1 00:00:01,000 --> 00:00:03,520 Sprechen Sie Deutsch? I beg your pardon? 2 00:00:03,760 --> 00:00:06,160 Entschuldigung Sie, bitte. Kennen Sie Deutsch sprechen? 3 00:00:06,320 --> 00:00:07,800 I'm sorry. Could you say that again? 4 00:00:07,960 --> 00:00:10,000 You speak German? 5 00:00:10,320 --> 00:00:13,960 Oh, German! I'm sorry, I thought there was something wrong with you. 6 00:00:17,240 --> 00:00:20,040 30 years since it left our TV screens, 7 00:00:20,360 --> 00:00:26,040 Fawlty Towers is still acknowledged as the benchmark by which all other sitcoms are measured. 8 00:00:32,320 --> 00:00:37,160 'Funnily enough, the people who seem to find it hardest to enjoy are the hoteliers.' 9 00:00:39,600 --> 00:00:41,520 and after three minutes they think, "Oh, no," 10 00:00:41,760 --> 00:00:43,320 cos they can see what's going to happen. 11 00:00:43,480 --> 00:00:44,640 Argh! 12 00:00:44,840 --> 00:00:46,280 Sorry, sorry. 13 00:00:46,520 --> 00:00:49,400 The popularity of Fawlty Towers, I think, today 14 00:00:49,560 --> 00:00:50,920 is a lot to do with John. 15 00:00:51,080 --> 00:00:53,160 This - smack on head. 16 00:00:53,400 --> 00:00:56,920 Also the ordinary situations, because they're something 17 00:00:57,200 --> 00:01:00,960 that our kind of time was, people can relate to these taboo subjects. 18 00:01:01,280 --> 00:01:05,400 Tonight, for the very first time, John Cleese and Connie Booth, the show's writers and co-stars, 19 00:01:05,720 --> 00:01:10,840 are both breaking their silence to share their secrets of how this classic comedy was made... 20 00:01:13,360 --> 00:01:15,640 ..including an insight into their strained marriage. 21 00:01:17,880 --> 00:01:24,080 It didn't save our marriage, but I think Fawlty Towers became a kind of refuge for our demons and angels. 22 00:01:24,320 --> 00:01:27,440 ..the true cost of Manuel's comedy stunts... 23 00:01:27,680 --> 00:01:30,240 'I thought I was going down, I could hear the angels singing.' 24 00:01:30,560 --> 00:01:33,920 I thought, "Thank heavens it's the last shot of the show, cos I can't get up." 25 00:01:34,240 --> 00:01:40,200 ..and how the BBC almost let this comedy crown jewel slip through their fingers. 26 00:01:40,440 --> 00:01:43,800 Head something, light entertainment, "I'm afraid I thought this one 27 00:01:43,960 --> 00:01:48,280 "as dire as its title, which I can't see being anything but a disaster." 28 00:01:48,440 --> 00:01:49,800 Perhaps it's a dream! 29 00:01:52,040 --> 00:01:54,200 No, it's not a dream, we're stuck with it. Right! 30 00:02:10,480 --> 00:02:13,720 There were just 12 half-hour episodes of Fawlty Towers 31 00:02:13,960 --> 00:02:19,640 screened between 1975 and 1979, yet it remains a timeless classic. 32 00:02:29,000 --> 00:02:31,440 'Fawlty Towers survives because it's brilliantly made,' 33 00:02:31,680 --> 00:02:36,840 brilliantly written, immaculately performed precision comedy. 34 00:02:37,080 --> 00:02:41,320 Do try to be agreeable this weekend, Basil. Now, have I got everything? 35 00:02:41,560 --> 00:02:43,840 Handbag? Knuckle-dusters? Flick knife? 36 00:02:44,080 --> 00:02:47,960 It always feels to me as though there were many, many more episodes 37 00:02:48,160 --> 00:02:51,360 and that's because of the richness of the stories and the characters. 38 00:02:51,600 --> 00:02:53,600 Come on, then, give us a smile! That's it! 39 00:02:53,840 --> 00:02:57,080 'It was beautifully written and beautifully directed' 40 00:02:57,320 --> 00:03:01,200 and John, Connie and Andrew are wonderful people to work with 41 00:03:01,360 --> 00:03:03,680 and I'm proud and grateful for that. 42 00:03:03,840 --> 00:03:04,920 Thank you very much, yes. 43 00:03:05,080 --> 00:03:06,160 DISHES SMASH 44 00:03:07,400 --> 00:03:09,120 'It's like falling on a banana skin.' 45 00:03:09,360 --> 00:03:11,320 It's funny if it's not happening to you. 46 00:03:11,480 --> 00:03:12,640 If it does, it can be tragic. 47 00:03:12,880 --> 00:03:17,880 You could describe Fawlty Towers as a tragedy with laughs. 48 00:03:18,040 --> 00:03:19,200 If the good Lord... 49 00:03:19,440 --> 00:03:23,240 Is mentioned once more, I shall move you closer to him. Now, please... 50 00:03:23,480 --> 00:03:28,480 I've been in some of the worst sitcoms - and will again - 51 00:03:28,800 --> 00:03:35,800 ever produced, and from the first moment in Fawlty Towers you thought, "Oh, this is the best." 52 00:03:36,080 --> 00:03:40,200 He's only choking! Don't worry, a bit of cheese went the wrong way! 53 00:03:42,640 --> 00:03:45,920 The best bit about working on Fawlty Towers was the show itself 54 00:03:46,160 --> 00:03:48,760 when it went out, and the reaction from everybody, 55 00:03:49,120 --> 00:03:52,960 and the fact that it's still being shown all over the world and they keep sending us little cheques. 56 00:03:53,240 --> 00:03:55,200 I'm sitting here. Is no lunch till 12... 57 00:03:55,360 --> 00:03:57,160 I'm still having breakfast. 58 00:03:58,960 --> 00:04:02,160 Breakfast kaputt. I'm having sausages. 59 00:04:02,320 --> 00:04:04,640 Is not allowed. Put that back. 60 00:04:04,880 --> 00:04:07,960 Look, I'm a doctor, I'm a doctor and I want my sausages! 61 00:04:08,200 --> 00:04:11,280 It's nice to have that in the CV - "I did a Fawlty Towers," 62 00:04:11,600 --> 00:04:17,040 and I worked with Ralph Richardson, Paul Scofield, Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud, and John Cleese. 63 00:04:17,400 --> 00:04:19,880 She's hysterical, slap her! Murder! Slap her, slap her. Murder! 64 00:04:23,800 --> 00:04:27,160 Oh, spiffing, absolutely spiffing. Well done. 65 00:04:27,320 --> 00:04:31,240 Two dead, 25 to go. 66 00:04:31,440 --> 00:04:33,280 Quick, Polly! Polly, quick. 67 00:04:33,640 --> 00:04:37,000 John Cleese unleashed the rudest man in sitcom - the daddy of the dysfunctional, 68 00:04:37,240 --> 00:04:42,640 a character so tragic, so flawed, and yet so hilariously funny. 69 00:04:42,960 --> 00:04:43,960 Oh, there it is! 70 00:04:44,200 --> 00:04:47,600 John has created a wonderful comic creation in Basil Fawlty. 71 00:04:47,840 --> 00:04:52,440 He's just one of the classic comic characters of all time. 72 00:04:52,680 --> 00:04:55,760 There's something about Basil which makes him a very good character 73 00:04:56,080 --> 00:05:00,440 for our times, I think, for our hyped-up, anxious sort of rush-around times. 74 00:05:00,680 --> 00:05:03,480 He is the sort of symbol of mania and hysteria. 75 00:05:07,960 --> 00:05:08,840 Basil?! 76 00:05:09,080 --> 00:05:11,200 There's his domineering, acid-tongued wife Sybil, 77 00:05:11,440 --> 00:05:14,840 dependable Polly, the overworked chambermaid, 78 00:05:15,080 --> 00:05:18,120 dotty resident guest the Major, and Manuel, 79 00:05:18,440 --> 00:05:22,080 simply the most famous TV waiter in history, who's from Barcelona, don't you know? 80 00:05:22,320 --> 00:05:26,840 There is too much butter on those trays. Que? 81 00:05:27,080 --> 00:05:32,760 There is too much butter on those trays. No. No, no, senor. 82 00:05:32,920 --> 00:05:35,400 Not "on those trays." 83 00:05:35,560 --> 00:05:38,120 No, sir, "Uno, dos, tres." 84 00:05:42,680 --> 00:05:47,960 After 30 years, the show's original producer has returned to the BBC archives to unearth 85 00:05:48,200 --> 00:05:52,480 the Fawlty Towers production files, and rediscover their dusty details. 86 00:05:58,040 --> 00:06:00,000 Ah, here we have the programme costs. 87 00:06:00,240 --> 00:06:06,000 For the first episode in 1975, it was about £20,000, just over. 88 00:06:06,280 --> 00:06:10,160 John Cleese probably only got about £400 or something like that. 89 00:06:13,440 --> 00:06:18,480 Absolutely amazing how little things cost in those days, but it was a cheap show, 90 00:06:18,720 --> 00:06:22,080 as demonstrated by the flexibility of the scenery. 91 00:06:22,320 --> 00:06:25,360 'That's why it wobbled a bit from time to time, because we 92 00:06:25,560 --> 00:06:29,200 'never had enough money to really structure it so it didn't wobble.' 93 00:06:30,600 --> 00:06:31,920 Thank you and good night! 94 00:06:40,680 --> 00:06:43,840 We've got a drawing here of the original set. There... 95 00:06:44,000 --> 00:06:45,680 And it's instantly recognisable, 96 00:06:45,920 --> 00:06:49,560 even though this was made long before the sets were actually designed. 97 00:06:51,760 --> 00:06:54,240 Apart from being bashed, crashed into and knocked down, 98 00:06:54,480 --> 00:06:58,760 Fawlty's set also once famously flirted with flames. 99 00:06:59,680 --> 00:07:03,160 Huh! Oh, no. No, no, no, please. No, no, no, no. Huh? 100 00:07:05,000 --> 00:07:05,920 No, no... 101 00:07:06,160 --> 00:07:08,640 'The fire sequence - yeah, I was hurt in that.' 102 00:07:08,880 --> 00:07:13,200 That smoke was created with the use of two chemicals on each other 103 00:07:13,440 --> 00:07:17,480 and they create the smoke and you don't feel it through the jacket. 104 00:07:17,640 --> 00:07:18,560 This was the theory. 105 00:07:18,800 --> 00:07:20,640 ALARM RINGS Fire, fire, fire! 106 00:07:20,800 --> 00:07:22,440 No, no! Yes! Si, si! 107 00:07:22,680 --> 00:07:25,560 Look, will you get back in there? Yes, yes! No, no! 108 00:07:25,800 --> 00:07:28,960 'I was getting very warm. I thought, "Well, this can't be right."' 109 00:07:29,120 --> 00:07:31,280 "Can we just take my jacket off?" 110 00:07:31,560 --> 00:07:34,480 Took the jacket off and it was red raw, it had acid burns. 111 00:07:34,760 --> 00:07:36,360 Is fire, is fire, is fire! 112 00:07:36,720 --> 00:07:40,520 It started hurting, so if you ever see that episode, be sympathetic to my pain. 113 00:07:40,680 --> 00:07:42,880 He's always whinging on about that. 114 00:07:43,080 --> 00:07:47,320 I'll let him whinge when he writes me a good part. 115 00:07:47,480 --> 00:07:52,440 Coming up, we reveal the real life inspiration for Basil Fawlty... 116 00:07:52,760 --> 00:07:55,520 "You want ME to ring you at quarter to seven? You want breakfast as well?" 117 00:07:55,840 --> 00:07:58,800 It was exactly that reaction. I thought, "This is odd, he's running a hotel". 118 00:07:59,120 --> 00:08:04,800 He was so gratuitously rude because, like all British hoteliers, he operated on the principle of, 119 00:08:05,040 --> 00:08:07,720 "I could run this hotel properly if it wasn't for the guests." 120 00:08:12,560 --> 00:08:15,960 I think John and I wrote together better than we lived together. 121 00:08:16,280 --> 00:08:20,920 So stay tuned for the grand reopening of Torquay's notorious hotel. 122 00:08:24,560 --> 00:08:27,480 This - Basil. This - smack on head. 123 00:08:30,360 --> 00:08:33,880 30 years on from its departure, Fawlty Towers still retains its 124 00:08:34,120 --> 00:08:37,440 ability to make the British public roar with laughter. 125 00:08:37,760 --> 00:08:41,680 Amongst its many claims to fame, it of course gave us one of the most iconic 126 00:08:41,920 --> 00:08:46,400 comedy characters ever created, the irrepressible Basil Fawlty. 