Amongst its many claims to fame, it of
course gave us one of the most iconic

comedy characters ever created,
the irrepressible Basil Fawlty.

'He's so awful, he's so impossible.'

He's failing
to achieve everything he wants,

and although you disapprove of his
goals, he's still failing

and he's such a sad character.

Success isn't funny,
failure's funny,

and Basil just fails triumphantly
every day at some point.

Oh, thank you, God!

Thank you so bloody much!

'I would describe him'

as a ludicrous figure
who takes things to extremes.

You know, whatever emotion
he has, it's extreme.

Sybil! No, no, no, no, no! You know
what it's like, I remembered, Sybil!

HE GIBBERS

Everything all right?

Bit of a bump,
just smoothing it out.

He's intelligent, but emotionally
he just doesn't function well

because he's operating on a map of
the world that just doesn't work,

and he doesn't realise that being
reasonably open and friendly to people

would make him a lot happier.

Have you any idea of
how much there is to do?

Do you ever think of that?!

Of course not! You're too busy
sticking your noses into every

corner, poking about for things
to complain about, aren't you?!

Well, let me tell you something, this
is exactly how Nazi Germany started!

A lot of layabouts...

'I think there was
something about his height'

plus his passion,
you know, his desperation,

I mean, it's all there.

I suppose I don't think
anybody could do it except John.

Oh!

Sorry, sorry.

'He played these characters that's
rather good at bullying people'

in a kind of authoritarian fashion,
putting them down with one or two,

"Oh, shut up," or giving them a
quick flick on the side of the head.

This happened in Python,
and that was, of course,

the relationship he
created with Manuel.

'And John could do that very,
very well indeed.'

The bottle. Er...Yes.
Where is it? Que?

Donde es... Oh, I take it. Oh.

I take it, I take it.
Come here.

You're a waste of space. Ooh!

'I could see elements
of Basil Fawlty'

in characters that John

played in Python.

'I could see the same kind of thought

'that went into that kind of
physical comedy

'that made Silly Walks so successful,
went into Fawlty Towers.'

John played one or two
characters in Python

where sort of rising anger
was sort of the joke.

Kick 'em in the teeth
where it hurts!

Kill! Kill, kill!

'Sitting at a table in the garden
talking quite reasonably and suddenly'

getting completely berserk about
the world and banging the table,

and John played this
as only John could.

Arrgh!

Arrgh!

Tea's ready.

Coming, dear!

I think the thing about Basil Fawlty
is that there is a lot of John in it.

It's John's suppressed anger.

I mean, he spent, what, 30 years
going to a psychiatrist

because of his anger, he had
so much anger in him.

I have a feeling that situations
could arise

when I would almost go as
berserk as Basil.

Yeah, really. Yes, there's
something manic somewhere in me.

People talk to me at parties
sometimes, you know,

and they really do talk AT
me, and I have fantasies

about picking things up, you know,
cheese dips and, you know,

but I've never had the
courage to do it.

And I can do it on stage, you know,
Basil Fawlty does the...

Why do they think that I have to be
Basil Fawlty in order to write this?

I mean, of course I have that in me,

but I've got all the other
characters that I play, you know?

You have to have all these
emotions available to you

and then, when you become...

When you're asked to play a part,

you suppress some of them and
enlarge and play much more strongly

some other emotions, but that's what
you do, it's like having a palette.

You choose this colour and this colour
but not the others, you see what I mean?

For a different character you choose
different colours.

John encountered the inspiration
for his hard-line hotelier

when the Monty Python team
checked into a Torquay hotel

during filming in May 1971.

We were in Torquay because
we were filming all the outdoor,

all the exterior parts of Monty Python

and staying in this hotel.

And the first evening,
we decided we'd eat in.

We were all having dinner there and
the owner, Mr Donald Sinclair,

was sort of wandering round
very grandly, not doing anything

to help, of course, but being very grand,
and he walked past the Python table,

where we were all eating and Terry
Gilliam had done what the Americans do,

which is to cut the meat like that

and then they put the knife down,
transfer the fork to this hand

and spear the meat with
the right hand,

and he stopped
and I remember he just stared...

And then he said to Gilliam, "We
don't eat like that in this country."

We were pretty astounded, because
it was completely out of the blue.

We were filming the next day

and I said, "Can you give us a call?

"Can we have a call in the morning?"

And he looked a bit,
"Yes, what time?"

and I said,
"Well, about quarter to seven."

"Quarter to seven?!"

I mean, he was just like Basil.

"Quarter to seven? You want
ME to ring you at quarter to seven?

"You want breakfast as well?"
It was the same reaction.

I thought, "This is really odd.
He's running a hotel."

I don't think he actually liked
guests, I think he suffered them,

and I don't think he liked
working in the hotel either.

I saw him close the bar at
just after nine o'clock one night.

He said he was off to bed

and it was time everybody
else went to bed, too.

One day, Eric and I were waiting
for the car to take us filming

and Eric left his briefcase by the door,

where he'd propped it up while we were
just playing catch with a tennis ball,

and when he got back, he went up to
the desk and Sinclair saw him coming...

"Excuse me." "What? What is it now?!"

He said, "I left my briefcase."

He said, "Yes, yes", he said,
"it's the other side of the wall,"

and he pointed out
of the front door

to a white wall which was the
far side of a swimming pool.

And he said, "It's behind the wall,"

and Eric said, "What?"

Eric said, "What?" He said, "What?!"

He said, "It's behind the wall?"
He said...

"Yes, yes, I put it behind the wall."

Eric said, "Well, why did you put
it..." "What?!"

"Why did you put it behind the wall?"
He said,

"We thought it might be a bomb."

And we...

"A bomb?!"

And Sinclair said, "Well, we've had
a lot of staff problems recently."

So he really thought someone he'd fired
had come by, put a bomb in a briefcase.

I said to Mike, I thought, "Oh, we can't
stay here, I really can't stand it."

I didn't see the comic possibilities
that John had seen.

John had sort of worked
out with Connie

the logic of a Sinclair/
Basil Fawlty position,

which is basically that it is the people
you are making your money from

who are causing you
trouble and problems

and if they weren't there, life would
be much easier. There is a flaw there.

John capitalised on the indelible
impression made by Mr Sinclair while

writing for the hugely successful
ITV series Doctor At Large.

'One of them was set in a hotel'

and I remembered the original
character, Donald Sinclair.

'Timothy Bates did a
terrific performance.'

The prototype for Basil
Fawlty was ready.

Yes?

Ah, good evening.
I believe you have a room.

I...I can't deal with this.

At the end of it, Humphrey Barclay,
bless him, said to me,

"You know, there's a
series in that character."

I thought, "Typical bloody
television executive,

looking for series all the time."

Thank you, Humphrey!

But Basil was to go on the back
burner for another three years,

as John continued to
conquer the known world

as part of groundbreaking
comedy collective Monty Python.

Argh!

And now for something
completely different.

Then, after five years of
remarkable success,

John suddenly walked out
on the Pythons.

We were all very unhappy when John left
the series, though it came as no surprise.

John was always planning
to leave the Pythons.

I think after the first series
he was planning to leave.

He felt he'd had enough of us, I think.

None of the others understood.

I think Eric understood a bit,
but I don't think they understood

why I wanted to leave Python. They
thought it was great, and I was bored.

We were repeating ourselves and I thought
I didn't want to do the third series.

Turning his back on
subversive satire,

Cleese joined forces with
his 30-year-old wife Connie Booth,

a former New York waitress, to create
something completely different

- a conventional sitcom.

After I'd finished Monty Python,

I'd always wanted to do
something with Connie,

and I was invited out by a
lovely man called Jimmy Gilbert

and he'd been made Head
of Light Entertainment.

