Fawlty Towers

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Fawlty Towers is a British TV comedy.

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

[edit] 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 later episodes there is also a chef, Terry (Brian Hall).

Basil is a rude man, who fought in the Korean War. He has been married to Sybil for fifteen years. Sybil and Basil do not appear to really 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. When he makes a mistake Basil usually apologizes to the guests by saying, "I'm so sorry, he's from Barcelona."

[edit] Other characters

Regular guests in the hotel are the Major (Ballard Berkeley), who is old and often forgets things, Miss Tibbs (Gilly Flower) and Miss Gatsby (Renee Roberts), who are old as well.

[edit] Episodes

There were twelve episodes of Fawlty Towers made.

The first 6 episodes were made in 1975, the last 6 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 they started 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 Hitler.

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

Season One