127 00:08:51,120 --> 00:08:54,920 'He's so awful, he's so impossible.' 128 00:08:55,160 --> 00:08:58,800 He's failing to achieve everything he wants, 129 00:08:59,040 --> 00:09:03,360 and although you disapprove of his goals, he's still failing 130 00:09:03,520 --> 00:09:05,280 and he's such a sad character. 131 00:09:05,520 --> 00:09:09,840 Success isn't funny, failure's funny, 132 00:09:10,080 --> 00:09:13,200 and Basil just fails triumphantly every day at some point. 133 00:09:13,360 --> 00:09:14,440 Oh, thank you, God! 134 00:09:14,600 --> 00:09:17,120 Thank you so bloody much! 135 00:09:17,280 --> 00:09:18,400 'I would describe him' 136 00:09:18,640 --> 00:09:23,720 as a ludicrous figure who takes things to extremes. 137 00:09:23,960 --> 00:09:26,440 You know, whatever emotion he has, it's extreme. 138 00:09:26,680 --> 00:09:30,320 Sybil! No, no, no, no, no! You know what it's like, I remembered, Sybil! 139 00:09:30,480 --> 00:09:32,560 HE GIBBERS 140 00:09:47,680 --> 00:09:49,520 Everything all right? 141 00:09:51,240 --> 00:09:54,120 Bit of a bump, just smoothing it out. 142 00:09:56,000 --> 00:09:58,960 He's intelligent, but emotionally he just doesn't function well 143 00:09:59,200 --> 00:10:03,000 because he's operating on a map of the world that just doesn't work, 144 00:10:03,320 --> 00:10:09,120 and he doesn't realise that being reasonably open and friendly to people would make him a lot happier. 145 00:10:11,560 --> 00:10:13,080 Do you ever think of that?! 146 00:10:13,360 --> 00:10:16,240 Of course not! You're too busy sticking your noses into every 147 00:10:16,480 --> 00:10:19,480 corner, poking about for things to complain about, aren't you?! 148 00:10:19,800 --> 00:10:26,920 Well, let me tell you something, this is exactly how Nazi Germany started! A lot of layabouts... 149 00:10:27,160 --> 00:10:30,000 'I think there was something about his height' 150 00:10:30,280 --> 00:10:34,600 plus his passion, you know, his desperation, 151 00:10:37,720 --> 00:10:39,920 I mean, it's all there. 152 00:10:40,160 --> 00:10:42,360 I suppose I don't think anybody could do it except John. 153 00:10:42,520 --> 00:10:44,160 Oh! 154 00:10:44,320 --> 00:10:45,760 Sorry, sorry. 155 00:10:46,000 --> 00:10:48,720 'He played these characters that's rather good at bullying people' 156 00:10:48,960 --> 00:10:51,840 in a kind of authoritarian fashion, putting them down with one or two, 157 00:10:52,120 --> 00:10:55,200 "Oh, shut up," or giving them a quick flick on the side of the head. 158 00:10:55,520 --> 00:10:59,760 This happened in Python, and that was, of course, the relationship he created with Manuel. 159 00:11:00,240 --> 00:11:03,320 'And John could do that very, very well indeed.' 160 00:11:03,560 --> 00:11:06,120 The bottle. Er...Yes. Where is it? Que? 161 00:11:06,280 --> 00:11:08,600 Donde es... Oh, I take it. Oh. 162 00:11:08,840 --> 00:11:11,120 I take it, I take it. Come here. 163 00:11:11,280 --> 00:11:13,120 You're a waste of space. Ooh! 164 00:11:13,360 --> 00:11:16,240 'I could see elements of Basil Fawlty' 165 00:11:16,400 --> 00:11:17,920 in characters that John 166 00:11:18,080 --> 00:11:20,680 played in Python. 167 00:11:20,840 --> 00:11:23,080 'I could see the same kind of thought 168 00:11:23,320 --> 00:11:26,200 'that went into that kind of physical comedy 169 00:11:26,440 --> 00:11:31,080 'that made Silly Walks so successful, went into Fawlty Towers.' 170 00:11:38,560 --> 00:11:44,720 John played one or two characters in Python where sort of rising anger 171 00:11:44,880 --> 00:11:46,960 was sort of the joke. 172 00:11:47,200 --> 00:11:49,280 Kick 'em in the teeth where it hurts! 173 00:11:49,440 --> 00:11:51,680 Kill! Kill, kill! 174 00:11:52,000 --> 00:11:55,120 'Sitting at a table in the garden talking quite reasonably and suddenly' 175 00:11:55,440 --> 00:12:01,960 getting completely berserk about the world and banging the table, and John played this as only John could. 176 00:12:02,120 --> 00:12:03,440 Arrgh! 177 00:12:05,600 --> 00:12:07,720 Arrgh! 178 00:12:07,880 --> 00:12:09,880 Tea's ready. 179 00:12:10,040 --> 00:12:12,080 Coming, dear! 180 00:12:17,120 --> 00:12:20,680 It's John's suppressed anger. 181 00:12:20,920 --> 00:12:25,240 I mean, he spent, what, 30 years going to a psychiatrist 182 00:12:25,480 --> 00:12:27,520 because of his anger, he had so much anger in him. 183 00:12:27,760 --> 00:12:30,720 I have a feeling that situations could arise 184 00:12:30,960 --> 00:12:33,760 when I would almost go as berserk as Basil. 185 00:12:34,000 --> 00:12:37,960 Yeah, really. Yes, there's something manic somewhere in me. 186 00:12:38,280 --> 00:12:45,160 People talk to me at parties sometimes, you know, and they really do talk AT me, and I have fantasies 187 00:12:45,480 --> 00:12:51,800 about picking things up, you know, cheese dips and, you know, but I've never had the courage to do it. 188 00:12:52,080 --> 00:12:54,800 And I can do it on stage, you know, Basil Fawlty does the... 189 00:12:58,280 --> 00:13:01,400 Why do they think that I have to be Basil Fawlty in order to write this? 190 00:13:01,720 --> 00:13:06,200 I mean, of course I have that in me, but I've got all the other characters that I play, you know? 191 00:13:06,520 --> 00:13:11,160 You have to have all these emotions available to you and then, when you become... 192 00:13:11,360 --> 00:13:13,560 When you're asked to play a part, 193 00:13:13,800 --> 00:13:18,480 you suppress some of them and enlarge and play much more strongly 194 00:13:22,360 --> 00:13:25,320 You choose this colour and this colour but not the others, you see what I mean? 195 00:13:25,560 --> 00:13:27,800 For a different character you choose different colours. 196 00:13:30,720 --> 00:13:35,080 John encountered the inspiration for his hard-line hotelier 197 00:13:35,400 --> 00:13:41,240 when the Monty Python team checked into a Torquay hotel during filming in May 1971. 198 00:13:45,200 --> 00:13:49,680 We were in Torquay because we were filming all the outdoor, 199 00:13:49,920 --> 00:13:52,760 all the exterior parts of Monty Python 200 00:13:52,920 --> 00:13:54,640 and staying in this hotel. 201 00:13:58,160 --> 00:14:00,960 And the first evening, we decided we'd eat in. 202 00:14:01,240 --> 00:14:06,120 We were all having dinner there and the owner, Mr Donald Sinclair, 203 00:14:06,360 --> 00:14:10,360 was sort of wandering round very grandly, not doing anything 204 00:14:10,680 --> 00:14:14,880 to help, of course, but being very grand, and he walked past the Python table, 205 00:14:20,080 --> 00:14:21,640 which is to cut the meat like that 206 00:14:21,880 --> 00:14:24,720 and then they put the knife down, transfer the fork to this hand 207 00:14:25,040 --> 00:14:27,800 and spear the meat with the right hand, 208 00:14:28,000 --> 00:14:31,440 and he stopped and I remember he just stared... 209 00:14:33,160 --> 00:14:37,800 And then he said to Gilliam, "We don't eat like that in this country." 210 00:14:38,040 --> 00:14:41,480 We were pretty astounded, because it was completely out of the blue. 211 00:14:41,640 --> 00:14:44,680 We were filming the next day 212 00:14:44,840 --> 00:14:46,840 and I said, "Can you give us a call? 213 00:14:47,000 --> 00:14:49,320 "Can we have a call in the morning?" 214 00:14:49,640 --> 00:14:55,280 And he looked a bit, "Yes, what time?" and I said, "Well, about quarter to seven." 215 00:14:55,480 --> 00:14:56,880 "Quarter to seven?!" 216 00:14:57,040 --> 00:14:59,080 I mean, he was just like Basil. 217 00:14:59,360 --> 00:15:02,280 "Quarter to seven? You want ME to ring you at quarter to seven? 218 00:15:02,520 --> 00:15:04,720 "You want breakfast as well?" It was the same reaction. 219 00:15:05,000 --> 00:15:07,520 I thought, "This is really odd. He's running a hotel." 220 00:15:07,800 --> 00:15:10,800 I don't think he actually liked guests, I think he suffered them, 221 00:15:11,040 --> 00:15:14,360 and I don't think he liked working in the hotel either. 222 00:15:14,600 --> 00:15:17,680 I saw him close the bar at just after nine o'clock one night. 223 00:15:17,840 --> 00:15:18,840 He said he was off to bed 224 00:15:19,080 --> 00:15:21,080 and it was time everybody else went to bed, too. 225 00:15:21,240 --> 00:15:26,720 One day, Eric and I were waiting for the car to take us filming 226 00:15:26,920 --> 00:15:30,560 and Eric left his briefcase 227 00:15:30,880 --> 00:15:35,520 by the door, where he'd propped it up while we were just playing catch with a tennis ball, 228 00:15:35,840 --> 00:15:40,280 and when he got back, he went up to the desk and Sinclair saw him coming... 229 00:15:40,440 --> 00:15:43,680 "Excuse me." "What? What is it now?!" 230 00:15:43,840 --> 00:15:46,360 He said, "I left my briefcase." 231 00:15:46,680 --> 00:15:52,480 He said, "Yes, yes", he said, "it's the other side of the wall," and he pointed out of the front door 232 00:15:52,720 --> 00:15:56,680 to a white wall which was the far side of a swimming pool. 233 00:15:56,920 --> 00:15:58,840 And he said, "It's behind the wall," 234 00:15:59,000 --> 00:16:01,520 and Eric said, "What?" 235 00:16:01,680 --> 00:16:03,720 Eric said, "What?" He said, "What?!" 236 00:16:03,960 --> 00:16:06,240 He said, "It's behind the wall?" He said... 237 00:16:06,400 --> 00:16:09,000 "Yes, yes, I put it behind the wall." 238 00:16:09,240 --> 00:16:12,920 Eric said, "Well, why did you put it..." "What?!" 239 00:16:13,160 --> 00:16:16,640 "Why did you put it behind the wall?" He said, 240 00:16:16,800 --> 00:16:19,320 "We thought it might be a bomb." 241 00:16:19,480 --> 00:16:20,840 And we... 242 00:16:24,080 --> 00:16:25,960 "A bomb?!" 243 00:16:26,200 --> 00:16:29,960 And Sinclair said, "Well, we've had a lot of staff problems recently." 244 00:16:30,320 --> 00:16:35,680 So he really thought someone he'd fired had come by, put a bomb in a briefcase. 245 00:16:37,520 --> 00:16:41,960 I said to Mike, I thought, "Oh, we can't stay here, I really can't stand it." 246 00:16:42,240 --> 00:16:45,440 I didn't see the comic possibilities that John had seen. 247 00:16:45,760 --> 00:16:52,160 John had sort of worked out with Connie the logic of a Sinclair/Basil Fawlty position, 248 00:16:52,480 --> 00:16:57,680 which is basically that it is the people you are making your money from who are causing you trouble 249 00:16:58,000 --> 00:17:02,760 and problems and if they weren't there, life would be much easier. There is a flaw there. 250 00:17:11,440 --> 00:17:16,280 John capitalised on the indelible impression made by Mr Sinclair while 251 00:17:16,520 --> 00:17:20,840 writing for the hugely successful ITV series Doctor At Large. 252 00:17:21,000 --> 00:17:25,400 'One of them was set in a hotel' 253 00:17:25,640 --> 00:17:31,480 and I remembered the original character, Donald Sinclair. 254 00:17:31,760 --> 00:17:36,720 'Timothy Bates did a terrific performance.' 255 00:17:36,960 --> 00:17:38,680 The prototype for Basil Fawlty was ready. 