He said, "What do you want to do?"

and I said I'd like to do something
with Connie and he said, "All right.

"Well why don't you just go
back home and talk to Connie,

give me a call, tell me
what you'd like to do."

John wanted to do something
based on Donald Sinclair,

so he asked me if I wanted to have
a go with him at writing a pilot,

and we'd enjoyed the bit of
writing that we'd done together.

I think the fact that we
were husband and wife, that,

you know, there aren't many places
you can't go, and...

...John really could make me laugh.

I think he'd always said that he would
write with Connie at some point,

and I think he was just relieved

not to have to write with
Graham, quite honestly.

Gray was very cross with me
for leaving Monty Python

and I'm not quite sure why,

but I think that he felt great
security being in a group.

Gray didn't function
terribly well on his own.

Maybe he felt that Connie
had supplanted him as a writer.

I know, because John's told me,

that Connie was so important
to the writing of those shows

and, in fact, generally
her contribution

has been sort of rather
neglected or downgraded

and John always said she was,
you know, very, very important.

in the way the ideas
were sort of put together.

So John needed somebody else
there, as I did with Terry Jones.

You need someone to bounce
the comedy off and to think

about the ideas, and someone who can
tell you, "No, that doesn't work."

We created it together.

I think it was the plot work, but...

You know, John's facility with
language is extraordinary,

and it was just wonderful
to be working with him.

Production on the pilot began on the 23rd
of January 1975, and the first person

to commit himself to the new show
was Cleese's former Python director.

When I first read the pilot
script of Fawlty Towers

I was, in fact, banned from reading
it in bed because I laughed so much,

and even though we lived about
half a mile from the nearest house,

we were in great danger of
embarrassing the neighbours.

I think it was very exciting
in the first series

because it was this little thing
we were doing in a back room.

I never thought it would get figures
remotely near Python.

Still to come, we look at the
method behind the madness...

SYBIL LAUGHS

The laugh was based on
Connie's laugh, actually!

Oh, he's a swine to have told that,
but it's true, I guess.

Now, Sybil, that's enough!

...and reveal how one of Fawlty's
most brutal scenes was created.

When she clouted me and John,
we really felt it!

The year is 1975.
Harold Wilson is Prime Minister,

Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier
have a Thrilla in Manila,

while Arthur Ashe becomes the first
black tennis player to win Wimbledon.

London is hit by snow in June,

and Margaret Thatcher becomes the first
female leader of a political party.

But this isn't why 1975
is a landmark year.

It's the year that Fawlty
Towers makes its debut

- September the 19th, to be exact.

FAWLTY TOWERS THEME MUSIC

I don't remember exactly why we
wrote the Lord Melbury episode first.

I don't think it was

to particularly
establish his snobbery,

but then that was there and it
was kind of an obvious start.

Would you put both
your names, please?

Well, will you give me a date?
I only use one.

You don't have a first name?

No, I'm Lord Melbury,
so I simply sign "Melbury".

Go away.

I'm so sorry to have kept
you waiting, your Lordship.

I do apologise, please do
accept my forgiveness.

Now, is there something, anything,
that I can do for you? Anything?

'The apparent lord booking into
Fawlty Towers was just classical.'

Basil suddenly
cringing and obsequious.

It was cartoony, but there was an
awful reality about it as well.

With a bath?
Oh, naturally, naturally.

Naturellement.

BASIL GUFFAWS

'The lower middle class stuff,
there was a little bit of my dad'

in this because he totally bought
into the English class system.

If I'd married a duke,
he would have...

duke's daughter, I'm sorry -
Oh, duke!

But a duke's daughter, he would
have creamed his jeans, you know?

He could have gone straight out and shot
himself, died a happy man, you know?

I've never been in
such a place in my life.

You SNOBS!

You stupid, stuck up,
toffee-nosed, half-witted,

upper class piles of...

pus!

In those days,

if you were lower middle class, it was
quite different from being middle class.

He was lower middle class,
aspirational.

Millions of people like that
then, at the end of the decade,

put Margaret Thatcher into power,
so it had a great sort of force

in terms of social history,
what was going on then.

He wants to belong to a
professional class,

but he is a hotel owner,
and one of the fascinating things

is the way that Sybil keeps
pulling him back to earth.

Cognac for you, Doctor.

It's rather fascinating, your both
being doctors. Port for you, Doctor.

At one stage I was contemplating
becoming a surgeon.

A tree surgeon!
Thank you, Sybil.

Keeping a tight reign on her stick
insect of a husband is Sybil Fawlty.

What's going on? Nothing, my dear.
Mrs Fawlty... Now, look... Yes, Polly?

I don't know what she's... BASIL!

When we started to write Pru,

we weren't sure how the
character was going to be played,

and at the first read-through, after
the first day, we left rehearsal,

and Connie and I said, "Well, what do
you feel about Pru's performance?"

And we were both a bit worried
because it wasn't what we had in mind.

I thought Sybil was going to be
really difficult to cast -

and so we were extremely
lucky to get Pru.

Because she's complicated.

She's bright, but she's daft,
she's steely,

but she's frivolous,
she's decent and annihilating.

And by the second day,
our worries completely disappeared

because we saw what she was doing

and we realised it was better
than what we'd had in our minds.

But the interesting thing is - and I'm
not even sure that Pru knows this,

and I hope she won't mind - I was not
so familiar with her work in those days.

Just before we got into writing it,

we went to see a very funny
woman called Bridget Turner

and Connie and I said, "We
should offer this to Bridget."

And we sent the script off
and Bridget wrote a very nice...

Or just sent a message back

saying she didn't feel it was right
for her and so she passed on it.

So we said to John Howard Davies,
"Who do you suggest?"

He said "Well, I think you
should use Pru Scales."

Hello, dear.

What are you doing?
I'm kissing you, dear. Well, don't.

At 43, Prunella Scales was already
a veteran of the stage and screen.

Sybil was to become her most
infamous and celebrated creation.

Hello, dear. Just going to...

'I was sent along to
see John Cleese,'

who was in bed with flu,

and I was shown up to his room

and there he was in bed and he said,
"What did you think of the scripts?"

I said, "I think they're
absolutely brilliant."

And he said "Oh, good, good, good,
any questions?" And I said,

"Yes, why did they get married?"

He said, "Oh, God, I was
afraid you'd ask that!"

I wish you'd help a bit. You're
always...refurbishing yourself.

What? Oh, never mind, never mind!

Don't shout at me, I've
had a difficult morning.

Oh, dear, what happened? Did you get
entangled in the eiderdown again?

Not enough cream in your eclair?

Or did you have to talk to
all your friends for so long

you didn't have time
to perm your ears?

I think it was my idea that perhaps
she wasn't as posh as he was,

and what she fell for was his sort
of upperclass manner and accent.

All I said to her pretty early
on was she's the sort of woman

that can make love and paint
her nails at the same time.

And her class was self evident -

the shiny tight skirts,
the pretensions at golf,

the high heels,

and the complete and
utter control of her man.

BASIL!
Yes, dear?

Don't you dare, don't you dare give
me any more of those pathetic lies!

Oh, right.

The heels and the
tight-fitting skirts, yes,

that was based on somebody
I'd known in the business

as a child, you know, and it
was the sort of thing she wore.

So Uncle Ted comes in with
his crate of brown ale and...

SHE LAUGHS

The laugh was based on
Connie's laugh, actually!

Oh, he's a swine to have told that,

but it's true, I guess.

I remember I had an acting
teacher in New York who said,

"I really hate your laugh, Connie."

Yeah, what can I say?

She would exhale, then draw her...

I hope she won't mind me saying,
but she would laugh...

