FAWLTY TOWERS: The Cult Series That Has Never Aged

In 2016 we mercilessly lost an unusually large number of artists, including people more or less connected with film. David Bowie, Andrzej Wajda, Alan Rickman, Anton Yelchin, Ron Glass, known chiefly from Firefly, passed away, and, at the age of eighty-six, Andrew Sachs died, known mainly for his role as Manuel in Fawlty Towers. Although he continued to work extensively afterward—appearing, for example, in the popular British soap opera Coronation Street—for many he will forever remain the clumsy, enthusiastic Spaniard from that British comedy, in which Sachs performed alongside John Cleese, his wife Connie Booth, and Prunella Scales.

Many factors contributed to the success of a series now justly called cult, but one cannot deny that Sachs played a significant part, creating an unforgettable duo on screen with Cleese. His character Manuel works in the Fawlty Towers hotel run by Basil Fawlty (Cleese) and Sybil Fawlty (Scales), aided by Polly (Booth). Basil is aggressive, impatient, and cannot stand people, and since he must serve them, he routinely argues with and insults them. Manuel, who speaks English poorly, often cannot carry out Basil’s simplest orders and drives him into a rage. He frequently mixes up languages, leading to many more or less comical mistakes, for which all the hotel staff must apologize to guests, most often by explaining that he is from Barcelona.

In the series, the primary source of humor is Basil—his eccentricity, malice, frustration, scheming, sycophancy toward the “upper classes,” and fear of his wife. Although he tries very hard to achieve something, a tangle of accidents, misunderstandings, and mistakes almost always turns against him. Often it is Manuel who unwittingly does him a disservice—conversations with him sometimes resemble playing a game of telephone: in response to each of Basil’s orders, Manuel smiles, nods with a blank expression, asks, ¿Qué?, and then botches the task anyway.

The inspiration for Cleese was Donald Sinclair, the owner of a hotel in Torquay where the Monty Python crew stayed while filming certain segments of Monty Python’s Flying Circus. He and his wife Connie Booth remained there a bit longer to study Sinclair’s peculiar “methods.” In reality, if any of us viewers stayed at such a Fawlty Towers hotel, Basil Fawlty would drive us to madness. And we would have no one to complain to, because he would be in charge. Since, however, he is a fictional character, we like him and even feel a bit sorry for him—especially if anyone has had or has regular dealings with customers at work. It is hard, for instance, to blame Basil for losing his temper when an elderly lady bombards him with absurd complaints and grievances, yet cannot be understood because she is nearly deaf and refuses to use her hearing aid, saying it drains the batteries. Not all guests are so tiresome, but even the “normal” ones Basil does not treat well. Cleese once maliciously remarked that Basil probably believed he could run a five-star hotel effortlessly if only the customers did not molest him.

If this had been an American series, it probably would have run for ten seasons, each with twenty episodes, with quality and viewership gradually declining. When it comes to series—not only comedies, by the way—Americans do not know moderation. The British usually prefer to exit the stage while the audience is still giving thunderous applause. Fawlty Towers therefore consists of only twelve episodes, but they are meticulously crafted. Connie Booth and Cleese carefully refined the scripts, writing and revising some of them over four months. That meticulousness is what makes the series so enjoyable to watch—every line is deliberate. Fawlty becomes entangled in unbelievable situations, and his efforts to emerge with dignity usually end in spectacular failure. Yet the high level of absurdity means we never truly feel embarrassed for him; we watch his struggle with reality with amusement rather than shame.

Although the BBC initially rejected Cleese’s submitted script, they ultimately agreed to produce the first series. The second appeared four years later, in 1979. Fawlty Towers still leads the rankings of the best British comedies. The series has not really aged, and its quality is evidenced by the fact that, even now—forty six years after the final season aired—it continues to entertain.