256 00:17:38,840 --> 00:17:40,360 Yes? 257 00:17:40,600 --> 00:17:42,640 Ah, good evening. I believe you have a room. 258 00:17:42,800 --> 00:17:46,000 I...I can't deal with this. 259 00:17:46,360 --> 00:17:52,280 At the end of it, Humphrey Barclay, bless him, said to me, "You know, there's a series in that character." 260 00:17:52,600 --> 00:17:58,400 I thought, "Typical bloody television executive, looking for series all the time." 261 00:17:58,600 --> 00:18:00,320 Thank you, Humphrey! 262 00:18:05,320 --> 00:18:10,400 But Basil was to go on the back burner for another three years, as John continued to conquer 263 00:18:10,720 --> 00:18:14,640 the known world as part of groundbreaking comedy collective Monty Python. 264 00:18:16,840 --> 00:18:17,760 Argh! 265 00:18:19,520 --> 00:18:21,600 And now for something completely different. 266 00:18:21,840 --> 00:18:24,680 Then, after five years of remarkable success, 267 00:18:24,920 --> 00:18:27,360 John suddenly walked out on the Pythons. 268 00:18:27,680 --> 00:18:32,760 We were all very unhappy when John left the series, though it came as no surprise. 269 00:18:33,000 --> 00:18:35,960 John was always planning to leave the Pythons. 270 00:18:40,040 --> 00:18:43,200 He felt he'd had enough of us, I think. 271 00:18:43,360 --> 00:18:44,840 None of the others understood. 272 00:18:45,080 --> 00:18:47,760 I think Eric understood a bit, but I don't think they understood 273 00:18:48,080 --> 00:18:52,000 why I wanted to leave Python. They thought it was great, and I was bored. 274 00:18:52,320 --> 00:18:56,080 We were repeating ourselves and I thought I didn't want to do the third series. 275 00:18:57,400 --> 00:18:59,480 Turning his back on subversive satire, 276 00:18:59,720 --> 00:19:02,920 Cleese joined forces with his 30-year-old wife Connie Booth, 277 00:19:03,240 --> 00:19:08,840 a former New York waitress, to create something completely different - a conventional sitcom. 278 00:19:09,000 --> 00:19:10,440 After I'd finished Monty Python, 279 00:19:10,680 --> 00:19:12,680 I'd always wanted to do something with Connie, 280 00:19:13,000 --> 00:19:18,600 and I was invited out by a lovely man called Jimmy Gilbert and he'd been made Head of Light Entertainment. 281 00:19:18,920 --> 00:19:23,000 He said, "What do you want to do?" and I said I'd like to do something with Connie and he said, "All right. 282 00:19:23,320 --> 00:19:28,200 "Well why don't you just go back home and talk to Connie, give me a call, tell me what you'd like to do." 283 00:19:28,440 --> 00:19:31,920 John wanted to do something based on Donald Sinclair, 284 00:19:32,120 --> 00:19:35,880 so he asked me if I wanted to have a go with him at writing a pilot, 285 00:19:36,160 --> 00:19:39,960 and we'd enjoyed the bit of writing that we'd done together. 286 00:19:40,200 --> 00:19:43,240 I think the fact that we were husband and wife, that, 287 00:19:43,520 --> 00:19:47,280 you know, there aren't many places you can't go, and... 288 00:19:49,560 --> 00:19:51,960 ..John really could make me laugh. 289 00:19:52,200 --> 00:19:54,800 I think he'd always said that he would write with 290 00:19:55,120 --> 00:20:00,440 Connie at some point, and I think he was just relieved not to have to write with Graham, quite honestly. 291 00:20:00,680 --> 00:20:07,320 Gray was very cross with me for leaving Monty Python and I'm not 292 00:20:07,560 --> 00:20:11,920 quite sure why, but I think that he felt great security being in a group. 293 00:20:12,160 --> 00:20:14,360 Gray didn't function terribly well on his own. 294 00:20:20,360 --> 00:20:22,880 I know, because John's told me, that Connie was 295 00:20:23,240 --> 00:20:30,080 so important to the writing of those shows and, in fact, generally her contribution has been sort of 296 00:20:30,440 --> 00:20:37,640 rather neglected or downgraded, and John always said she was, you know, very, very important in the way 297 00:20:37,960 --> 00:20:43,640 the ideas were sort of put together. So John needed somebody else there, as I did with Terry Jones. 298 00:20:43,880 --> 00:20:46,680 You need someone to bounce the comedy off and to think 299 00:20:46,880 --> 00:20:49,640 about the ideas, and someone who can tell you, "No, that doesn't work." 300 00:20:50,080 --> 00:20:51,160 We created it together. 301 00:20:51,320 --> 00:20:55,360 I think it was the plot work, but... 302 00:20:55,600 --> 00:21:01,080 You know, John's facility with language is extraordinary, 303 00:21:01,320 --> 00:21:04,000 and it was just wonderful to be working with him. 304 00:21:08,320 --> 00:21:13,440 Production on the pilot began on the 23rd of January 1975, and the first person 305 00:21:13,680 --> 00:21:17,920 to commit himself to the new show was Cleese's former Python director. 306 00:21:19,400 --> 00:21:22,360 When I first read the pilot script of Fawlty Towers 307 00:21:22,600 --> 00:21:26,640 I was, in fact, banned from reading it in bed because I laughed so much, 308 00:21:26,880 --> 00:21:30,760 and even though we lived about half a mile from the nearest house, 309 00:21:30,960 --> 00:21:33,480 we were in great danger of embarrassing the neighbours. 310 00:21:33,720 --> 00:21:36,640 I think it was very exciting in the first series 311 00:21:36,880 --> 00:21:39,800 because it was this little thing we were doing in a back room. 312 00:21:40,040 --> 00:21:45,400 I never thought it would get figures remotely near Python. 313 00:21:45,640 --> 00:21:49,320 Still to come, we look at the method behind the madness... 314 00:21:49,480 --> 00:21:51,880 SYBIL LAUGHS 315 00:21:53,040 --> 00:21:56,040 The laugh was based on Connie's laugh, actually! 316 00:21:56,280 --> 00:21:59,680 Oh, he's a swine to have told that, but it's true, I guess. 317 00:21:59,840 --> 00:22:01,720 Now, Sybil, that's enough! 318 00:22:01,880 --> 00:22:05,680 ..and reveal how one of Fawlty's most brutal scenes was created. 319 00:22:05,960 --> 00:22:11,480 When she clouted me and John, we really felt it! 320 00:22:18,570 --> 00:22:20,930 The year is 1975. 321 00:22:21,250 --> 00:22:28,650 Harold Wilson is Prime Minister, Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier have a Thrilla in Manila, 322 00:22:29,130 --> 00:22:32,530 while Arthur Ashe becomes the first black tennis player to win Wimbledon. 323 00:22:32,690 --> 00:22:35,370 London is hit by snow in June, 324 00:22:35,690 --> 00:22:40,930 and Margaret Thatcher becomes the first female leader of a political party. 325 00:22:41,170 --> 00:22:44,730 But this isn't why 1975 is a landmark year. 326 00:22:45,050 --> 00:22:50,970 It's the year that Fawlty Towers makes its debut - September the 19th, to be exact. 327 00:22:53,210 --> 00:22:54,890 FAWLTY TOWERS THEME MUSIC 328 00:22:55,130 --> 00:23:00,850 'I don't remember exactly why we wrote the Lord Melbury episode first. 329 00:23:01,010 --> 00:23:02,850 'I don't think it was' 330 00:23:03,090 --> 00:23:07,090 to particularly establish his snobbery, 331 00:23:07,330 --> 00:23:11,610 but then that was there and it was kind of an obvious start. 332 00:23:11,850 --> 00:23:13,770 Would you put both your names, please? 333 00:23:14,010 --> 00:23:16,370 Well, will you give me a date? I only use one. 334 00:23:16,530 --> 00:23:18,090 You don't have a first name? 335 00:23:18,330 --> 00:23:20,850 No, I'm Lord Melbury, so I simply sign "Melbury". 336 00:23:25,330 --> 00:23:26,170 Go away. 337 00:23:26,410 --> 00:23:29,210 I'm so sorry to have kept you waiting, your Lordship. 338 00:23:29,450 --> 00:23:31,930 I do apologise, please do accept my forgiveness. 339 00:23:32,170 --> 00:23:35,810 Now, is there something, anything, that I can do for you? Anything? 340 00:23:36,050 --> 00:23:40,290 'The apparent lord booking into Fawlty Towers was just classical.' 341 00:23:40,730 --> 00:23:42,370 Basil suddenly cringing and obsequious. 342 00:23:42,610 --> 00:23:46,570 It was cartoony, but there was an awful reality about it as well. 343 00:23:46,810 --> 00:23:49,530 With a bath? Oh, naturally, naturally. 344 00:23:49,690 --> 00:23:51,210 Naturellement. 345 00:23:51,370 --> 00:23:53,250 BASIL GUFFAWS 346 00:23:53,530 --> 00:23:56,850 'The lower middle class stuff, there was a little bit of my dad' 347 00:23:57,090 --> 00:24:00,170 in this because he totally bought into the English class system. 348 00:24:00,410 --> 00:24:03,090 If I'd married a duke, he would have... 349 00:24:03,370 --> 00:24:05,490 duke's daughter, I'm sorry - Oh, duke! 350 00:24:05,730 --> 00:24:09,730 But a duke's daughter, he would have creamed his jeans, you know? 351 00:24:10,050 --> 00:24:14,250 He could have gone straight out and shot himself, died a happy man, you know? 352 00:24:14,490 --> 00:24:16,570 I've never been in such a place in my life. 353 00:24:23,130 --> 00:24:25,850 You SNOBS! 354 00:24:26,090 --> 00:24:31,050 You stupid, stuck up, toffee-nosed, half-witted, 355 00:24:31,210 --> 00:24:34,170 upper class piles of... 356 00:24:34,370 --> 00:24:35,250 pus! 357 00:24:35,450 --> 00:24:36,650 'In those days,' 358 00:24:37,090 --> 00:24:40,010 if you were lower middle class, it was quite different from being middle class. 359 00:24:40,250 --> 00:24:42,050 He was lower middle class, aspirational. 360 00:24:43,850 --> 00:24:48,130 Millions of people like that then, at the end of the decade, put Margaret Thatcher into power, 361 00:24:48,450 --> 00:24:54,970 so it had a great sort of force in terms of social history, what was going on then. 362 00:24:55,210 --> 00:24:58,530 'He wants to belong to a professional class,' 363 00:24:58,770 --> 00:25:02,770 but he is a hotel owner, and one of the fascinating things 364 00:25:03,010 --> 00:25:06,970 is the way that Sybil keeps pulling him back to earth. 365 00:25:07,290 --> 00:25:11,090 Cognac for you, Doctor. It's rather fascinating, your both being doctors. Port for you, Doctor. 366 00:25:11,330 --> 00:25:13,570 At one stage I was contemplating becoming a surgeon. 367 00:25:13,730 --> 00:25:18,010 A tree surgeon! Thank you, Sybil. 368 00:25:24,090 --> 00:25:27,370 What's going on? Nothing, my dear. Mrs Fawlty... Now, look... Yes, Polly? 369 00:25:27,530 --> 00:25:29,330 I don't know what she's... BASIL! 370 00:25:29,490 --> 00:25:32,170 'When we started to write Pru,' 371 00:25:32,410 --> 00:25:35,370 we weren't sure how the character was going to be played, 372 00:25:35,610 --> 00:25:40,450 and at the first read-through, after the first day, we left rehearsal, 373 00:25:40,690 --> 00:25:43,610 and Connie and I said, "Well, what do you feel about Pru's performance?" 374 00:25:49,170 --> 00:25:53,210 I thought Sybil was going to be really difficult to cast - 375 00:25:53,690 --> 00:25:56,410 and so we were extremely lucky to get Pru. 376 00:25:56,530 --> 00:25:59,050 Because she's complicated. 377 00:25:59,370 --> 00:26:06,930 She's bright, but she's daft, she's steely, but she's frivolous, she's decent and annihilating. 378 00:26:07,170 --> 00:26:10,210 And by the second day, our worries completely disappeared 379 00:26:10,530 --> 00:26:16,050 because we saw what she was doing and we realised it was better than what we'd had in our minds. 