Because the great thing about
Connie is when she laughs,

she just busts a
gut, you know?

And she would do...

HE WHEEZES NOISILY

SYBIL LAUGHS & WHEEZES

So we incorporated that.
Somebody machine gunning a seal!

HE WHEEZES NOISILY

SYBIL LAUGHS & WHEEZES

But as Fawlty Towers
began to take shape,

not everyone thought the
sitcom was such a great idea.

With Python, I think we'd
all been sort of aware

that we were trying
to raise the stakes

and have animation as a link
and integrate film much more

and be much more experimental

in the form of the way we put the
programme together,

and there was nothing
experimental in Fawlty Towers.

It seemed very, very traditional.

Do please excuse me one moment.

'I don't remember my friends having
any kind of negative reaction,

except for a couple of the Pythons.'

I mean, Terry Jones, I remember
he called me, I think, a traitor.

I was very surprised when John decided
to do, you know, a straight sitcom.

I mean, it isn't straight, it's funny,
it's a wonderfully funny show,

but I was surprised that he decided
to go down the sitcom route, really.

The funny thing was how
everyone got everything wrong.

I mean, even the guy who at that time was
reading scripts for Light Entertainment,

he said, "I'm afraid I thought
this one as dire as its title.

It's a kind of Prince of Denmark
of the hotel world,

a collection of cliches
and stock characters

which I can't see being
anything but a disaster."

Shall I read the guy's name out?

No! No, he'll be retired now,
let's let him off.

But it just shows, you see, people
have no idea what they're doing.

Surprisingly, the first episode of
Fawlty Towers was not an instant hit.

In a time when Britain only
had three TV channels,

a disappointingly low 3.7%
of the population tuned in.

First show was aired - not
very good initial reaction.

I think the Mirror or the Sunday Mirror
said, "Long John short on jokes".

What the critics thought
was totally irrelevant,

and it didn't hurt our feelings.

I think that's what happens, you see?

If you do something that is new,
it seems to take longer

- certainly did with Python -
longer for people to get it,

but when they do get it, they seem to get
it more because it took a little time.

I was just finding my
feet, working with John,

and I think my performance
was quite stilted,

but what John was able
to help me with, I think,

was coming forward
and creating ideas.

Once we'd seen them
do their performances,

it helped Connie and me
enormously to build.

They'd started to put
flesh on the bones.

One character that blossomed
into the perfect sidekick for Basil

was Polly, the low-paid chambermaid.

Connie was not just very funny,
she was a great dramatic actresss,

but at the same time she'd
had no experience of working

under the very demanding
conditions of a sitcom

where you have five days to rehearse
something, which is not a lot,

and then you have one day
in the studio and two hours

in front of a studio audience,
and that's very demanding.

Lamb? Casserole. Oh, sounds good.
Does it come with a smile?

Comes with sprouts or carrots.
Oh, a smile's extra, is it?

You'll get one if you
eat up all your sprouts.

We deliberately did not give her a
major part because I didn't want her

to carry something too
difficult at the beginning,

and if you look in the
first show that she did,

she's holding her
performance in a little bit,

and then after that, she flowers.

I mean, she's wonderful,
she's really wonderful.

Hello, Fawlty Towers.

Please put the bottle down.
What is it? Kurt is drunk.

BOTTLE SMASHES

Under the table...

No!

'I think she's the least
defined of all the characters.'

She is a go-between,

between Sybil and Basil, sort of
as if they're her surrogate parents.

She's there to keep the peace.

'Polly is really a
sympathetic character'

because she is the voice
of sanity, the still calm,

around which the
madness happens.

And yet she does try to get
Basil out of holes, you know?

You feel that she's
got a very good heart.

She has trouble with her arm!
That why she goes in the cupboard.

Exactly. Are you feeling better?
Her arm gets stuck there!

It's always happening to her.
He's dead!

It's her husband, she hasn't
got over it. Died 30 years ago.

She doesn't mean any ARM!
In the cupboard!

No more today! You've had enough!
Oh, my God, look at that!

It wasn't in itself a terribly
comic character,

but in a way, she was perhaps
the sort of straight guy.

Oh, I see, Mr Leeman! Yes!

We thought you said "the linen."

Brilliant! Sorry, sorry, that's it.

He has some wonderful
female characters

and all very well defined,
and strong women.

It's the women saving
the day time and again.

I mean, it's Polly saving Basil
from a predicament with Sybil

and Sybil saving Basil
from his customers.

It's a perfect dance.

'Basil is sexist but Fawlty Towers
is certainly not sexist.'

Oh, just pull yourself together!
BASIL WHIMPERS

Come on!

I love the scene where
Polly slaps me in the face

because I've totally lost it,
of course, out of fear for Sybil.

Again!

Harder!

If you actually look
at Basil's motivation,

apart from the snobbery,
what it's really all about

is not letting Sybil get in a tantrum
because he just can't handle that.

He's more frightened of
that than anything else.

We all make mistakes, dear.

But in the second episode,
not even Polly can protect Basil

from the full force of Sybil's fury.

He's no bloody good!
Oh, Sybil, you do exaggerate.

I mean, he's not brilliant...

Not brilliant? He belongs in a zoo!

In The Builders episode, where David
Kelly gets beaten with the umbrella,

we'd tried all sorts of things
to try and pad the umbrella out.

And to be perfectly honest, Mrs.
Fawlty, I like a woman with spirit.

Oh, do you? Is that what you like?

I do, I do!
Oh, good.

Now Sybil, that's enough.

Come on, then, give us a smile!

'Somebody on the floor said,'

"Look, that umbrella's heavy
and the ribs in the umbrella

"may very well crack yours,
so I have an idea."

I ended up with the lads on
the floor rolling foam into it.

Made the umbrella twice the weight,

and so when she clouted me and John,
we really felt it, you know?

I've seen better-organised creatures

running round farmyards
with their heads cut off.

Collect your things and get out!
Argh!

As he points out,

he likes a woman with
spirit and, by God...

...Sybil had spirit, you know?

Still to come, how the world's worst
waiter became a national treasure...

And the cast recall the intense
rehearsal process required to bring

this carefully crafted
classic to our screens.

Mr Richards is the gentleman...

Oh, BLEEP!

Performing the series
was always difficult.

We were under enormous pressure.

If you didn't REALLY know it by
Wednesday morning, that was trouble.

The first couple of episodes
may have left critics cold,

but by October 1975,
Fawlty Towers

was fast becoming compulsive
viewing for comedy fans.

Manuel, let me explain.

Ah!

Right? You understand?

And it was the bumbling, bewildered
but well-meaning Spaniard

from Barcelona that stole
the hearts of the nation -

even if he did have a poor
grasp of the language.

Que?

The great joy of the series
to me, and maybe to everyone,

is Manuel and Andrew Sachs.

Que?

Manuel is sensational,

and Andrew played it so beautifully.

He's a wonderful character actor,

but I remember he had Manuel right
from the beginning in rehearsals,

and I thought he was wonderful.

Everyone wants to hug Manuel and take
him home, put him on the mantelpiece.

The man behind this loveable Spaniard
was actually born in Berlin.

45-year-old character actor
Andrew Sachs was starring

in a successful West End show when he
got the call that would change his life.

Manuel Towers, how are you?

Is nice today...

The way I see Manuel,
he's a very happy man.

Even though he's being abused
by everybody in the hotel,

I think he is happy because I guess

he comes from a big family -
10, 11 people maybe as kids -

and to be noticed there at all
in Barcelona, or wherever it was,

you have to get the attention on you -
do something naughty and get hit.

Get a clean one.

Is clean now!

Is dirty now.

