Aspiring upper class and the dragon (Fawlty Towers)

Member Name: dave27

Product:	Fawlty Towers
Date:	12/04/01 (99 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cleese, the scripts, Sybil

Disadvantages: Manuel's stereotype

Every once in a while, in every field, whether it be film, or sport, or music, or television, something comes along which captures the public consciousness and takes off in a way that no one had quite anticipated and becomes the latest next best thing.

Very often, that dominance is only transitory and soon passes or even generates a backlash which quickly prompts a drastic revision of what the original assessment is. There are not too many times when such an item actually sustains that rating and actually goes on to become even more highly rated.

In the case of Fawlty Towers, it started off quietly, built a cult following, earned a repeat and has gone on and on and on getting reruns and building up a groundswell of popularity which has left it fairly and squarely in the realm of the classics. Fawlty Towers is quite simply and unarguably the funniest television series of all time.

Written by and starring John Cleese and his American wife of the time Connie Booth, it emerged as a low key six show offering on BBC2 broadcast every Wednesday (I think it was) in 1975. It came a year or two after the final death of Cleese's previous cult comedy classic, Monty Python's Flying Circus, and enabled him to move on from that particularly manic linking of off the wall sketches, when it looked like he might be typecast forever as the Man from the Ministry who did the funny walks.

Cleese had first come to public notice along with many other Oxbridge radical humorists in the mid 60's in satirical programmes like David Frost's That Was The Week That Was, and even then he was playing the stuck up, bowler hatted icon of the ruling classes.

He desperately needed to find new vehicle for his undoubtedly masterful approach to comedy and Fawlty Towers was a very much more down to earth situation comedy rooted firmly in reality although it allowed Cleese to still act the frustrated and manic lackey of the establishment and clas
s conflict.

Fawlty Towers is the story of one of the stereotypical hotels that are so prevalent in places like the English Riviera town of Torquay in Devon. Cleese plays Basil Fawlty, the owner, who runs the place with his loathsome wife, that spitting, spiteful harridan of a comedy creation, Sybil, played with verve and venom by the great Prunella Scales. Connie Booth plays the maid Polly, who is working her way through art college and is one of the mainstays of the business. The other lead member is Andrew Sachs, playing the archetypal dumb waiter, Manuel ("He's from Barcelona.")

Cleese is the eternal snob with delusions of grandeur who is desperately trying to up the class rating of his sleazy, dishevelled, wreck of an empire. Sybil is the more practical and down to earth, scum of the earth who is intent on making the life of her downtrodden spouse a misery. It's not through choice, of course, it never is with women, you understand, it's just he's such a spineless stick insect, and there's a callous chasm of hate between these two middle aged warriors.

The tension and spite between the two of them is what makes the series so special and Cleese has a pin point accuracy in a portrayal of the typical man who despises his wife but is just too spineless to do anything about it. Cleese is probably the best player in the world of such oily resentment.

There were two series of six shows each back in the mid 1970's and it was quite difficult to understand why Cleese and Booth never made any more, but it probably stems from the break up of his relationship with Booth. In many ways, it's better to leave the crowd clamouring for more and there was never chance to get into the constant recycling of a formulaic idea. That was probably a masterstroke, although it's probably more down to circumstance than careful planning.

The series have both been repackaged for videos and have been a
popular product for a lengthy period of time, as have the constant and regular repeats of the twelve shows.

Among the highlights of the various shows were the following:

Lord Melbury comes to stay and sees the class conscious Fawlty fawning all over him, revelling in what he sees as the final sanctioning of his establishment as an upper class residence. Of course, pride comes before the fall and Maybury turns out to be a common garden con man. Polly and the undercover policeman she befriends finally reveal the secret and the look on Cleese's face as he sees the brick that he had believed to be valuables packed away in Melbury's case. He shakes it and taps it on his desk in sheerest disbelief. Once he is convinced of the facts, like the reformed smoker, he is bent on having his revenge.

Another show, which is the one popularly cited as the best, The Germans (although I think it plays too much for easy laughs and satire on xenophobia), features Cleese after a bang on the head playing the stereotypical Little Englander and giving a party of German guests a particularly upsetting stays. Cleese reprises the Ministry of Funny Walks made funny in Monty Python.

Then there is the episode where the Fawltys are having building work done on the hotel. Sybil is set on getting the reputable, but expensive builder Stubbs to do the work, while Cleese is sold on the merits of the cheapo Irish cowboy. It all goes wrong, but Basil takes drastic steps to get the Irishman to do "the best day's work he has ever done." It looks superficially very professionally done, but of course Stubbs asks the diificult question which prompts admission of incompetence and a seeking of vengeance by Cleese.

My own favourite, however, is the one where Cleese is throwing a gourmet dinner party, but his drunken chef is rendered comatose by his unrequited love for Manuel and his sated lust for the bottle. Cleese is off to a local re
staurateur to get a replacement meal, but finds his car playing up. It's classic Cleese as the little man frustrated by the pressures of modern life, as he snaps and promises to give his vehicle "the thrashing of your life". The first time I saw Cleese's assault with a branch on his clapped out auto had me literally doubled up with laughter. The absurd humour of this particular scene gets me going every single time.

There are other moments of supreme farce in the two series, but I will dwell no longer on the detail, just remind you once again of exactly how superb Fawlty Towers was both in its day and eternally since then. The scripts are tightly written and trimmed of all fat; the parts are superbly played by actors who are masters of their trade; and the whole was infinitely greater than merely the sum of its various parts. Yes Fawlty Towers was truly classic comedy of a kind that comes along rarely. Cherish it until the next time...

Summary: