Fawlty Towers

TV Series
1975–1979
TV-PG
30m

IMDb RATING

8.8/10

102K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

1,765

Play trailer1:45

5 Videos

99+ Photos

Farce Sitcom Slapstick Comedy

Hotel owner Basil Fawlty's incompetence, short fuse, and arrogance form a combination that ensures accidents and trouble are never far away.Hotel owner Basil Fawlty's incompetence, short fuse, and arrogance form a combination that ensures accidents and trouble are never far away.Hotel owner Basil Fawlty's incompetence, short fuse, and arrogance form a combination that ensures accidents and trouble are never far away.

Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

8.8/10

102K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

1,765

Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

Top rated TV #64

Won 3 BAFTA Awards
- 6 wins & 2 nominations total

Episodes12

Browse episodes

TopTop-rated2 seasons2 years

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
The character Manuel is often criticized as an overtly racist stereotype that would not be allowed in a modern television series. However Andrew Sachs defended the character, saying, "If it's insulting to the Spanish what is Basil to the British?" According to John Cleese, the character of Manuel was not meant to be a joke about stupid foreigners, since Manuel is a very lovely man who really does his best to get everything right. Manuel's problem is his poor English, which is a parody on mingy hotel and restaurant owners, simply hiring cheap people who are desperate for work, without giving them proper training.

Goofs
The layout of the hotel from interior shots would place the windowless kitchen hard against the front left of the building, as seem from the outside (if there were space for it at all). In exterior shots there is a large bow window here.

Quotes
Basil Fawlty: Where's Sybil?
Manuel: ¿Que?
Basil Fawlty: Where's Sybil?
Manuel: Where's... the bill?
Basil Fawlty: No, not a bill! I own the place!

Crazy credits
The Fawlty Towers hotel sign has its letters missing, or scrambled up to make new words. The sign presents a different error with each episode.

Alternate versions
For German TV-runs the main-theme was changed to "funnier" music.

Connections
Featured in The Pythons (1979)

Soundtracks
Fawlty Towers
Written by Dennis Wilson
Performed by Dennis Wilson Quartet
[series theme tune]

User reviews203

Review

Featured review

10/10

Escalating Frustration

This is probably one of the best situational comedies ever made and in my opinion few other television programs compare to it. It is hard to say what is so good about this little show as the main character is a rude prick, the story lines are rather simplistic, and the characters pretty much cardboard cut outs of class stereotypes (this is a British show after all), but each episode is a nearly perfect choreographed dance of escalating frustration with an impeccable touch of absurdity.

From brick walls appearing in doorways to mishaps during fire drills, from guests dying overnight to getting the right food for a gourmet, from class issues to just plain old mayhem this show has got it all. It is all in a meager 12 episodes, but that is what makes each episode absolutely priceless with hardly a dull moment. A classic in every sense of the word. 10/10

Not rated, suitable for everyone.