Fawlty Towers

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Television series
German title Fawlty Towers
Original title Fawlty Towers
Country of production United Kingdom
original language English
Year (s) 1975 and 1979
length 30 minutes
Episodes 12
genre Sitcom , Britcom
idea John Cleese
First broadcast September 19, 1975 on BBC Two
German-language
first broadcast		 February 28, 1978 on West German television
occupation

Fawlty Towers (German Alternative title: Fawlty hotel , rooms free , A crazy Hotel or The Crazy Hotel - Fawlty Towers ) is a British sitcom television series from the 1970s, by John Cleese and his then-wife Connie Booth was developed. It is one of the Britcom classics , reached number 1 on the BFI TV 100 and is regularly repeated because of its great popularity.

John Cleese plays the choleric and misanthropic owner of a small English hotel, Basil Fawlty . He is completely under the slipper of his resolute wife Sybil ( Prunella Scales ), lets his hatred of life on employees and guests and fails grandly with each of his projects, for which he always loudly blames others, even objects like his car.

Directed by John Howard Davies and Bob Spiers , two seasons with a total of twelve episodes were created. They aired on BBC Two from September 19 to October 24, 1975 (episodes 1-6) and from February 19 to October 25, 1979 (episodes 7-12) . The series was then discontinued.

background

During the outdoor shoot for an episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus in Torquay in May 1971, the comedian group of the same name was staying at the Gleneagles Hotel , which was run by a certain Donald Sinclair. Sinclair is described by Cleese as "the filthiest person I have ever run into" and gave him the basic idea for Fawlty Towers .

For example, Sinclair made fun of Terry Gilliam . In accordance with the table manners in his country of birth, the USA, he first cut up the meat completely on the plate, in order to then eat it with a fork without the aid of the knife. The hotelier commented on this with the statement: “We don't eat like this in this country!” (“We don't eat like this in this country!”)

Eric Idle once forgot his briefcase in the hotel entrance and asked Sinclair what was left of it when he got back. The hotelier told him that he had thrown it over the garden wall because he had suspected a bomb in it because of recent problems with his employees. There was a ticking alarm clock in Idle's pocket.

Michael Palin got a rude rebuff when he asked Sinclair to call him at 6:45 a.m. to wake him up. Another time Sinclair threw the hotel's own timetable after one of his guests, who had asked him about the bus departure times.

All but John Cleese and his wife Connie Booth soon moved to the much more hospitable Imperial Hotel . The two stayed to study "the nastiest hotelier in the world".

realization

When Cleese left the Monty Python troupe after three years, the BBC was very interested in a series with him. Cleese suggested a series for himself and his wife to then entertainment director Jimmy Gilbert, and so Fawlty Towers was born .

Cleese first wrote the dialogues for the male actors and Booth for the women. Over time, the two of them worked better and better together and later wrote all the conversations together. This development can also be seen in the series, in which the dialogues appear increasingly fluid and better coordinated.

The interiors were shot at the BBC studios, while the exterior shots were at the Wooburn Green Country Club in Bourne End , Buckinghamshire . The building was demolished years later after being destroyed by fire in March 1991.

The series won the British Academy Award for Best Comedy Series in 1975 . In 1976 Cleese received the Royal Television Society's Program Award for Fawlty Towers .

By 1978 the series was sold to 45 television stations in 17 countries.

characters

Basil Fawlty

Basil is in his mid 40s, owner and (officially) managing director of the hotel. He is played by John Cleese . He sees the management of a hotel as his way to move up to higher social classes, but he repeatedly fails because he detests most people, lets them feel it clearly and thus permanently stands in his own way. Basil is dominated by his wife Sybil, against whom he repeatedly rebels, but ultimately gives in. He takes out his frustration on guests and staff, with which he sometimes causes utter chaos. He often suspects he is being betrayed by guests and spies on them with the most absurd methods, which time and again brings him into embarrassing situations from which the others have to get him out.

Sybil Fawlty

Sybil is Basil's wife and the actual manager of the hotel. She is played by Prunella Scales . Sybil treats guests with professional friendliness, but tends to hang in there to avoid real work. The same goes for hours on the phone with Audrey, her best friend. She secretly despises her husband because she sees through his games, and shoots back at his caustic remarks with equal sarcasm. The only reason she doesn't break up with him seems to be because of her position at his hotel. Sybil pays great attention to her appearance and is particularly noticeable for her towering hairstyles. Another trademark is her loud grumbling-slurping laugh that can drive Basil crazy.