380 00:26:16,370 --> 00:26:20,490 But the interesting thing is - and I'm not even sure that Pru knows this, 381 00:26:20,810 --> 00:26:24,690 and I hope she won't mind - I was not so familiar with her work in those days. 382 00:26:24,930 --> 00:26:27,570 Just before we got into writing it, we went to see a very 383 00:26:27,890 --> 00:26:33,090 funny woman called Bridget Turner and Connie and I said, "We should offer this to Bridget." 384 00:26:33,370 --> 00:26:36,450 And we sent the script off and Bridget wrote a very nice... 385 00:26:36,810 --> 00:26:42,090 Or just sent a message back saying she didn't feel it was right for her and so she passed on it. 386 00:26:42,410 --> 00:26:48,250 So we said to John Howard Davies, "Who do you suggest?" He said "Well, I think you should use Pru Scales." 387 00:26:48,410 --> 00:26:50,050 Hello, dear. 388 00:26:50,290 --> 00:26:53,650 What are you doing? I'm kissing you, dear. Well, don't. 389 00:26:53,890 --> 00:26:58,170 At 43, Prunella Scales was already a veteran of the stage and screen. 390 00:26:58,410 --> 00:27:04,050 Sybil was to become her most infamous and celebrated creation. 391 00:27:04,210 --> 00:27:07,930 Hello, dear. Just going to... 392 00:27:08,170 --> 00:27:10,850 'I was sent along to see John Cleese,' 393 00:27:11,010 --> 00:27:12,970 who was in bed with flu, 394 00:27:13,130 --> 00:27:15,610 and I was shown up to his room 395 00:27:15,850 --> 00:27:19,810 and there he was in bed and he said, "What did you think of the scripts?" 396 00:27:20,050 --> 00:27:22,090 I said, "I think they're absolutely brilliant." 397 00:27:22,330 --> 00:27:27,210 And he said "Oh, good, good, good, any questions?" And I said, 398 00:27:27,370 --> 00:27:31,210 "Yes, why did they get married?" 399 00:27:31,450 --> 00:27:35,050 He said, "Oh, God, I was afraid you'd ask that!" 400 00:27:35,370 --> 00:27:39,770 I wish you'd help a bit. You're always...refurbishing yourself. What? Oh, never mind, never mind! 401 00:27:40,010 --> 00:27:41,890 Don't shout at me, I've had a difficult morning. 402 00:27:42,170 --> 00:27:46,770 Oh, dear, what happened? Did you get entangled in the eiderdown again? Not enough cream in your eclair? 403 00:27:47,130 --> 00:27:50,530 Or did you have to talk to all your friends for so long you didn't have time to perm your ears? 404 00:27:50,810 --> 00:27:56,650 I think it was my idea that perhaps she wasn't as posh as he was, 405 00:28:04,250 --> 00:28:07,210 All I said to her pretty early on was she's the sort of woman 406 00:28:07,450 --> 00:28:10,330 that can make love and paint her nails at the same time. 407 00:28:10,490 --> 00:28:15,050 And her class was self evident - 408 00:28:15,290 --> 00:28:20,650 the shiny tight skirts, the pretensions at golf, 409 00:28:20,850 --> 00:28:22,610 the high heels, 410 00:28:22,850 --> 00:28:25,210 and the complete and utter control of her man. 411 00:28:25,370 --> 00:28:27,530 BASIL! Yes, dear? 412 00:28:27,850 --> 00:28:31,490 Don't you dare, don't you dare give me any more of those pathetic lies! Oh, right. 413 00:28:33,770 --> 00:28:38,210 The heels and the tight-fitting skirts, yes, 414 00:28:38,450 --> 00:28:41,570 that was based on somebody I'd known in the business 415 00:28:41,810 --> 00:28:44,730 as a child, you know, and it was the sort of thing she wore. 416 00:28:44,970 --> 00:28:47,890 So Uncle Ted comes in with his crate of brown ale and... 417 00:28:48,010 --> 00:28:49,330 SHE LAUGHS 418 00:28:50,850 --> 00:28:53,370 The laugh was based on Connie's laugh, actually! 419 00:28:54,570 --> 00:28:56,730 Oh, he's a swine to have told that, 420 00:28:56,890 --> 00:28:58,170 but it's true, I guess. 421 00:28:58,490 --> 00:29:03,290 I remember I had an acting teacher in New York who said, "I really hate your laugh, Connie." 422 00:29:03,450 --> 00:29:06,210 Yeah, what can I say? 423 00:29:06,370 --> 00:29:08,850 She would exhale, then draw her... 424 00:29:10,730 --> 00:29:13,610 I hope she won't mind me saying, but she would laugh... 425 00:29:13,930 --> 00:29:19,290 Because the great thing about Connie is when she laughs, she just busts a gut, you know? 426 00:29:19,490 --> 00:29:20,850 And she would do... 427 00:29:21,010 --> 00:29:23,250 HE WHEEZES NOISILY 428 00:29:26,890 --> 00:29:29,850 SYBIL LAUGHS & WHEEZES 429 00:29:30,130 --> 00:29:34,730 So we incorporated that. Somebody machine gunning a seal! 430 00:29:34,890 --> 00:29:36,450 HE WHEEZES NOISILY 431 00:29:38,970 --> 00:29:40,890 SYBIL LAUGHS & WHEEZES 432 00:29:43,730 --> 00:29:46,010 But as Fawlty Towers began to take shape, 433 00:29:46,250 --> 00:29:49,290 not everyone thought the sitcom was such a great idea. 434 00:29:49,530 --> 00:29:51,850 With Python, I think we'd all been sort of aware 435 00:29:52,090 --> 00:29:53,970 that we were trying to raise the stakes 436 00:29:54,210 --> 00:29:56,890 and have animation as a link and integrate film much more 437 00:29:57,050 --> 00:29:58,450 and be much more experimental 438 00:29:58,690 --> 00:30:00,930 in the form of the way we put the programme together, 439 00:30:01,170 --> 00:30:03,570 and there was nothing experimental in Fawlty Towers. 440 00:30:03,770 --> 00:30:05,490 It seemed very, very traditional. 441 00:30:05,690 --> 00:30:08,250 Do please excuse me one moment. 442 00:30:08,570 --> 00:30:15,850 'I don't remember my friends having any kind of negative reaction, except for a couple of the Pythons.' 443 00:30:16,090 --> 00:30:19,930 I mean, Terry Jones, I remember he called me, I think, a traitor. 444 00:30:20,090 --> 00:30:23,130 I was very surprised when John decided to do, you know, 445 00:30:23,290 --> 00:30:24,450 a straight sitcom. 446 00:30:24,690 --> 00:30:26,650 I mean, it isn't straight, it's funny, 447 00:30:26,970 --> 00:30:32,810 it's a wonderfully funny show, but I was surprised that he decided to go down the sitcom route, really. 448 00:30:33,050 --> 00:30:36,770 The funny thing was how everyone got everything wrong. 449 00:30:37,130 --> 00:30:41,690 I mean, even the guy who at that time was reading scripts for Light Entertainment, he said, 450 00:30:41,930 --> 00:30:45,850 "I'm afraid I thought this one as dire as its title. 451 00:30:46,090 --> 00:30:49,570 "It's a kind of Prince of Denmark of the hotel world, a collection of 452 00:30:49,890 --> 00:30:56,730 "cliches and stock characters which I can't see being anything but a disaster." 453 00:30:56,890 --> 00:30:59,730 Shall I read the guy's name out? 454 00:30:59,970 --> 00:31:04,730 No! No, he'll be retired now, let's let him off. 455 00:31:04,970 --> 00:31:08,490 But it just shows, you see, people have no idea what they're doing. 456 00:31:09,770 --> 00:31:14,010 Surprisingly, the first episode of Fawlty Towers was not an instant hit. 457 00:31:14,250 --> 00:31:17,210 In a time when Britain only had three TV channels, 458 00:31:17,450 --> 00:31:22,650 a disappointingly low 3.7% of the population tuned in. 459 00:31:22,890 --> 00:31:30,090 First show was aired - not very good initial reaction. 460 00:31:30,410 --> 00:31:35,010 I think the Mirror or the Sunday Mirror said, "Long John short on jokes". 461 00:31:35,330 --> 00:31:41,290 What the critics thought was totally irrelevant, and it didn't hurt our feelings. 462 00:31:41,450 --> 00:31:43,130 I think that's what happens, you see? 463 00:31:43,450 --> 00:31:50,650 If you do something that is new, it seems to take longer - certainly did with Python - longer for people 464 00:31:50,970 --> 00:31:58,290 to get it, but when they do get it, they seem to get it more because it took a little time. 465 00:31:58,610 --> 00:32:03,210 I was just finding my feet, working with John, and I think my performance was quite stilted, 466 00:32:03,570 --> 00:32:10,210 but what John was able to help me with, I think, was coming forward and creating ideas. 467 00:32:10,490 --> 00:32:14,210 Once we'd seen them do their performances, 468 00:32:14,610 --> 00:32:18,530 it helped Connie and me enormously to build. 469 00:32:18,770 --> 00:32:21,090 They'd started to put flesh on the bones. 470 00:32:23,250 --> 00:32:30,050 One character that blossomed into the perfect sidekick for Basil was Polly, the low-paid chambermaid. 471 00:32:35,530 --> 00:32:40,770 but at the same time she'd had no experience of working 472 00:32:41,010 --> 00:32:43,170 under the very demanding conditions of a sitcom 473 00:32:43,410 --> 00:32:46,570 where you have five days to rehearse something, which is not a lot, 474 00:32:46,810 --> 00:32:49,890 and then you have one day in the studio and two hours 475 00:32:50,130 --> 00:32:53,250 in front of a studio audience, and that's very demanding. 476 00:32:53,490 --> 00:32:56,650 Lamb? Casserole. Oh, sounds good. Does it come with a smile? 477 00:32:56,890 --> 00:32:59,370 Comes with sprouts or carrots. Oh, a smile's extra, is it? 478 00:32:59,610 --> 00:33:02,090 You'll get one if you eat up all your sprouts. 479 00:33:02,330 --> 00:33:04,450 We deliberately did not give her a major part 480 00:33:04,770 --> 00:33:08,210 because I didn't want her to carry something too difficult at the beginning, 481 00:33:08,450 --> 00:33:11,890 and if you look in the first show that she did, 482 00:33:12,210 --> 00:33:15,730 she's holding her performance in a little bit, and then after that, she flowers. 483 00:33:15,930 --> 00:33:18,770 I mean, she's wonderful, she's really wonderful. 484 00:33:18,930 --> 00:33:20,410 Hello, Fawlty Towers. 485 00:33:23,970 --> 00:33:27,690 Please put the bottle down. What is it? Kurt is drunk. 486 00:33:29,770 --> 00:33:30,810 BOTTLE SMASHES 487 00:33:33,250 --> 00:33:35,050 Under the table... 488 00:33:36,330 --> 00:33:37,250 No! 489 00:33:37,490 --> 00:33:40,330 'I think she's the least defined of all the characters.' 490 00:33:40,490 --> 00:33:42,770 She is a go-between, 491 00:33:43,010 --> 00:33:47,650 between Sybil and Basil, sort of as if they're her surrogate parents. 492 00:33:47,810 --> 00:33:49,810 She's there to keep the peace. 493 00:33:50,050 --> 00:33:53,610 'Polly is really a sympathetic character' 494 00:33:53,930 --> 00:33:59,130 because she is the voice of sanity, the still calm, around which the madness happens. 495 00:33:59,370 --> 00:34:03,650 And yet she does try to get Basil out of holes, you know? 496 00:34:03,930 --> 00:34:07,330 You feel that she's got a very good heart. 497 00:34:10,290 --> 00:34:13,650 Exactly. Are you feeling better? Her arm gets stuck there! 498 00:34:13,890 --> 00:34:16,490 It's always happening to her. He's dead! 499 00:34:16,730 --> 00:34:18,930 It's her husband, she hasn't got over it. Died 30 years ago. 500 00:34:19,170 --> 00:34:23,090 She doesn't mean any ARM! In the cupboard! 501 00:34:23,330 --> 00:34:26,810 No more today! You've had enough! Oh, my God, look at that! 502 00:34:29,610 --> 00:34:36,730 It wasn't in itself a terribly comic character, 503 00:34:36,970 --> 00:34:39,970 but in a way, she was perhaps the sort of straight guy. 504 00:34:40,130 --> 00:34:43,850 Oh, I see, Mr Leeman! Yes! 505 00:34:44,010 --> 00:34:46,530 We thought you said "the linen." 