The British family he was adopted
into, that is the Fawltys,

represented his father
and mother in a way,

and he knew he was being appreciated
because they hit him a lot.

Thank you.

The relationship between Basil and
Manuel could have been, again, very...

Just cruel and unpleasant
and...heavy.

I no want to work here any more.

Open the basket! No!

Open the basket!

Now, inside.

Not you! I quit! Get out!
I on strike!

I'm warning you!
I stay here, is nice!

You see this? You're next!

Manuel was based simply on one idea
which was that in London in the '70s,

if you went to a restaurant,
you were very, very lucky indeed

to get what you ordered, and the reason
was that the people who owned restaurants

had discovered that by employing
people who spoke no known language,

they could save a lot of money.

The wine list. Si.

The w... Vino.

Senor.
No, no, no, no, no, no. No, no, no.

The list.

There, there, the list.

Look, the list, there!
The red... look, there!

There! Ah!

Thank you, Manuel.

He and John played the
physical comedy very well.

I mean, John used to
whack him over the head

or sort of push him
through the doors.

I love the violence on Manuel.
I invented quite a lot of it.

I invented the spoon
thing when he hits on...

I invented quite a lot of the violence.
I like violence in comedy.

I think it's very good, it makes you
laugh. When in doubt, hit somebody.

He must have gone home
battered and bruised

on so many occasions and
his wife must have said,

"What did he do to you tonight?"

And he said, "Well, he
hit me with a spoon."

I grew up loving knockabout comedy,
and my attitude to that was,

if you do that kind of comedy,
which makes me laugh

because it's one of the elements of
farce, you're going to get knocked down.

Get on with your meals!

Andrew bore the brunt of it,
and there were times...

I mean, certainly,

I was trying to hit him with a
saucepan once with a glancing blow...

I'm creeping in, he comes up behind me,
gets the pan and he goes like that...

but instead of stopping with this
critical eighth of an inch, he didn't.

He just went..... Oomph!

'Ugh! I went down and I could
hear the angels singing.'

I thought, "Thank heavens it's the last
shot of the show because I can't get up."

I claim - of course he denies it -
that he straightened up as I was...

So I really caught him, and he
had a headache for two days.

And thank God it was about the last shot
in the show, so he was able to go on.

Que?

'Manuel became dreadfully
famous all over the world

and it was very pleasant, really,

'that it was so separate from me
that I was extremely flattered'

that so much interest
should come to it.

...the windows.

Argh!

Unfortunately, Basil's pent-up
frustration doesn't end with his staff.

Is there anything else?
I can't breathe!

Where he was attacking
me at the table...

Actors always come up a bit more
when the audience is in there.

You rehearse it and you are under
control, sort of, and then you get

a slight bit of red mist
on the night, you know.

It happens, and we all
accept that it happens,

so I think I was slightly squashed
at one point, you know, like that.

Don't worry, a bit of cheese
went the wrong way!

Never mind, he's fainted. Manuel!

But Basil's mistreatment of guests also
stretched to the long-term residents -

the senile, bumbling Major and the batty
old spinsters Miss Gatsby and Miss Tibbs.

Are you sure you're all right?

Oh, Mr Fawlty...
Ah, good morning, ladies.

Ursula and I think you're a very
naughty boy, don't we, Ursula?

Oh, God. Oh, really?

Basil isn't as horrible to them
as he is to the guests.

They're kind of part of his routine

and they're part of the home
so he can control them in a way,

and they want to look after
him but he won't allow them.

But he's never really cruel
to them or the Major.

Nearly six o'clock, Fawlty. Is it?

Yes, well, when you're ready I might
have a fruit juice or something.

I'll open up the moment
I've done this, Major.

No immediate hurry.

Drunken old sod.

When Connie and I wrote the
Major in the first episode,

I don't think we had any thought
of repeating the character,

but when you see something

and you think, "Oh, that's good,"
and we think, "He could be a regular."

How are you, sir?

I can speak English.

He really grew on us
and I loved, you know,

the scene with the moose's head.

Ah, hello, Major, how are you today?

Oh, I-I-I'm fine, thank you.

You also got a different
quality from John, I think,

with the Major, because
you felt he liked the Major.

I rather fell in love
with Ballard Berkeley.

I just thought he was the
finest kind of English gentleman,

of a slightly bygone era.

There was a sweetness to him, and a
kindness that was very, very touching.

As a former matinee idol and
much loved television actor,

Ballard Berkeley brought over
40 years' experience to the part.

What a lot of people don't
realise is how old dad was

when he started doing Fawlty Towers.

I mean, he was, you
know, he was nearly...

Well, late 70s, I suppose,
when he finished it

and people forget, you know, that he
had a career of 60 years before that.

We were never nervous about Dad being
the Major because it was so much him -

a great character for him to play

because it was so like him except
he wasn't dippy like that. No, no.

He was just affable and charming and
got away with lots of stuff. And gentle.

Dad's always thought of
as a sort of military man,

so when it comes to his war service,
I think most people really think

he must have been in the Army,
but of course, as we know,

he was in the police and he got a beat
just off Piccadilly, in Vine Street.

Yes, West End Central, wasn't it?

It was ideal. He loved the West End -
the theatre and his friends were there.

I must have been keen on her,
because I took her to see India!

India?

At the Oval.

He was a mad cricket fan
and I remember once

I was rehearsing a scene with Sybil

and we were doing the dialogue and I
glanced over and there was Ballard...

Meaning the third
Australian wicket was down.

Couldn't even wait till
the end of the scene!

My daughter still almost
inevitably will introduce herself

and say, "My grandfather..."
because she loves talking about him,

and because she gets such
a good reaction as well.

As well as stars of the silver screen,
the hotel environment also offered

the perfect setting for some
Britain's best loved actors,

to check in as guest stars.

You knew that you were being invited
to be on something very special

and so it was a great privilege,
and one felt blooming lucky.

John and Connie wrote a
script that is unbelievably fine.

They're gifted,
truly gifted writers.

Now, look.
It's finish.

Give those to me.

Come on, come on.

'I think what John and Connie
wrote was very tight

and very complete,
far more than most shows.'

There wasn't a lot of room
for improvement.

These sitcom veterans were
enticed onto the show

by the gag-packed scripts
that are now regarded

as a masterclass in sitcom writing.

Oh, sorry!
Sorry, coming in like that.

Connie and I used to spend six weeks
figuring out each script

and something like two and a half weeks
before we wrote a line of dialogue.

John had a small study
and a very big desk.

The desk faced the wall.

He just started to play.

I used to type onto an old-fashioned
typewriter, but we just sat there

and talked to each other and, you
know, might write a word down or say,

"What was that thing that happened?"

You know, you remember the scene
where the lovely Australian girl

has got the tarry
handprint on her boob?

Well, we'd had that idea
and we were writing, weeks later,

Connie said, "What was
that idea we had about...

"That would work here."
And I said, "Yes, yes".

What's that on your hand, Basil?

What? Oh, that's some stuff
in the cupboard, dear.

Something I knocked over.

John is highly instinctive
and I think he knew

that he wanted to be
monitored in some way,

and that's why he
wanted me on board.

Basil...

Hello, dear, just
checking the doors.

I think that the women were very,
very well written in Fawlty Towers,

and that was
basically Connie,

'cause I remember
suggesting a line early on

and Connie saying, "A woman
would never say that line."

I'd say, "What, really? Wouldn't
she? Well, why?," you know?

So it was a tremendous
learning process,

and although at the beginning I was
writing most of Basil and Manuel

and she was writing Sybil and Polly,

towards the end we were
much more crossing over,

and she was writing
much more of Basil.

Come on, give it to me.

But this fast-paced farce presented huge
problems when it came to production.