Polly Sherman

Polly is an art student and works part time as a waitress at the hotel. She is portrayed by Cleese's then-wife Connie Booth . Polly is self-confident, keeps calm even in hectic situations and puts up with Basil's mockery with cool answers (Basil: “What do we pay you for?” - Polly: “For my being here?”). She is friendly towards guests, but can also react very sharply to insolence. Their lightning-fast reactions often succeed in mediating between Basil's faux pas, the overwhelmed staff and impatient guests.

Manuel

Manuel is the Spanish waiter, portrayed by Andrew Sachs . He only speaks broken English and, above all, repeatedly misunderstands English idioms, which also creates embarrassing situations. He is eager to improve his English and waiter skills, but fails because of his pronounced clumsiness. With his naive-good-natured manner, he is practically defenseless exposed to Basil's attacks, who regards him as a complete idiot, which he also takes full advantage, whereupon Polly repeatedly takes sides with Manuel.

Permanent guests

Major Gowen
“The Major” is the only person Basil treats with appreciation, because as an officer he is socially superior to him. He is portrayed by Ballard Berkeley . The former officer spends his old age in the hotel. According to his status, he calls Basil only by the last name “Fawlty”, without “Mister”. His incipient senility shows up in a distinct absent-mindedness; In the next moment he won't find the entrusted money. When Basil takes advantage of this occasionally, he doesn't seem to notice.
Miss Tibbs and Miss Gatsby
Two old, apparently very wealthy maids who always appear together and always say the same thing. They more or less regard all men as their protégés to be mothered, especially the major, about whom they quickly worry.

The first season

epi
sode 		BBC
premiere 		title
Original (BBC) DFF RTL Sat 1
01 19 Sep 1975 A touch of class A touch of nobility The better circles A touch of class
02 26 Sep 1975 The Builders The missing door Craftsman Construction work
03 0Oct 3, 1975 The wedding party immorality The good morals The wedding party
04th Oct 10, 1975 The Hotel Inspectors Basils best site Hotel inspection The hotel testers
05 Oct 17, 1975 Gourmet night A gourmet evening Gourmet paradise Gourmet evening
06th Oct. 24, 1975 The Germans - The Germans are coming! The Germans

The first episode, A Touch of Class , aired on BBC2 on Friday, September 19, 1975 at 9 p.m. The initial reactions from the press and viewers were mixed, but there was still no sign of the current enthusiasm for the series. During the first broadcast, no episode made it into the top ten audience ratings. However, the popularity of the series increased from episode to episode. At the end of the first season, the audience was downright enthusiastic. This led to the decision of the BBC to broadcast the six episodes again immediately. The second broadcast achieved higher ratings than the first, a phenomenon that is also known from the television series Raumschiff Enterprise , whose first broadcast was a flop .

Probably the best-known episode is The Germans , which satirically deals with the tendency of many British people to associate the Third Reich and the Second World War with Germany . The hotel is expecting a group of German visitors, while Sybil is in the hospital and Basil tries to run the hotel alone, which leads to chaos even before the guests arrive. The running joke this episode is that Basil repeated its employees inculcates to mention the German guests over just not the war, while he himself constantly in conversation with the Germans slip of subvert that the era of National Socialism allude. Basil's warning “Don't mention the war!” Has since become a popular phrase . It was u. a. picked up by the German embassy in London as part of an essay competition with the participation of John Cleese on the occasion of the 2006 World Cup . A book on German-British relations bears this title. During the 2010 World Cup tournament, the British tabloid The Sun changed the sentence to “Don't mention the four!”, Alluding to the four goals England conceded in the round of 16 against Germany .

The episode was temporarily removed from the streaming service of the BBC subsidiary UKTV in June 2020 in the wake of the racism discussions on the sidelines of the protests after the death of George Floyd , as it contained racist statements.