506 00:34:46,690 --> 00:34:49,050 Brilliant! Sorry, sorry, that's it. 507 00:34:49,290 --> 00:34:51,610 He has some wonderful female characters 508 00:34:51,850 --> 00:34:54,370 and all very well defined, and strong women. 509 00:34:54,610 --> 00:34:56,850 It's the women saving the day time and again. 510 00:34:57,090 --> 00:35:03,570 I mean, it's Polly saving Basil from a predicament with Sybil 511 00:35:03,810 --> 00:35:06,770 and Sybil saving Basil from his customers. 512 00:35:06,930 --> 00:35:09,130 It's a perfect dance. 513 00:35:09,370 --> 00:35:12,810 'Basil is sexist but Fawlty Towers is certainly not sexist.' 514 00:35:13,050 --> 00:35:15,450 Oh, just pull yourself together! BASIL WHIMPERS 515 00:35:15,610 --> 00:35:18,010 Come on! 516 00:35:18,330 --> 00:35:24,170 I love the scene where Polly slaps me in the face because I've totally lost it, of course, out of fear for Sybil. 517 00:35:24,330 --> 00:35:25,210 Again! 518 00:35:26,490 --> 00:35:27,690 Harder! 519 00:35:28,050 --> 00:35:35,130 If you actually look at Basil's motivation, apart from the snobbery, what it's really all about 520 00:35:35,370 --> 00:35:38,890 is not letting Sybil get in a tantrum because he just can't handle that. 521 00:35:39,170 --> 00:35:41,610 He's more frightened of that than anything else. 522 00:35:41,770 --> 00:35:42,810 We all make mistakes, dear. 523 00:35:43,130 --> 00:35:48,130 But in the second episode, not even Polly can protect Basil from the full force of Sybil's fury. 524 00:35:48,450 --> 00:35:52,770 He's no bloody good! Oh, Sybil, you do exaggerate. I mean, he's not brilliant... 525 00:35:52,930 --> 00:35:55,290 Not brilliant? He belongs in a zoo! 526 00:35:55,530 --> 00:35:58,690 In The Builders episode, where David Kelly gets beaten with the umbrella, 527 00:35:58,930 --> 00:36:02,450 we'd tried all sorts of things to try and pad the umbrella out. 528 00:36:02,730 --> 00:36:06,210 And to be perfectly honest, Mrs Fawlty, I like a woman with spirit. 529 00:36:06,370 --> 00:36:08,330 Oh, do you? Is that what you like? 530 00:36:08,490 --> 00:36:11,850 I do, I do! Oh, good. 531 00:36:12,010 --> 00:36:14,650 Now Sybil, that's enough. 532 00:36:14,810 --> 00:36:16,770 Come on, then, give us a smile! 533 00:36:16,930 --> 00:36:19,210 'Somebody on the floor said,' 534 00:36:19,450 --> 00:36:22,370 "Look, that umbrella's heavy and the ribs in the umbrella 535 00:36:22,610 --> 00:36:27,050 "may very well crack yours, so I have an idea." 536 00:36:27,330 --> 00:36:30,890 I ended up with the lads on the floor rolling foam into it. 537 00:36:31,050 --> 00:36:33,490 Made the umbrella twice the weight, 538 00:36:33,730 --> 00:36:40,250 and so when she clouted me and John, we really felt it, you know? 539 00:36:40,410 --> 00:36:42,250 I've seen better-organised creatures 540 00:36:42,490 --> 00:36:44,890 running round farmyards with their heads cut off. 541 00:36:45,130 --> 00:36:46,890 Collect your things and get out! Argh! 542 00:36:47,050 --> 00:36:48,250 'As he points out,' 543 00:36:48,490 --> 00:36:51,490 he likes a woman with spirit and, by God... 544 00:36:53,370 --> 00:36:55,490 ..Sybil had spirit, you know? 545 00:36:55,730 --> 00:36:59,930 Still to come, how the world's worst waiter became a national treasure... 546 00:37:00,170 --> 00:37:04,130 And the cast recall the intense rehearsal process required to bring 547 00:37:04,370 --> 00:37:07,690 this carefully crafted classic to our screens. 548 00:37:07,850 --> 00:37:09,410 Mr Richards is the gentleman... 549 00:37:09,570 --> 00:37:11,130 Oh, BLEEP! 550 00:37:13,530 --> 00:37:16,970 Performing the series was always difficult. We were under enormous pressure. 551 00:37:17,210 --> 00:37:20,890 If you didn't REALLY know it by Wednesday morning, that was trouble. 552 00:37:26,700 --> 00:37:30,620 The first couple of episodes may have left critics cold, 553 00:37:30,860 --> 00:37:33,100 but by October 1975, Fawlty Towers 554 00:37:33,340 --> 00:37:35,980 was fast becoming compulsive viewing for comedy fans. 555 00:37:36,140 --> 00:37:38,220 Manuel, let me explain. 556 00:37:38,380 --> 00:37:39,260 Ah! 557 00:37:39,420 --> 00:37:41,420 Right? You understand? 558 00:37:41,660 --> 00:37:44,780 And it was the bumbling, bewildered but well-meaning Spaniard 559 00:37:45,020 --> 00:37:48,460 from Barcelona that stole the hearts of the nation - 560 00:37:52,100 --> 00:37:52,980 Que? 561 00:37:53,220 --> 00:37:57,460 The great joy of the series to me, and maybe to everyone, 562 00:37:57,660 --> 00:38:00,060 is Manuel and Andrew Sachs. 563 00:38:00,220 --> 00:38:01,060 Que? 564 00:38:01,260 --> 00:38:03,940 Manuel is sensational, 565 00:38:07,380 --> 00:38:09,620 He's a wonderful character actor, 566 00:38:09,820 --> 00:38:12,540 but I remember he had Manuel right from the beginning in rehearsals, 567 00:38:12,740 --> 00:38:14,140 and I thought he was wonderful. 568 00:38:16,940 --> 00:38:20,980 Everyone wants to hug Manuel and take him home, put him on the mantelpiece. 569 00:38:22,820 --> 00:38:26,780 The man behind this loveable Spaniard was actually born in Berlin. 570 00:38:27,020 --> 00:38:30,580 45-year-old character actor Andrew Sachs was starring 571 00:38:30,900 --> 00:38:35,220 in a successful West End show when he got the call that would change his life. 572 00:38:35,340 --> 00:38:37,300 Manuel Towers, how are you? 573 00:38:37,460 --> 00:38:38,940 Is nice today... 574 00:38:39,180 --> 00:38:41,420 'The way I see Manuel, he's a very happy man.' 575 00:38:41,660 --> 00:38:44,780 Even though he's being abused by everybody in the hotel, 576 00:38:46,420 --> 00:38:50,980 I guess he comes from a big family - 10, 11 people maybe as kids - 577 00:38:51,220 --> 00:38:55,300 and to be noticed there at all in Barcelona, or wherever it was, 578 00:38:55,660 --> 00:39:00,220 you have to get the attention on you - do something naughty and get hit. 579 00:39:00,380 --> 00:39:01,900 Get a clean one. 580 00:39:02,060 --> 00:39:03,700 Is clean now! 581 00:39:06,580 --> 00:39:07,740 Is dirty now. 582 00:39:07,980 --> 00:39:11,740 The British family he was adopted into, that is the Fawltys, 583 00:39:11,980 --> 00:39:14,340 represented his father and mother in a way, 584 00:39:14,620 --> 00:39:18,900 and he knew he was being appreciated because they hit him a lot. 585 00:39:19,100 --> 00:39:20,540 Thank you. 586 00:39:20,860 --> 00:39:25,700 The relationship between Basil and Manuel could have been, again, very... 587 00:39:25,860 --> 00:39:28,940 Just cruel and unpleasant and...heavy. 588 00:39:29,100 --> 00:39:30,900 I no want to work here any more. 589 00:39:31,060 --> 00:39:32,460 Open the basket! No! 590 00:39:32,620 --> 00:39:34,260 Open the basket! 591 00:39:36,700 --> 00:39:38,300 Now, inside. 592 00:39:39,980 --> 00:39:42,700 Not you! I quit! Get out! I on strike! 593 00:39:42,980 --> 00:39:44,740 I'm warning you! I stay here, is nice! 594 00:39:46,340 --> 00:39:48,580 You see this? You're next! 595 00:39:48,820 --> 00:39:53,700 Manuel was based simply on one idea which was that in London in the '70s, 596 00:39:53,940 --> 00:39:57,700 if you went to a restaurant, you were very, very lucky indeed 597 00:39:58,020 --> 00:40:03,340 to get what you ordered, and the reason was that the people who owned restaurants 598 00:40:03,660 --> 00:40:10,260 had discovered that by employing people who spoke no known language, they could save a lot of money. 599 00:40:10,420 --> 00:40:13,020 The wine list. Si. 600 00:40:13,180 --> 00:40:14,740 The w... Vino. 601 00:40:14,980 --> 00:40:16,460 Senor. No, no, no, no, no, no. No, no, no. 602 00:40:16,620 --> 00:40:18,140 The list. 603 00:40:18,300 --> 00:40:19,500 There, there, the list. 604 00:40:21,500 --> 00:40:24,820 Look, the list, there! The red... look, there! 605 00:40:26,900 --> 00:40:28,660 There! Ah! 606 00:40:30,500 --> 00:40:31,620 Thank you, Manuel. 607 00:40:31,860 --> 00:40:33,900 He and John played the physical comedy very well. 608 00:40:34,220 --> 00:40:38,980 I mean, John used to whack him over the head or sort of push him through the doors. 609 00:40:39,260 --> 00:40:42,020 I love the violence on Manuel. I invented quite a lot of it. 610 00:40:42,340 --> 00:40:45,580 I invented the spoon thing when he hits on... I invented quite a lot of the violence. 611 00:40:45,900 --> 00:40:49,900 I like violence in comedy. I think it's very good, it makes you laugh. When in doubt, hit somebody. 612 00:40:54,820 --> 00:40:56,700 He must have gone home battered and bruised 613 00:40:56,940 --> 00:41:00,100 on so many occasions and his wife must have said, 614 00:41:00,260 --> 00:41:01,900 "What did he do to you tonight?" 615 00:41:02,140 --> 00:41:04,300 And he said, "Well, he hit me with a spoon." 616 00:41:05,980 --> 00:41:13,660 I grew up loving knockabout comedy, and my attitude to that was, if you do that kind of comedy, 617 00:41:13,980 --> 00:41:18,500 which makes me laugh because it's one of the elements of farce, you're going to get knocked down. 618 00:41:18,700 --> 00:41:21,020 Get on with your meals! 619 00:41:21,260 --> 00:41:25,900 Andrew bore the brunt of it, and there were times... 620 00:41:26,220 --> 00:41:30,140 I mean, certainly, I was trying to hit him with a saucepan once with a glancing blow... 621 00:41:30,460 --> 00:41:35,060 I'm creeping in, he comes up behind me, gets the pan and he goes like that... 622 00:41:35,380 --> 00:41:40,100 but instead of stopping with this critical eighth of an inch, he didn't. He just went.... Oomph! 623 00:41:40,340 --> 00:41:44,460 'Ugh! I went down and I could hear the angels singing.' 624 00:41:44,780 --> 00:41:48,220 I thought, "Thank heavens it's the last shot of the show because I can't get up." 625 00:41:48,460 --> 00:41:52,220 I claim - of course he denies it - that he straightened up as I was... 626 00:41:52,500 --> 00:41:55,300 So I really caught him, and he had a headache for two days. 627 00:41:55,620 --> 00:41:58,460 And thank God it was about the last shot in the show, so he was able to go on. 628 00:41:58,620 --> 00:42:00,420 Que? 629 00:42:02,220 --> 00:42:07,740 'Manuel became dreadfully famous all over the world and it was very pleasant, really, 630 00:42:07,980 --> 00:42:12,980 'that it was so separate from me that I was extremely flattered' 631 00:42:13,220 --> 00:42:15,620 that so much interest should come to it. 632 00:42:15,780 --> 00:42:18,140 ..the windows. 633 00:42:18,300 --> 00:42:19,180 Argh! 634 00:42:19,500 --> 00:42:23,940 Unfortunately, Basil's pent-up frustration doesn't end with his staff. 635 00:42:24,180 --> 00:42:27,980 Is there anything else? I can't breathe! 636 00:42:28,220 --> 00:42:32,340 'Where he was attacking me at the table...' 637 00:42:32,580 --> 00:42:35,180 Actors always come up a bit more when the audience is in there. 