'Fawlty Towers differed from'

a lot of the sitcoms that
were current at that time

by virtue of the volume of the script.

The average sitcom script was
somewhere between 60 and 70 pages.

These scripts ran 120, 130 pages.

Most of the episodes were too long,

so Connie and John had to
go off and rewrite them,

and in fact I think they're still
too long, longer than the normal.

I mean, it's not 29 minutes 30 seconds,
it's 35 minutes, all that sort of thing.

In fact, none of the
12 Fawlty Towers episodes

ran to their allotted
30 minute time slot,

a feat unheard of in
modern sitcom making.

I always believe that you cannot
do comedy fast enough and I always

optimistically hoped that it
would run to time. It never did.

Performing of the series
was always difficult.

We were under enormous pressure with
the rehearsal, and because it was a farce

and the timing was so important and it
was physically a very demanding show.

I think it was tough on everybody.

Mr Thurston is the gentleman I'm
dealing with at the moment. WHAT?!

Mr Richards is the gentleman...

Oh BLEEP!

It was the first sitcom I ever did
where you rehearsed all day

and you got the
thing right.

John's huge involvement
and desire for perfection

and to get it absolutely right...
And it's there in the end product.

We got Monday off.

On Tuesday morning we met
and read and locked it.

If you didn't REALLY know it by
Wednesday morning, that was trouble.

Yes, it was disciplined.
It had to be.

We had to get through
a lot of script.

Not in my case because, actually,
if you analyse my part, it's not big.

That's a rat! No, no, no,
is hamster.

It's a rat, of course it's a rat!

You have rats in Spain, don't you,
or did Franco have them all shot?

Is pigeon. It's a rat!

It's not a pigeon, it's a hamster.

It was a feat of learning and
I used to go back and lie down.

I had a library, and I
used to lie on the floor,

I would record all the other
lines onto a tape recorder,

and I'd lie flat on the floor
and I would have it by my ear

and I would be doing my lines
in the lines that I'd recorded.

It was the only way to get it done.

I couldn't do it now.
I could do one show,

but I couldn't be there
at 10 o'clock in the morning

just starting the second one,
because the pressure was relentless.

And people said to me,
"Did you enjoy it?"

and I used to say to them,
"I didn't have time."

Although most of the filming
was confined to the BBC studios,

the team did venture out
on the odd occasion,

with one of the show's
most memorable scenes

shot on location in a sleepy
suburban street in Harrow.

Start, you vicious bastard. Come on!

ENGINE COUGHS

Oh, my God! I'm warning you,
if you don't start...

When we were working on The Gourmet
Night and the car breaks down,

and John was improvising because we
hadn't got into the dialogue, he...

He started losing it with
the car and swearing at it.

That's it! I've had enough!

You've tried it on
just once too often!

I said, "Now he's got to hit
the car, he's got to attack it."

I'm going give you a
damn good thrashing!

Everyone says that
beating the car is so funny,

but when we were out filming, we had
the car but I had to find the branch.

Part of my duties
was ordering up props.

I'd asked for a selection of branches,

and before we turned over, before
we rehearsed anything, really,

John had a trial
period with branches.

The first branch that I
tried to hit it with was too rigid.

It was just like a rod and it just
wasn't funny, wasn't remotely funny.

It wasn't just less funny,
it wasn't funny.

Then I went and got a
sort of wispy willowy bit

and started to swat the car
with it, and that wasn't funny,

and it was only when
I got the third piece

and felt that, and went back
and then it was funny,

but I didn't know until I
had physically done it,

and then I thought,
"That feels right."

Coming up, Basil improves
foreign relations...

It's a kind of Tourette thing, you know,
whatever you shouldn't say comes out.

I'll just get your hors d'oeuvres.
Hors d'oeuvres,

which must be obeyed
at all times without question!

...and the writers' relationship
breaks down.

There was a huge gap
between the two series

because Connie and I, as far
as I remember, got divorced.

Brilliant. Oh! Brilliant!
Ugh! Right.

Despite impeccable storylines

that would become etched
into the nation's consciousness,

Fawlty Towers was more of a
slow burner than an instant hit.

But by the end of its first series,

the sitcom had almost doubled
its viewing figures,

with nearly 3.5 million viewers
tuning in

to watch the final episode,
entitled simply The Germans.

The veal chop is done
with rosemary -

that's funny, I thought
she'd gone to Canada -

and is delicious and nutritious.

In fact it's veally good.

Veally good?

The whole German episode
is quite brilliant.

It's a kind of Tourette
thing, you know,

whatever you shouldn't
say comes out,

But that is also helped
by the size of Fawlty.

All in the market together,
old differences forgotten

and no need at all to mention
the war. Sorry, sorry!

He can't help it.

He is a fairly prejudiced
English snob,

and no matter how he tries to
cover it up,

as he must try to do in
administering this place, he can't.

I'll just get your hors d'oeuvres.

Hors d'oeuvres which must be obeyed
at all times without question!

Sorry, sorry.

'Basil is vile to the Germans'

who emerge as extremely courteous.

They're not portrayed as humourless
and aggressive or anything.

That was a very interesting
episode because it was just

deliberately writing Basil as being, you
know, utterly vile to these nice people.

Will you stop talking about the war?
Me? You started it.

We did not start it.

Yes, you did. You invaded Poland.

When this huge, tall man
starts to goose-step

and then puts his finger
up like that, you know,

I mean, there's no
halfways about it

- this is very heavy, very,
very heavy rudeness.

When he said, "I'll do the walk",

swung his leg out and goose-stepped
out, people were screaming.

It was just an incredible moment.

Watch. Who's this, then?

HE SHOUTS IN PRETEND GERMAN

I'll do the funny walk.

'I've always had a mixed
personal reaction

to the Germans episode

because people go on
about it so much,

and I sometimes wonder,
a little bit like Alf Garnett

and the problem that
Johnny Speight used to have,

whether people are laughing out
of animosity towards the Germans,

when the whole point of that
from the very, very beginning

was to make fun of people still hanging
on to those antediluvian attitudes.

And it bothers me. And what I notice
about the Germans is how they love it.

Stop it!

I'm trying to cheer her up,
you stupid kraut!

The Germans episode obviously
upset us very much.

Otherwise it would be only
half as much fun, wouldn't it?

No, but to be serious,

it was taken very well by the broad
majority of the German audiences.

One of the best parts of my life, I was
standing in the Atlantic Hotel in, in...

In Hamburg, and suddenly as I
was chatting to the concierge,

a big, jolly German businessman
sort of, "Hey John!"

and shouted across the
lobby, and I turned round,

and he said,
"Don't mention ze war, huh?"

And the entire lobby
roars with laughter.

I thought that was
a wonderful moment.

I thought that was great,
now we can get on with it.

You have absolutely no sense of
humour, do you? This is not funny!

Who won the bloody war, anyway?

Fawlty Towers is very much a period
piece in terms of relations

with Irish people,
foreigners of any kind.

There is plenty, absolutely plenty,
of xenophobia and racism

in Fawlty Towers but
because it's a character thing.

It's who Basil Fawlty is -

we're laughing more at his prejudice
than we are anything else.

Ah, Mr Fawlty, you're so charming.
Well, one does one's best.

Written more than 30 years ago,

it's easy to spot more than a
spattering of racial stereotyping.

Despite doing little to improve
foreign relations,

Fawlty became a hit around the world.

'It's always been a mystery to me
why certain shows work abroad.'

My only answer is - I think
it may apply to Python too -

that I think we may have hit
what they call archetypes.

There were certain...

types of people represented
by the characters,

that people from different
cultures could recognise.

DUBBED IN SPANISH

Shown in more than 60 countries, it
is one of Britain's most successful

TV exports, even turning up
in the most unlikely of places.