The second season

epi
sode 		BBC
premiere 		title
Original (BBC) DFF RTL Sat 1
07th Feb. 19, 1979 Communication problems Small misunderstandings There is a thief! Communication problems
08th Feb. 26, 1979 The psychiatrist Study material for the psychiatrist Basil is cheating !? The psychiatrist
09 0March 5, 1979 Waldorf Salad The Waldorf salad The American Waldorf Salad
10 March 12, 1979 The Kipper and the Corpse What to do with the corpse? A dead man in the hotel Smoked herring and a corpse
11 March 26, 1979 The Anniversary The strange woman in bed wedding day The wedding day
12 Oct. 24, 1979 Basil the Council - The rats Basil the rat

The BBC and the general public urged Cleese and Booth to do a second season. The two worked hard to maintain the atmosphere and specialty of the first season, even though their marriage fell apart. It took four years to get the second season on the screens: On February 19, 1979, the first episode aired on BBC2.

Due to a strike by the BBC workforce, the last episode of the second season was only aired six months after the fifth. Since the employees of the competing broadcaster ITV were also on strike at this time , this episode was able to book a rating record.

Others

  • Every episode, with the exception of episode 6 The Germans , begins with a camera angle on a sign that says FAWLTY TOWERS in front of the building. The letters on it, however, have a life of their own: The last "S" is already released in the first episode, in episode 2 it is completely missing and the "L" hangs crooked, in episode 3 the "L" has also disappeared and in episode 4 too the “W” in the second word, so that only FAW TY TO ER can be read. From the fifth episode onwards, the letters are rearranged and each form curious almost anagrams of the hotel name with repulsive meanings. So there is Warty Towels ("warty towels", episode 5), Watery Fowls ("watery chickens", episode 8 - here you can see the newspaper boy affixing the letters), Flay Otters ("otters peeling off their fur", episode 9) , Fatty Owls ("greasy owls", episode 10), Flowery Twats ("flowery suckers", episode 11) or Farty Towels ("farty towels", episode 12). In episode 7 the sign looks like in episode 2.
  • The name Fawlty is pronounced just like the English adjective faulty (German: faulty, disturbed, defective); this is taken up in a dialogue in episode 7, where the hard of hearing Mrs. Richards only understands the name as “forty” (forty) and asks when it is mentioned again: “Faulty? What's wrong with him? "(What's wrong with him?)
  • The names of the two main characters (Basil and Sybil) are reminiscent of the characters of the painter Basil Hallward and the young actress Sibyl Vane from the novel The Portrait of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde .

Broadcast in Germany

In the Federal Republic of Germany, the first five episodes of the series were shown on West German television between February and June 1978 - not dubbed , but in the English original with German subtitles. The complete - and still unsynchronized - series was repeated in the ARD's evening program towards the end of the 1980s.

It was not until GDR television that broadcast ten synchronized episodes (1-5 and 7-11) from May to July 1987. In private television, all twelve episodes were synchronized on RTL from 1990 and on Sat.1 from 1996 . Each station commissioned a new dubbed version; the episode titles also vary.

From April 16, 2016, ARD-Alpha repeated the series in the original without subtitles.

In August 2017, ARTE repeated all episodes with German subtitles as part of "Summer of Fish 'n' Chips".

German remake

In 2001, RTL produced the pilot film for a German version of Fawlty Towers under the name Zum letzte Kliff . Jochen Busse took on the role of the hotel owner, while his wife was played by Claudia Rieschel . The plot was moved to the island of Sylt , but the content was heavily based on the first episode of Fawlty Towers A Touch of Class . The series that was planned to follow the pilot film was not realized.

literature

  • John Cleese, Connie Booth: Fawlty Towers. Three Episodes , ed. v. Reinhard Gratzke (= Universal Library, Vol. 9042), Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-15-009042-3 .
  • Herbert Schwaab: Fawlty Towers - The crazy hotel. In: Thomas Klein, Christian Hißnauer (Hrsg.): Classics of the television series. Philipp Reclam jun., Stuttgart 2012, ISBN 978-3-15-019025-8 , pp. 96-101.
  • Fawlty's Hotel. All pieces. German translation from English by Ruth Keen, Gertraude Krueger, Henner Löffler and Karsten Singelmann. With an afterword by Eike Harms. Haffmans, Zurich 1995, ISBN 3-251-00273-2 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ John Ramsden: Don't mention the War. The British and the Germans since 1890 . Little Brown, London 2006, ISBN 978-0-316-86122-9 .
  2. ^ After accusations of racism: BBC removes episode of "Fawlty Towers" from the program , Sueddeutsche.de from June 12, 2020, accessed on June 13, 2020