638 00:42:35,420 --> 00:42:38,620 You rehearse it and you are under control, sort of, and then you get 639 00:42:38,860 --> 00:42:42,340 a slight bit of red mist on the night, you know. It happens, 640 00:42:42,660 --> 00:42:48,380 and we all accept that it happens, so I think I was slightly squashed at one point, you know, like that. 641 00:42:48,620 --> 00:42:50,940 Don't worry, a bit of cheese went the wrong way! 642 00:42:54,340 --> 00:42:57,380 Never mind, he's fainted. Manuel! 643 00:42:58,820 --> 00:43:03,380 But Basil's mistreatment of guests also stretched to the long-term residents - 644 00:43:03,700 --> 00:43:09,460 the senile, bumbling Major and the batty old spinsters Miss Gatsby and Miss Tibbs. 645 00:43:09,620 --> 00:43:10,900 Are you sure you're all right? 646 00:43:11,140 --> 00:43:13,980 Oh, Mr Fawlty... Ah, good morning, ladies. 647 00:43:14,220 --> 00:43:17,140 Ursula and I think you're a very naughty boy, don't we, Ursula? 648 00:43:17,300 --> 00:43:19,140 Oh, God. Oh, really? 649 00:43:20,340 --> 00:43:22,860 Basil isn't as horrible to them as he is to the guests. 650 00:43:23,020 --> 00:43:25,380 They're kind of part of his routine 651 00:43:25,660 --> 00:43:30,300 and they're part of the home so he can control them in a way, 652 00:43:30,540 --> 00:43:33,740 and they want to look after him but he won't allow them. 653 00:43:33,980 --> 00:43:37,020 But he's never really cruel to them or the Major. 654 00:43:37,180 --> 00:43:39,380 Nearly six o'clock, Fawlty. Is it? 655 00:43:39,620 --> 00:43:43,860 Yes, well, when you're ready I might have a fruit juice or something. 656 00:43:44,100 --> 00:43:46,140 I'll open up the moment I've done this, Major. 657 00:43:46,300 --> 00:43:48,620 No immediate hurry. 658 00:43:49,700 --> 00:43:50,900 Drunken old sod. 659 00:43:51,140 --> 00:43:53,900 When Connie and I wrote the Major in the first episode, 660 00:43:54,220 --> 00:43:59,380 I don't think we had any thought of repeating the character, but when you see something 661 00:43:59,620 --> 00:44:03,380 and you think, "Oh, that's good," and we think, "He could be a regular." 662 00:44:03,540 --> 00:44:05,300 How are you, sir? 663 00:44:07,700 --> 00:44:09,740 I can speak English. 664 00:44:09,980 --> 00:44:12,580 He really grew on us and I loved, you know, 665 00:44:12,740 --> 00:44:14,860 the scene with the moose's head. 666 00:44:15,020 --> 00:44:17,580 Ah, hello, Major, how are you today? 667 00:44:19,940 --> 00:44:22,820 Oh, I-I-I'm fine, thank you. 668 00:44:23,140 --> 00:44:29,660 You also got a different quality from John, I think, with the Major, because you felt he liked the Major. 669 00:44:29,900 --> 00:44:31,620 I rather fell in love with Ballard Berkeley. 670 00:44:31,860 --> 00:44:39,380 I just thought he was the finest kind of English gentleman, 671 00:44:39,540 --> 00:44:42,700 of a slightly bygone era. 672 00:44:43,020 --> 00:44:47,860 There was a sweetness to him, and a kindness that was very, very touching. 673 00:44:50,660 --> 00:44:54,420 As a former matinee idol and much loved television actor, 674 00:44:54,660 --> 00:44:59,700 Ballard Berkeley brought over 40 years' experience to the part. 675 00:45:04,100 --> 00:45:06,420 when he started doing Fawlty Towers. 676 00:45:06,740 --> 00:45:10,660 I mean, he was, you know, he was nearly... Well, late 70s, I suppose, when he finished it 677 00:45:10,980 --> 00:45:16,860 and people forget, you know, that he had a career of 60 years before that. 678 00:45:17,220 --> 00:45:21,260 We were never nervous about Dad being the Major because it was so much him - 679 00:45:21,580 --> 00:45:26,580 a great character for him to play, because it was so like him except he wasn't dippy like that. No, no. 680 00:45:26,900 --> 00:45:32,580 He was just affable and charming and got away with lots of stuff. And gentle. 681 00:45:32,860 --> 00:45:34,980 Dad's always thought of as a sort of military man, 682 00:45:35,500 --> 00:45:38,300 so when it comes to his war service, I think most people really think 683 00:45:38,540 --> 00:45:42,060 he must have been in the Army, but of course, as we know, 684 00:45:42,380 --> 00:45:45,860 he was in the police and he got a beat just off Piccadilly, in Vine Street. 685 00:45:46,020 --> 00:45:47,420 Yes, West End Central, wasn't it? 686 00:45:47,740 --> 00:45:50,860 It was ideal. He loved the West End - the theatre and his friends were there. 687 00:45:56,380 --> 00:45:57,740 India? 688 00:45:57,900 --> 00:45:58,780 At the Oval. 689 00:46:00,380 --> 00:46:04,100 He was a mad cricket fan and I remember once 690 00:46:04,260 --> 00:46:06,860 I was rehearsing a scene with Sybil 691 00:46:07,100 --> 00:46:12,820 and we were doing the dialogue and I glanced over and there was Ballard... 692 00:46:13,140 --> 00:46:19,300 Meaning the third Australian wicket was down. Couldn't even wait till the end of the scene! 693 00:46:19,620 --> 00:46:25,740 My daughter still almost inevitably will introduce herself and say, "My grandfather..." 694 00:46:26,060 --> 00:46:32,020 because she loves talking about him, and because she gets such a good reaction as well. 695 00:46:32,260 --> 00:46:37,020 As well as stars of the silver screen, the hotel environment also 696 00:46:42,380 --> 00:46:46,620 You knew that you were being invited to be on something very special 697 00:46:46,860 --> 00:46:51,860 and so it was a great privilege, and one felt blooming lucky. 698 00:46:52,100 --> 00:47:00,340 John and Connie wrote a script that is unbelievably fine. 699 00:47:00,580 --> 00:47:04,260 They're gifted, truly gifted writers. 700 00:47:07,860 --> 00:47:10,140 Now, look. It's finish. 701 00:47:10,340 --> 00:47:11,780 Give those to me. 702 00:47:11,940 --> 00:47:13,540 Come on, come on. 703 00:47:13,860 --> 00:47:20,220 'I think what John and Connie wrote was very tight and very complete, far more than most shows.' 704 00:47:20,460 --> 00:47:22,460 There wasn't a lot of room for improvement. 705 00:47:23,820 --> 00:47:26,460 These sitcom veterans were enticed onto the show 706 00:47:26,700 --> 00:47:29,140 by the gag-packed scripts that are now regarded 707 00:47:29,300 --> 00:47:31,580 as a masterclass in sitcom writing. 708 00:47:31,820 --> 00:47:33,380 Oh, sorry! Sorry, coming in like that. 709 00:47:33,620 --> 00:47:38,900 Connie and I used to spend six weeks figuring out each script 710 00:47:39,220 --> 00:47:42,580 and something like two and a half weeks before we wrote a line of dialogue. 711 00:47:42,820 --> 00:47:47,740 John had a small study and a very big desk. 712 00:47:47,940 --> 00:47:49,300 The desk faced the wall. 713 00:47:49,460 --> 00:47:51,820 He just started to play. 714 00:47:52,060 --> 00:47:58,380 I used to type onto an old-fashioned typewriter, but we just sat there 715 00:47:58,620 --> 00:48:01,980 and talked to each other and, you know, might write a word down or say, 716 00:48:02,140 --> 00:48:04,140 "What was that thing that happened?" 717 00:48:09,420 --> 00:48:12,820 has got the tarry handprint on her boob? 718 00:48:13,100 --> 00:48:18,660 Well, we'd had that idea and we were writing, weeks later, 719 00:48:18,900 --> 00:48:20,860 Connie said, "What was that idea we had about... 720 00:48:21,100 --> 00:48:23,740 "That would work here." And I said, "Yes, yes". 721 00:48:23,900 --> 00:48:26,060 What's that on your hand, Basil? 722 00:48:26,420 --> 00:48:30,620 What? Oh, that's some stuff in the cupboard, dear. Something I knocked over. 723 00:48:30,860 --> 00:48:35,780 John is highly instinctive and I think he knew 724 00:48:36,100 --> 00:48:41,100 that he wanted to be monitored in some way, and that's why he wanted me on board. 725 00:48:41,260 --> 00:48:42,620 Basil... 726 00:48:46,780 --> 00:48:49,580 Hello, dear, just checking the doors. 727 00:48:50,180 --> 00:48:55,140 I think that the women were very, very well written in Fawlty Towers, and that was basically Connie, 728 00:48:55,380 --> 00:48:57,220 cos I remember suggesting a line early on 729 00:48:57,460 --> 00:49:00,140 and Connie saying, "A woman would never say that line." 730 00:49:00,380 --> 00:49:03,260 I'd say, "What, really? Wouldn't she? Well, why?," you know? 731 00:49:03,500 --> 00:49:05,580 So it was a tremendous learning process, 732 00:49:05,820 --> 00:49:10,420 and although at the beginning I was writing most of Basil and Manuel 733 00:49:16,460 --> 00:49:18,780 and she was writing much more of Basil. 734 00:49:18,940 --> 00:49:19,900 Come on, give it to me. 735 00:49:20,220 --> 00:49:24,980 But this fast-paced farce presented huge problems when it came to production. 736 00:49:25,140 --> 00:49:27,180 'Fawlty Towers differed from' 737 00:49:27,420 --> 00:49:29,660 a lot of the sitcoms that were current at that time 738 00:49:29,900 --> 00:49:32,860 by virtue of the volume of the script. 739 00:49:33,100 --> 00:49:36,340 The average sitcom script was somewhere between 60 and 70 pages. 740 00:49:36,500 --> 00:49:39,900 These scripts ran 120, 130 pages. 741 00:49:40,140 --> 00:49:42,900 Most of the episodes were too long, 742 00:49:43,220 --> 00:49:48,460 so Connie and John had to go off and rewrite them, and in fact I think they're still too long, 743 00:49:48,780 --> 00:49:55,420 longer than the normal. I mean, it's not 29 minutes 30 seconds, it's 35 minutes, all that sort of thing. 744 00:49:58,380 --> 00:50:01,780 In fact, none of the 12 Fawlty Towers episodes 745 00:50:04,980 --> 00:50:08,420 a feat unheard of in modern sitcom making. 746 00:50:12,100 --> 00:50:15,660 I always believe that you cannot do comedy fast enough and I always 747 00:50:15,860 --> 00:50:18,780 optimistically hoped that it would run to time. It never did. 748 00:50:19,020 --> 00:50:20,900 Performing of the series was always difficult. 749 00:50:21,220 --> 00:50:25,180 We were under enormous pressure with the rehearsal, and because it was a farce 750 00:50:25,500 --> 00:50:29,060 and the timing was so important and it was physically a very demanding show. 751 00:50:29,220 --> 00:50:30,740 I think it was tough on everybody. 752 00:50:30,980 --> 00:50:35,180 Mr Thurston is the gentleman I'm dealing with at the moment. WHAT?! 753 00:50:35,340 --> 00:50:37,140 Mr Richards is the gentleman... 754 00:50:37,660 --> 00:50:38,660 Oh BLEEP! 755 00:50:42,220 --> 00:50:46,380 It was the first sitcom I ever did where you rehearsed all day and you got the thing right. 756 00:50:46,580 --> 00:50:51,620 John's huge involvement and desire for perfection 757 00:50:51,860 --> 00:50:54,980 and to get it absolutely right... And it's there in the end product. 758 00:50:55,140 --> 00:50:57,940 We got Monday off. 759 00:51:01,820 --> 00:51:05,860 If you didn't REALLY know it by Wednesday morning, that was trouble. 760 00:51:06,100 --> 00:51:08,420 Yes, it was disciplined. It had to be. 761 00:51:08,700 --> 00:51:10,660 We had to get through a lot of script. 762 00:51:10,980 --> 00:51:14,780 Not in my case because, actually, if you analyse my part, it's not big. 763 00:51:15,020 --> 00:51:17,700 That's a rat! No, no, no, is hamster. 