'At one point, a German company'

wanted to do a version
where they dub it into German.

'This German company understood
that I come from Germany,

it's my first language,'

and would I come over and play Manuel
in German with a Spanish accent?

Mrs Fawlty, Mrs Fawlty. Mr Fawlty.

Was ist?

MANUEL SHOUTS IN GERMAN

I would have a line like "I love
you Mr Fawlty, I love you Mr Fawlty",

but the German version would be

"Oh, Herr Fawlty,
Ich liebe Dich, Ich liebe Dich".

Attempts have also been made

to re-make this bastion
of British comedy.

IN URDU

When people have tried to
remake it, it's never worked,

considerably to
my disappointment.

I mean, when the Germans
re-did it, they did it superbly.

Chef?

Kann ich jetzt endlich ein Gin-Tonic
und ein Whiskey-Sour bekommen?

'The network just thought it
was too expensive, I think.'

There is only this unique
character of Basil Fawlty,

and the one and
only John Cleese

and maybe one came to the
conclusion that it wouldn't work

as well with another personality,
another hotel in another setting.

'It was extraordinary

when the Americans tried
to remake Fawlty Towers.

It surprised me that they never asked
me for any advice or help or comments.

And it wasn't
any good.

Whispering Pines presents to
you Pacific Ocean Duck.

Argh!

What is this?
Some kind of joke?

Yes.
Ha, ha, ha.

The really bizarre one was when I met
someone at a weekend house party

and they said, "Oh, we have the
rights for Fawlty Towers

and we're going to remake it."

I was delighted, I said "Great, I
hope we can make it work this time."

I said, "But there's
one or two problems.

Are Americans familiar with
these little family hotels?"

"Oh, yes, it's not a problem",
they said.

I said, "Are you going
to make any changes?"

They said, "We're just making one change,
really. We're going to write Basil out".

And I remember thinking,
"Did he say that?"

And Bea Arthur did it.
It was called "Amanda's",

and they took the funny lines,
and gave them all to Bea Arthur,

when all the motivation for the
funny lines no longer existed.

As proved, there can
only be one Basil Fawlty.

The first series ended in spectacular
style in the autumn of 1975...

However did they win?

...by bagging two awards for best sitcom
and best comedy performance by Cleese.

But of all the people who helped
me this year, I should most of all

like to thank me, without
whom, quite honestly,

I could never have hoped to
win this fairly great honour.

So thank you me, thank
you very much indeed.

Although I can't be with you, I have
arranged for the award to be collected,

so if we could close the door now
because it's getting a little cold.

Thank you so much.

A second series was swiftly
commissioned,

but the writing went on hold
as John rejoined his Python pals

for a sell-out tour and to shoot
their latest film, Life Of Brian.

It would take a staggering
four years for Fawlty to return.

There was a huge gap
between the two series

and also Connie and I, as far
as I remember, got divorced.

The work went on in spite of us
and in spite of what was going on.

It didn't save our marriage,
but I think

Fawlty Towers became a kind of refuge
for our demons and angels and that

that, maybe, was why we were able
to go on to write the second series.

We had been having our doubts
about the marriage in '74

and we finally split up in '76.

And it was one of those relationships

where there was an enormous amount
of love and affection, and still is,

but we just found it
difficult to live together,

so I moved out, moved back in,
moved out, moved back in.

And having finally moved out the
middle of '76, I think we started

writing the next series about a year
later, because there was no ill will.

For us it was a release
because somehow I think, too,

in the relationship of Sybil
and Basil, we were able

to get out our frustrations with
each other through those characters.

It was quite civil and we
got down to the work.

I remember we'd get stuck, we'd
take walks sometimes and not talk,

and there were other times
when John would take off

like a racehorse in the work and
just go. He was on his own track.

Oh, here, use this one.

John and Connie had split
and we had no idea.

John would arrive and then Connie
would arrive later and

you just thought "Well, she's come
in a different cab," or something.

We had no idea, they kept it
so, not particularly secret,

but we just carried
on as we carried on.

I certainly don't remember it
being a problem of any kind.

They worked together beautifully
and, you know, it was a happy unit.

Manager, manager!

Yes? Testing, testing.

There. I've never met
such insolence in my life.

I come down here to get lavatory
paper and she starts asking me

the most insulting, personal things
I've ever heard in my life!

I thought you wanted writing paper.

I'm talking to you, Watt.

What?

Connie and I didn't enjoy the
second series as much as the first,

because we felt this
pressure to be as good.

I did feel, yes, under pressure, but not
to the degree on the second series,

I think that John did,
with his history.

He had more at stake, and I could trust
him to do the worrying, which I did.

But it took off in a way

that I don't think either of
us had ever expected it would.

It wasn't like the first series

when you're sort of playing
and discovering and having fun.

It was kind of delivering the
goods - and that wasn't as much fun.

Coming up,
problems mount on the second series

as a punch-up in BBC corridors
puts production under threat.

They said, "Well, we can't
record tomorrow, we're on strike."

And we reveal how those infamous
Fawlty signposts were created.

Possibly the most shocking thing was
actually the anagrams at the beginning.

Was it not Flowery BLEEP one week?

This is Fawlty Towers, the hotel
that guests hate to stay at,

but viewers can't stay away from.

When I pay for a view, I expect
something more interesting than that.

But that is Torquay, madam.

Well, it's not good enough.

May I ask what you were expecting to see
out of a Torquay hotel bedroom window?

Sydney Opera House, perhaps?

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon?

The dreadful Torquay hotel
is instantly recognisable

by its infamous black
and white exterior.

Although fans may be surprised to
learn that this legendary landmark

was actually based
in leafy Buckinghamshire.

This is the actual hotel,

exactly halfway between
my house and the BBC.

I went to see it quite by chance.

It was a country club,
but it was absolutely perfect

because it's up this steep slope.

I was worried about its whiteness.

It didn't look quite like Torquay,

but yet it had a kind of
seaside feel about it.

Wooburn Grange Country
Club is alas no more,

burning to the ground in 1991.

Possibly the most shocking thing was
actually the anagrams at the beginning.

Was it not Flowery BLEEP one week?

The motivation for that
was the newspaper boy

who was always being
smacked by Basil,

and when he left the hotel, he
always rearranged the lettering.

In fact, it was Iain McLean,

the assistant floor manager, who was
the only person who could do it.

We were on location

at the hotel, having lunch,
and John said,

"You do crosswords - work out some
anagrams of Fawlty Towers."

So I set to work and I found
only one that is a true anagram -

there may be others,
I haven't gone back to it -

And I said, "But you can't use it
because it's a little vulgar."

And...

John Howard Davis and John Cleese said,
"I think we'll fit that in somewhere."

Despite its smutty signposts,

Fawlty was now regarded as the
jewel in the BBC's comedy crown.

And on 19th February 1979, four
years after the first series ended,

Basil was back
with a record-breaking audience

of almost 13 million viewers.

PHONE RINGS
Hello, Fawlty Towers.

I was worried about the second
series because by that time,

I'd gone onto an administrative job.

Bye, Mrs Fawlty.

Goodbye, Mr Perkins.

A satisfied customer -
we should have him stuffed.

I asked Bob Spiers to do the second
series and it worked quite well.

I don't think
you could see the joins.

It was in some ways more polished,
but...

I'm only saying this because
I directed the first series,

and I thought the first series
by and large was funnier.

John would probably disagree.

The second series was different - we
knew the first series was very good,

and people remembered it, as they
often do, as better than it was.

So even if it was there,
people remembered as being there,

so we realised that the new shows
had got to be there.

And by and large I think
the second series' programmes

ARE better than the first.