764 00:51:17,860 --> 00:51:19,540 It's a rat, of course it's a rat! 765 00:51:19,780 --> 00:51:23,260 You have rats in Spain, don't you, or did Franco have them all shot? 766 00:51:23,820 --> 00:51:26,140 Is pigeon. It's a rat! 767 00:51:26,300 --> 00:51:28,140 It's not a pigeon, it's a hamster. 768 00:51:31,060 --> 00:51:35,100 It was a feat of learning and I used to go back and lie down. 769 00:51:35,420 --> 00:51:41,020 I had a library, and I used to lie on the floor, I would record all the other lines onto a tape recorder, 770 00:51:41,340 --> 00:51:46,540 and I'd lie flat on the floor and I would have it by my ear and I would be doing my lines 771 00:51:46,780 --> 00:51:49,700 in the lines that I'd recorded. It was the only way to get it done. 772 00:51:49,940 --> 00:51:51,860 I couldn't do it now. I could do one show, 773 00:51:52,100 --> 00:51:54,660 but I couldn't be there at 10 o'clock in the morning 774 00:51:54,900 --> 00:51:58,300 just starting the second one, because the pressure was relentless. 775 00:51:58,540 --> 00:52:00,860 And people said to me, "Did you enjoy it?" 776 00:52:01,140 --> 00:52:04,100 and I used to say to them, "I didn't have time." 777 00:52:04,660 --> 00:52:08,620 Although most of the filming was confined to the BBC studios, 778 00:52:08,860 --> 00:52:10,900 the team did venture out on the odd occasion, 779 00:52:11,220 --> 00:52:17,460 with one of the show's most memorable scenes shot on location in a sleepy suburban street in Harrow. 780 00:52:17,620 --> 00:52:20,580 Start, you vicious bastard. Come on! 781 00:52:20,740 --> 00:52:21,860 ENGINE COUGHS 782 00:52:22,100 --> 00:52:26,300 Oh, my God! I'm warning you, if you don't start... 783 00:52:27,940 --> 00:52:32,580 When we were working on The Gourmet Night and the car breaks down, 784 00:52:32,820 --> 00:52:39,660 and John was improvising because we hadn't got into the dialogue, he... 785 00:52:39,900 --> 00:52:42,660 He started losing it with the car and swearing at it. 786 00:52:42,820 --> 00:52:44,900 That's it! I've had enough! 787 00:52:45,140 --> 00:52:47,340 You've tried it on just once too often! 788 00:52:47,580 --> 00:52:51,260 I said, "Now he's got to hit the car, he's got to attack it." 789 00:52:51,500 --> 00:52:55,060 I'm going give you a damn good thrashing! 790 00:52:55,300 --> 00:52:58,820 Everyone says that beating the car is so funny, 791 00:52:59,060 --> 00:53:03,420 but when we were out filming, we had the car but I had to find the branch. 792 00:53:03,660 --> 00:53:06,180 Part of my duties was ordering up props. 793 00:53:10,340 --> 00:53:15,220 and before we turned over, before we rehearsed anything, really, John had a trial period with branches. 794 00:53:15,460 --> 00:53:21,500 The first branch that I tried to hit it with was too rigid. 795 00:53:21,740 --> 00:53:26,700 It was just like a rod and it just wasn't funny, wasn't remotely funny. 796 00:53:29,700 --> 00:53:36,940 Then I went and got a sort of wispy willowy bit and started to swat the car with it, and that wasn't funny, 797 00:53:37,260 --> 00:53:42,860 and it was only when I got the third piece and felt that, and went back and then it was funny, 798 00:53:43,180 --> 00:53:48,300 but I didn't know until I had physically done it, and then I thought, "That feels right." 799 00:53:55,740 --> 00:53:58,740 Coming up, Basil improves foreign relations... 800 00:53:59,060 --> 00:54:02,580 It's a kind of Tourette thing, you know, whatever you shouldn't say comes out. 801 00:54:02,820 --> 00:54:05,420 I'll just get your hors d'oeuvres. Hors d'oeuvres, 802 00:54:05,660 --> 00:54:08,980 which must be obeyed at all times without question! 803 00:54:09,220 --> 00:54:12,100 ..and the writers' relationship breaks down. 804 00:54:12,740 --> 00:54:17,340 There was a huge gap between the two series because Connie and I, as far as I remember, got divorced. 805 00:54:20,600 --> 00:54:23,240 Brilliant. Oh! Brilliant! Ugh! Right. 806 00:54:23,440 --> 00:54:25,040 Despite impeccable storylines 807 00:54:25,560 --> 00:54:29,280 that would become etched into the nation's consciousness, 808 00:54:29,560 --> 00:54:32,760 Fawlty Towers was more of a slow burner than an instant hit. 809 00:54:34,440 --> 00:54:35,960 But by the end of its first series, 810 00:54:36,200 --> 00:54:39,360 the sitcom had almost doubled its viewing figures, 811 00:54:39,600 --> 00:54:41,880 with nearly 3.5 million viewers tuning in 812 00:54:42,120 --> 00:54:45,560 to watch the final episode, entitled simply The Germans. 813 00:54:49,680 --> 00:54:52,120 The veal chop is done with rosemary - 814 00:54:52,360 --> 00:54:54,320 that's funny, I thought she'd gone to Canada - 815 00:54:54,480 --> 00:54:56,520 and is delicious and nutritious. 816 00:54:58,360 --> 00:55:00,040 Veally good? 817 00:55:00,280 --> 00:55:02,280 'The whole German episode is quite brilliant.' 818 00:55:02,520 --> 00:55:04,480 It's a kind of Tourette thing, you know, 819 00:55:04,720 --> 00:55:06,720 whatever you shouldn't say comes out, 820 00:55:10,560 --> 00:55:13,680 All in the market together, old differences forgotten 821 00:55:13,920 --> 00:55:17,040 and no need at all to mention the war. Sorry, sorry! 822 00:55:17,160 --> 00:55:19,960 He can't help it. 823 00:55:20,200 --> 00:55:23,160 He is a fairly prejudiced English snob, 824 00:55:23,400 --> 00:55:26,320 and no matter how he tries to cover it up, 825 00:55:26,560 --> 00:55:31,000 as he must try to do in administering this place, he can't. 826 00:55:31,160 --> 00:55:34,000 I'll just get your hors d'oeuvres. 827 00:55:34,320 --> 00:55:38,440 Hors d'oeuvres which must be obeyed at all times without question! Sorry, sorry. 828 00:55:38,600 --> 00:55:42,200 'Basil is vile to the Germans' 829 00:55:42,640 --> 00:55:44,440 who emerge as extremely courteous. 830 00:55:44,680 --> 00:55:47,840 They're not portrayed as humourless and aggressive or anything. 831 00:55:52,160 --> 00:55:56,520 deliberately writing Basil as being, you know, utterly vile to these nice people. 832 00:55:56,760 --> 00:55:59,520 Will you stop talking about the war? Me? You started it. 833 00:55:59,680 --> 00:56:01,200 We did not start it. 834 00:56:01,360 --> 00:56:04,320 Yes, you did. You invaded Poland. 835 00:56:04,640 --> 00:56:09,200 When this huge, tall man starts to goose-step and then puts his finger up like that, you know, 836 00:56:09,520 --> 00:56:14,280 I mean, there's no halfways about it - this is very heavy, very, very heavy rudeness. 837 00:56:14,440 --> 00:56:16,760 When he said, "I'll do the walk", 838 00:56:17,000 --> 00:56:22,000 swung his leg out and goose-stepped out, people were screaming. 839 00:56:22,160 --> 00:56:26,120 It was just an incredible moment. 840 00:56:26,280 --> 00:56:28,040 Watch. Who's this, then? 841 00:56:28,200 --> 00:56:31,160 HE SHOUTS IN PRETEND GERMAN 842 00:56:32,680 --> 00:56:33,960 I'll do the funny walk. 843 00:56:37,880 --> 00:56:41,080 'I've always had a mixed personal reaction 844 00:56:41,240 --> 00:56:42,840 to the Germans episode 845 00:56:43,080 --> 00:56:44,520 because people go on about it so much, 846 00:56:44,760 --> 00:56:46,800 and I sometimes wonder, a little bit like Alf Garnett 847 00:56:47,040 --> 00:56:49,360 and the problem that Johnny Speight used to have, 848 00:56:54,520 --> 00:56:56,480 when the whole point of that from the very, very beginning 849 00:56:56,800 --> 00:57:03,240 was to make fun of people still hanging on to those antediluvian attitudes. 850 00:57:03,560 --> 00:57:08,400 And it bothers me. And what I notice about the Germans is how they love it. 851 00:57:08,560 --> 00:57:09,520 Stop it! 852 00:57:09,760 --> 00:57:12,600 I'm trying to cheer her up, you stupid kraut! 853 00:57:14,960 --> 00:57:20,760 The Germans episode obviously upset us very much. 854 00:57:21,000 --> 00:57:23,760 Otherwise it would be only half as much fun, wouldn't it? 855 00:57:25,440 --> 00:57:27,720 No, but to be serious, 856 00:57:27,960 --> 00:57:35,400 it was taken very well by the broad majority of the German audiences. 857 00:57:42,600 --> 00:57:47,000 In Hamburg, and suddenly as I was chatting to the concierge, 858 00:57:47,240 --> 00:57:51,160 a big, jolly German businessman sort of, "Hey John!" 859 00:57:51,480 --> 00:57:56,840 and shouted across the lobby, and I turned round, and he said, "Don't mention ze war, huh?" 860 00:57:57,080 --> 00:57:58,880 And the entire lobby roars with laughter. 861 00:57:59,120 --> 00:58:00,760 I thought that was a wonderful moment. 862 00:58:01,000 --> 00:58:03,240 I thought that was great, now we can get on with it. 863 00:58:03,480 --> 00:58:07,640 You have absolutely no sense of humour, do you? This is not funny! 864 00:58:07,800 --> 00:58:10,360 Who won the bloody war, anyway? 865 00:58:10,600 --> 00:58:14,480 Fawlty Towers is very much a period piece in terms of relations 866 00:58:14,760 --> 00:58:17,720 with Irish people, foreigners of any kind. 867 00:58:18,000 --> 00:58:21,320 There is plenty, absolutely plenty, of xenophobia and racism 868 00:58:21,600 --> 00:58:23,840 in Fawlty Towers but because it's a character thing. 869 00:58:24,000 --> 00:58:25,640 It's who Basil Fawlty is - 870 00:58:25,920 --> 00:58:29,280 we're laughing more at his prejudice than we are anything else. 871 00:58:29,520 --> 00:58:34,680 Ah, Mr Fawlty, you're so charming. Well, one does one's best. 872 00:58:34,840 --> 00:58:36,680 Written more than 30 years ago, 873 00:58:42,440 --> 00:58:45,720 Despite doing little to improve foreign relations, 874 00:58:45,960 --> 00:58:48,600 Fawlty became a hit around the world. 875 00:58:48,840 --> 00:58:54,200 'It's always been a mystery to me why certain shows work abroad.' 876 00:58:54,440 --> 00:58:57,400 My only answer is - I think it may apply to Python too - 877 00:58:57,640 --> 00:59:01,200 that I think we may have hit what they call archetypes. 878 00:59:01,360 --> 00:59:03,480 There were certain... 879 00:59:03,840 --> 00:59:10,600 types of people represented by the characters, that people from different cultures could recognise. 880 00:59:10,800 --> 00:59:14,400 DUBBED IN SPANISH 881 00:59:14,640 --> 00:59:18,000 Shown in more than 60 countries, it is one of Britain's most successful 882 00:59:18,240 --> 00:59:22,800 TV exports, even turning up in the most unlikely of places. 883 00:59:28,000 --> 00:59:29,880 'At one point, a German company' 884 00:59:30,120 --> 00:59:32,520 wanted to do a version where they dub it into German. 885 00:59:32,840 --> 00:59:36,520 'This German company understood that I come from Germany, it's my first language,' 886 00:59:36,760 --> 00:59:40,360 and would I come over and play Manuel in German with a Spanish accent? 887 00:59:40,520 --> 00:59:42,520 Mrs Fawlty, Mrs Fawlty. Mr Fawlty. 888 00:59:42,680 --> 00:59:43,560 Was ist? 889 00:59:43,720 --> 00:59:45,680 MANUEL SHOUTS IN GERMAN 890 00:59:45,920 --> 00:59:50,680 I would have a line like "I love you Mr Fawlty, I love you Mr Fawlty", 891 00:59:51,000 --> 00:59:55,440 but the German version would be "Oh, Herr Fawlty, Ich liebe Dich, Ich liebe Dich". 