With this new series came a new
face, a cheerful Cockney chef

called Terry, played by Brian Hall.

Mr Fawlty, take it easy.

Now look, get one thing clear,

all right? You don't tell me
to take it easy. Well, I...

I don't pay you to tell me to take
it easy, I pay you to take it ea...

No I pay you to tell
you to take it easy...

I think that Connie and I felt

that after six episodes, somehow
we needed a new element on the staff.

Mr Leeman dead.

Well, that would explain a lot.

No, Mr Fawlty.
Really, Poll just said so.

What are you on about?
I just took him his kippers!

Oh, my God!

He was cocky and sturdier
than Manuel, wasn't he?

And a little bit slippery.

Brian was an absolute sweetie.

He said, "You gave me the key to
this character," and I said "Did I?"

And he said, "Don't you remember?

I came up and I asked you at the
very beginning of the first episode,

"What's the key to Terry?"

And you said,
"The police are after him."

And once he had that,
he knew how to play it

and he just fitted
in so beautifully.

That's our new chef just left,

just popped out for a quick
prayer, I expect. Ha-ha!

As well as fresh faces,
the second series

gave a greater insight
into its characters.

Excuse me, I do apologise but I'm
afraid I shall have to ask you to...

Especially Basil and his very
stuffed-shirt approach to sex.

Very nice.

Oh, thank you.

Your thing.

I mean your charm, your charm,
in the middle. Yes, I know.

Basil has a tremendous problem with
sex because he's not getting it.

You see, I don't think Basil
and Sybil have actually had it

for, oh, quite a considerable time.

And the dead giveaway, to me,
is that they are in twin beds.

I suppose the oddest thing
about them is the bedroom.

I mean, even Morecambe and Wise
slept in the same bed.

The primary emotion is that
the poor fellow is unloved,

and he feels unloved

and therefore he is constantly
in a state of irritation.

You are aware of our rule
about visitors, are you? Hmm?

No visitors in guests' rooms
after 10 o'clock.

Oh. Of the opposite...sex.

No, I wasn't. Ah!

But I am now. So you'll send up
the champagne, will you? What?

You're drinking it on your own,
are you? I guess I'll have to.

Very well.
One bottle of champagne - for one.

Thank you. And one glass.

That's all I need, unless you care
to join me? Not when I'm on the job.

That's when I enjoy it the most.

Basil has a bee in his bonnet
with Mr Johnson,

because Mr Johnson is
obviously sexually successful

and Basil is jealous.

Basil is jealous and
wants to bring him down.

This, er...bit of crumpet's
your old mummy, is she?

Oh, this is rich.
Oh, old Mother Johnson

popped up for a quickie, did she?
May I meet her?

Certainly.

Mother Johnson! Mother Johnson!
Come out, come out wherever you are.

How do you do?
Are you enjoying your stay?

I thought The Psychiatrists
episode was wonderful.

And you, Doctor? Are you...
I'm a psychiatrist.

Very nice, too. Well, cheers.

We were both in
group therapy at that time, family,

marital group therapy and whether,

again, indirectly, the whole
idea of having a psychiatrist

in that episode, and what
it would do to Basil

and all the sexual difficulties,
that was just very funny.

There was the
extraordinary encounter

with the psychiatrist,

where he thinks he's asking
about how often he has sex.

Now, the sort of sophisticated
angle there is that Basil Fawlty

is actually obsessed by sex,
which he would be, because he can't

actually manage it in real life.

We were just speculating how people in
your profession arrange their holidays.

How often you can get away.

Hmm? How often do you manage it?

Beg your pardon?

How often can you and
your wife manage it?

If you don't mind my asking.
- Not at all. Not at all.

About average, since you ask.

Average?
- Mm-hm.

What would be "average"?

Well, you tell me.

Well, a couple of times a year.

What?

Once a year?

Well, we knew it must be difficult.

My wife didn't see how you
could manage it at all, you know.

Well, as you've asked, two or
three times a week, actually!

A week?

Yes, pretty normal, isn't it?
We're quite normal here in Torquay.

The vision of the two of them having
sex is quite a nerve-wracking idea.

The state of Sybil and Basil's marriage
was explored further in The Anniversary,

although viewers would have to wait
a little longer than expected

to see this slice
of insanity.

Is everything all right, dear?
You seem just a little bit...

It was going very well and the
most extraordinary thing happened.

There was a strike at the BBC because
a rigger punched a BBC executive,

and immediately it was all out.

And we said,
"What's happening?",

and they said, "We can't record
tomorrow, we're on strike."

The rigger was duly dismissed,

and this being strike ridden 1979 the BBC
union swiftly took industrial action.

Production staff downed tools
and walked out for seven days.

They came back, they said,

"It's been settled, we'll be
recording again next week."

The character eventually
played by Ken Campbell

was being played by a lovely
actor called Julian Holloway.

But Julian Holloway said,

"I can't do it next week, I've got
another job, I can't get out of it."

We said, "Well, we have to recast,"

so we brought Ken Campbell
in, who was wonderful.

Yes, I'll just get a brush.
A Basil Brush.

That wonderful character
of Ken Campbell, you know.

He's needling Basil.
And the way it builds,

everyone's so concerned about Sybil,
they've got to see Sybil

and oh, it's excruciating,
the way it mounts,

the nuts and the wine -
oh, it just...

I think it's wonderful.

I don't know
if you've seen the moulding...

Oh! It's all right, it's all right,
don't worry, I'll clean it up.

What time's the main feature?

The nice thing was, we had
two weeks to rehearse it.

You see, Ken was able to come in.
The rest of us knew the part.

And it was the one time that
we really began to get relaxed

because we'd done the lines enough
times to really relax and I think

it has some of the best performing
we ever did in that particular show.

Happy anniversary.
Happy anniversary.

Oh, you poor dear.

How are you feeling, dear? Ahhh!
It's a shame.

The Anniversary is my
least favourite episode,

because I'm in it, and I can't bear
looking at anything that I'm in.

But also, I can see I was nervous,
because it is quite nerve-racking

being a guest on something,
especially something as great as that.

She won't mind me seeing.
Oh, she would, I think she would.

Oh, but it's her anniversary.
She's up there all on her own!

Ahhh! Ah!

Old leg, bit of gyp, oh!

There's an extraordinarily

sad moment when you
see Sybil's vulnerability.

I came back for my clubs,
Basil, I'm not staying.

Oh, aren't you? OK.

What?
- I'm sure you know best, dear.

You don't even want me to, do you?
Um...

Oh, what's that?

I think the scene I look back
on with great fondness

is when they've had a fight and
she's sort of trying to make it up,

and you realise that actually she is
emotionally quite dependent on him.

I'm going now, Basil.
I think it's best, don't you?

Alright dear.

She's trying to establish
connection with Basil,

but Basil is in the thralls
of extreme embarrassment

and only has one thought in mind,
which is to get her out of the hotel

before all the guests discover that
she's not upstairs in bed at all,

and that must be someone else.

Bye, Basil.

Cheerio, dear.

'I certainly sometimes
found myself thinking,'

"What is this woman doing with this
man? Why did she stick it out?"

Obviously there is a deep-rooted
affection that they have for each other.

I mean, he knows his place, you know,

he needs a woman like that -
they work so well together.

I'm sure there's
many marriages like that.

Do you remember when we
were first manacled together,

we used to laugh quite a lot.

Yes, but not at the same time, Basil.

It sounds terrible, probably,
but I think

I have to say that Basil
and Sybil's marriage

is like most marriages that I
have observed in my 70 years.

We all make mistakes, dear.

They work together, they can
never escape from each other.

You never, ever learn!

How on earth did the two
of us ever get together?

Black magic, my mother says.

Well, she'd know, wouldn't she?

The second series
was due to come

to the end of its illustrious
run on 2nd April, 1979.

Great fun.

But another strike threw production
into jeopardy once more.

From tonight, the recording of
drama and light entertainment

will have to be suspended.

As a result, some comedy
shows have had to be cancelled,

including the final episode of Fawlty
Towers which will now never be made.

Thankfully, this
over-zealous reporter got it wrong.

The final episode was made,
but it would take a full six months

before Basil the
Rat went to air.

Coming up, problems of a furry kind
cause havoc on set.

Do you mind?

Que?

Why this iconic sitcom
stopped after just two series.

They offered John everything to do
another series and he said, "No".

And we go in search of
the legendary lost episode.

It took up just six hours of TV
time, 12 perfect half-hour episodes.

And even though it's been 30
years since it left our screens,

this multi-award-winning
sitcom is still regarded

as the finest comedy ever written.

PHONE RINGS

Not you.

Could I get my hat?

Your hat?

Yes. It's just there.
Yes, I'll have it sent on.

It's fitting that the best
was saved till last.

Although, owing to more strikes
at the BBC, it would be

a full six months before the final
episode, Basil The Rat, aired.

Basil!

'We had a sort of recap rehearsal,'

went into the studio on the
Saturday, which we never, ever did,

and because we had the rat, it was the
only scene that was ever pre-recorded,

just in case there was somebody
in the audience, or the crew,

who had a real
phobia about it.

Don't move.

I was told on the first day that
I would be going into a studio

and it would be a real rat
that I'd be working with.

I thought, "Oh,
that's going to be interesting".

So that's one pate and one Windsor...

SQUEAKS: Soup!

Pssst.

John would go to great lengths
to make sure that all members

of the crew, and particularly
the cast, were comfortable.

And John just got himself in her
eyeline and basically mugged at her

to take her mind off the fact

that there was a small furry
rodent running around her feet.

I mean, how many people get
John Cleese to themselves

for a whole evening and just
listening to funny stories?

So it was a fantastic
deterrent to the fear of the rat.

What ARE you doing?

What?
He had his hand in my bag.

What? No, I... You know something?

You're getting my dander up,
you grotty little man.

You're asking
for a bunch of fives!

Bomb scare!

What?!

There's been a bomb scare.

A bomb scare? Yes.

Yes, that's why he was in your bag.
He didn't want to alarm you.

Yes, may I? Well, I... Thank you.

We had a call, you see.

Shouldn't you
get everybody out?

That's why we were
looking under your table... Argh!

The rat popping up in the biscuit
box is one of my favourite bits.

I know it doesn't look like a real
rat, and that's part of its charm.

Biscuits?

Would you care for a rat, or...?

When we recorded the last episode,
we knew it was the end.

And it was very sad, really.
And a lot of people were saying,

"Oh, don't worry, we'll
be back in four years,

we'll do series three in
four years, it'll be fine."

Fawlty Towers shut its
doors for the last time

on Thursday 25th October, 1979.

Its creators picked up another
2 BAFTA's for best sitcom

and best comedy
performance by Cleese,

and Basil duly handed over
the comedy baton to his successors.

Now, listen, I am not
going to do it this week.

You must have something - what about
edited Motocross highlights or...

Horse Of The Year Show, or inter-
counties basket weaving or something?

Well, how about a cheap, tatty revue?

All right, if that suits you.

Cheap tatty revue then.
Stand by and...

Cue!

They offered John everything to
do another series and he said,

"No. We had two series of six
and if you do a third series

"and it's not as good
as the other two,

you then devalue the
currency of the first two."

Although only a dozen shows
were ever aired, rumours persist

of legendary lost episode lurking
in a dusty BBC building somewhere.

I have it at home and, for
a small fee, can be...

...persuaded to send it
to you by mail order.

No, no. Lovely idea.

A 13th episode.

Unless it was made by
an entirely different team,

there is no 13th episode.

No, we wrote 6 in the first
series and 6 in the second,

then Connie and I looked at each
other and we thought we'd done it.

We didn't want that pressure to be
as good again. We would have failed.

People would have said it was
very funny but it wasn't as good

as the first two series,
so what was the point?

I said, "Would you ever think
of writing some more?"

He said "Yes, I suppose I could."

I said, key question,
"Would you do it without Connie?"

He said "No. No."

And I think her contribution was
much bigger than people believe.

I think it was absolutely right, true,

that we, covering the taboo
subjects, we'd done it

and it felt like there were
three sort of situations within

each half hour, so it felt like a
lot more than 12 episodes I think.

I don't think by then John and I
could have gone on working together.

I think...
We thought we'd done it.

30 years after this hopeless hotel
closed up for good, Fawlty Towers

retains an affectionate place in
the hearts of the British nation.

And in 2008, fans were treated
to a reunion of Basil and Manuel,

as they made a rare royal outing.

CHEERING

Well, I'm fond of Andrew, and
somebody suggested it would be good,

in view of what had happened with
Jonathan Ross and the other guy.

The audience would like to see
us together or something,

and it worked very
well emotionally.

What is the 11th letter
of the English alphabet?

Que?
LAUGHTER

John rang me up, said would I come
on, just do a brief entry as Manuel.

I can't very well say no to John,
because he's so much bigger than me.

Now run for it, you stupid...

I thought the outflowing of love
that evening was so wonderful,

and you could tell
it with him as well.

And I said to him afterwards, I said,
"That was the old John, wasn't it?"

He said, "What do you mean?" I said,
"You should be back here, mate."

He always feels that Michael Palin's

become a national institution and
he would have done if he'd stayed.

Not that he's jealous of Michael,
they're still great friends.

Tantalising though it was to have
Basil back, what the public craves

is for Fawlty Towers to open its
doors once more for another series.

I was constantly being
asked by the public,

"Are there going to be any more?"
That's the favourite question of the fans,

"Is John going to write some more?"

My only sadness is that they
didn't go on to write another,

at least another 12, then we could have
had 24 to watch and watch and watch.

The only idea that Connie and I
ever had for an extension of Basil

was that Manuel
has left and set up

an establishment in Spain,
and Sybil and Basil

decide that they're
going to go and visit him.

Which I think would be fun.

And I thought that
what would happen was,

Basil has the usual appalling
experience at Heathrow

or some other terminal,
where a hijacker...

...tries to hijack the flight,
and Basil becomes so furious

that he actually overcomes
the hijacker, becomes a hero.

HE LAUGHS

'I've been 52, 53 years on stage
and yet Fawlty Towers,'

that full nine minutes in
one episode of The Builders,

makes me recognised
anywhere in the world.

A number of episodes in
Fawlty Towers, I think,

were pretty close to perfection
in comedy

and I've never, ever
got that myself.

That's why I said,
"I'll never get that, I'll give up."

I was delighted to have
been part of Fawlty Towers.

It was a lovely job.

I think I did my very best with it,
and it was a bloody good episode.

I just think it was absolutely
the best of its kind

and the best of its time.

You know, it stands out from practically
everything else going on at the time.

Knowing that you're going to go to
work and laugh and laugh and laugh

and laugh, even though you'd
seen the joke many times before,

and to say, "Oh, I'm going to
work today, I shall be drained

"of stomach muscles by midday,"
that's a terrific feeling.

Well, what Connie and I
tried to do in comedy

is make people laugh as much
as possible. That's what I love.

I love the intensity, because
that brings the biggest laugh.

I suppose it felt kind of
like a freak event in our lives.

Yes, I'm incredibly proud to
have been associated with it.

But I think the main quality
it had, it was so bloody good.

Out! Everybody out! Go on upstairs,
pack your bags, adios, out!