892 00:59:55,600 --> 00:59:57,120 Attempts have also been made 893 00:59:57,360 --> 01:00:01,160 to re-make this bastion of British comedy. 894 01:00:01,320 --> 01:00:03,720 IN URDU 895 01:00:10,720 --> 01:00:15,960 When people have tried to remake it, it's never worked, considerably to my disappointment. 896 01:00:16,200 --> 01:00:20,040 I mean, when the Germans re-did it, they did it superbly. 897 01:00:20,200 --> 01:00:22,000 Chef? 898 01:00:22,160 --> 01:00:26,880 IN GERMAN 899 01:00:27,080 --> 01:00:30,800 'The network just thought it was too expensive, I think.' 900 01:00:32,480 --> 01:00:39,600 There is only this unique character of Basil Fawlty, and the one and only John Cleese 901 01:00:42,840 --> 01:00:48,360 as well with another personality, another hotel in another setting. 902 01:00:48,520 --> 01:00:49,800 'It was extraordinary 903 01:01:01,920 --> 01:01:06,400 Whispering Pines presents to you Pacific Ocean Duck. 904 01:01:06,560 --> 01:01:07,600 Argh! 905 01:01:07,800 --> 01:01:10,320 What is this? Some kind of joke? 906 01:01:11,240 --> 01:01:15,000 Yes. Ha, ha, ha. 907 01:01:15,440 --> 01:01:21,000 The really bizarre one was when I met someone at a weekend house party 908 01:01:21,240 --> 01:01:25,840 and they said, "Oh, we have the rights for Fawlty Towers 909 01:01:26,040 --> 01:01:27,480 "and we're going to remake it." 910 01:01:27,720 --> 01:01:31,240 I was delighted, I said "Great, I hope we can make it work this time." 911 01:01:31,480 --> 01:01:33,520 I said, "But there's one or two problems. 912 01:01:33,760 --> 01:01:36,400 "Are Americans familiar with these little family hotels?" 913 01:01:36,640 --> 01:01:38,360 "Oh, yes, it's not a problem", they said. 914 01:01:38,640 --> 01:01:40,400 I said, "Are you going to make any changes?" 915 01:01:40,720 --> 01:01:44,720 They said, "We're just making one change, really. We're going to write Basil out". 916 01:01:44,960 --> 01:01:51,240 And I remember thinking, "Did he say that?" And Bea Arthur did it. 917 01:01:54,440 --> 01:01:59,280 and gave them all to Bea Arthur, when all the motivation for the funny lines no longer existed. 918 01:02:00,520 --> 01:02:04,160 As proved, there can only be one Basil Fawlty. 919 01:02:04,480 --> 01:02:09,280 The first series ended in spectacular style in the autumn of 1975... 920 01:02:09,440 --> 01:02:11,600 However did they win? 921 01:02:11,800 --> 01:02:17,040 ..by bagging two awards for best sitcom and best comedy performance by Cleese. 922 01:02:17,280 --> 01:02:21,160 But of all the people who helped me this year, I should most of all 923 01:02:21,520 --> 01:02:28,160 like to thank me, without whom, quite honestly, I could never have hoped to win this fairly great honour. 924 01:02:28,400 --> 01:02:30,320 So thank you me, thank you very much indeed. 925 01:02:30,680 --> 01:02:34,160 Although I can't be with you, I have arranged for the award to be collected, 926 01:02:34,480 --> 01:02:38,480 so if we could close the door now because it's getting a little cold. Thank you so much. 927 01:02:40,360 --> 01:02:42,760 A second series was swiftly commissioned, 928 01:02:43,000 --> 01:02:46,160 but the writing went on hold as John rejoined his Python pals 929 01:02:46,400 --> 01:02:50,920 for a sell-out tour and to shoot their latest film, Life Of Brian. 930 01:02:51,160 --> 01:02:54,320 It would take a staggering four years for Fawlty to return. 931 01:02:59,960 --> 01:03:05,840 There was a huge gap between the two series and also Connie and I, as far as I remember, got divorced. 932 01:03:06,080 --> 01:03:10,320 The work went on in spite of us and in spite of what was going on. 933 01:03:10,560 --> 01:03:12,840 It didn't save our marriage, but I think 934 01:03:13,280 --> 01:03:20,760 Fawlty Towers became a kind of refuge for our demons and angels and that that, maybe, 935 01:03:21,040 --> 01:03:24,640 was why we were able to go on to write the second series. 936 01:03:24,880 --> 01:03:32,520 We had been having our doubts about the marriage in '74 937 01:03:32,680 --> 01:03:36,400 and we finally split up in '76. 938 01:03:36,720 --> 01:03:42,480 And it was one of those relationships where there was an enormous amount of love and affection, and still is, 939 01:03:42,800 --> 01:03:49,120 but we just found it difficult to live together, so I moved out, moved back in, moved out, moved back in. 940 01:03:49,360 --> 01:03:53,480 And having finally moved out the middle of '76, I think we started 941 01:03:53,720 --> 01:03:58,280 writing the next series about a year later, because there was no ill will. 942 01:03:58,520 --> 01:04:02,680 For us it was a release because somehow I think, too, 943 01:04:02,920 --> 01:04:05,960 in the relationship of Sybil and Basil, we were able 944 01:04:06,200 --> 01:04:09,680 to get out our frustrations with each other through those characters. 945 01:04:09,960 --> 01:04:14,120 It was quite civil and we got down to the work. 946 01:04:14,360 --> 01:04:18,880 I remember we'd get stuck, we'd take walks sometimes and not talk, 947 01:04:19,120 --> 01:04:23,800 and there were other times when John would take off 948 01:04:24,040 --> 01:04:28,200 like a racehorse in the work and just go. He was on his own track. 949 01:04:28,360 --> 01:04:30,080 Oh, here, use this one. 950 01:04:32,000 --> 01:04:34,720 John and Connie had split and we had no idea. 951 01:04:34,960 --> 01:04:38,440 John would arrive and then Connie would arrive later and 952 01:04:38,680 --> 01:04:41,400 you just thought "Well, she's come in a different cab," or something. 953 01:04:41,720 --> 01:04:47,680 We had no idea, they kept it so, not particularly secret, but we just carried on as we carried on. 954 01:04:47,920 --> 01:04:52,960 I certainly don't remember it being a problem of any kind. 955 01:04:53,200 --> 01:04:56,880 They worked together beautifully and, you know, it was a happy unit. 956 01:04:57,040 --> 01:04:58,080 Manager, manager! 957 01:04:58,280 --> 01:05:01,240 Yes? Testing, testing. 958 01:05:03,200 --> 01:05:06,120 There. I've never met such insolence in my life. 959 01:05:06,360 --> 01:05:09,200 I come down here to get lavatory paper and she starts asking me 960 01:05:09,440 --> 01:05:12,240 the most insulting, personal things I've ever heard in my life! 961 01:05:12,400 --> 01:05:14,000 I thought you wanted writing paper. 962 01:05:14,160 --> 01:05:15,960 I'm talking to you, Watt. 963 01:05:17,360 --> 01:05:23,920 Connie and I didn't enjoy the second series as much as the first, because we felt this pressure to be as good. 964 01:05:24,240 --> 01:05:31,000 I did feel, yes, under pressure, but not to the degree on the second series, 965 01:05:31,240 --> 01:05:33,880 I think that John did, with his history. 966 01:05:34,200 --> 01:05:39,120 He had more at stake, and I could trust him to do the worrying, which I did. 967 01:05:39,440 --> 01:05:43,200 But it took off in a way that I don't think either of us had ever expected it would. 968 01:05:43,520 --> 01:05:49,800 It wasn't like the first series when you're sort of playing and discovering and having fun. 969 01:05:50,040 --> 01:05:53,240 It was kind of delivering the goods - and that wasn't as much fun. 970 01:05:53,480 --> 01:05:56,160 Coming up, problems mount on the second series 971 01:05:56,400 --> 01:06:02,360 as a punch-up in BBC corridors puts production under threat. 972 01:06:02,600 --> 01:06:05,400 They said, "Well, we can't record tomorrow, we're on strike." 973 01:06:05,640 --> 01:06:10,320 And we reveal how those infamous Fawlty signposts were created. 974 01:06:10,640 --> 01:06:14,000 Possibly the most shocking thing was actually the anagrams at the beginning. 975 01:06:14,160 --> 01:06:16,280 Was it not Flowery BLEEP one week? 976 01:06:20,000 --> 01:06:26,400 This is Fawlty Towers, the hotel that guests hate to stay at, but viewers can't stay away from. 977 01:06:26,720 --> 01:06:30,360 When I pay for a view, I expect something more interesting than that. 978 01:06:30,520 --> 01:06:32,400 But that is Torquay, madam. 979 01:06:32,560 --> 01:06:34,560 Well, it's not good enough. 980 01:06:39,120 --> 01:06:40,920 Sydney Opera House, perhaps? 981 01:06:41,120 --> 01:06:43,880 The Hanging Gardens of Babylon? 982 01:06:44,200 --> 01:06:51,240 The dreadful Torquay hotel is instantly recognisable by its infamous black and white exterior. 983 01:06:51,480 --> 01:06:54,560 Although fans may be surprised to learn that this legendary landmark 984 01:06:54,800 --> 01:06:58,200 was actually based in leafy Buckinghamshire. 985 01:06:58,360 --> 01:07:01,080 This is the actual hotel, 986 01:07:01,320 --> 01:07:04,520 exactly halfway between my house and the BBC. 987 01:07:04,680 --> 01:07:07,200 I went to see it quite by chance. 988 01:07:07,520 --> 01:07:12,840 It was a country club, but it was absolutely perfect because it's up this steep slope. 989 01:07:13,000 --> 01:07:14,560 I was worried about its whiteness. 990 01:07:14,880 --> 01:07:20,520 It didn't look quite like Torquay, but yet it had a kind of seaside feel about it. 991 01:07:26,360 --> 01:07:29,280 burning to the ground in 1991. 992 01:07:30,960 --> 01:07:34,680 Possibly the most shocking thing was actually the anagrams at the beginning. 993 01:07:34,840 --> 01:07:37,480 Was it not Flowery BLEEP one week? 994 01:07:37,800 --> 01:07:43,320 The motivation for that was the newspaper boy who was always being smacked by Basil, 995 01:07:43,560 --> 01:07:48,040 and when he left the hotel, he always rearranged the lettering. 996 01:07:48,200 --> 01:07:49,720 In fact, it was Iain McLean, 997 01:07:50,000 --> 01:07:53,120 the assistant floor manager, who was the only person who could do it. 998 01:07:54,480 --> 01:07:56,120 We were on location 999 01:07:56,400 --> 01:07:59,520 at the hotel, having lunch, and John said, 1000 01:07:59,760 --> 01:08:05,400 "You do crosswords - work out some anagrams of Fawlty Towers." 1001 01:08:05,640 --> 01:08:09,120 So I set to work and I found only one that is a true anagram - 1002 01:08:09,360 --> 01:08:11,920 there may be others, I haven't gone back to it - 1003 01:08:13,640 --> 01:08:18,600 And I said, "But you can't use it because it's a little vulgar." 1004 01:08:18,760 --> 01:08:22,840 And... 1005 01:08:29,080 --> 01:08:34,920 Despite its smutty signposts, Fawlty was now regarded as the jewel in the BBC's comedy crown. 1006 01:08:35,200 --> 01:08:41,400 And on 19th February 1979, four years after the first series ended, 1007 01:08:41,680 --> 01:08:44,840 Basil was back with a record-breaking audience 1008 01:08:45,000 --> 01:08:47,160 of almost 13 million viewers. 1009 01:08:47,560 --> 01:08:49,120 PHONE RINGS Hello, Fawlty Towers. 1010 01:08:49,400 --> 01:08:53,200 I was worried about the second series because by that time, 1011 01:08:53,360 --> 01:08:56,640 I'd gone onto an administrative job. 1012 01:08:56,800 --> 01:08:58,520 Bye, Mrs Fawlty. 1013 01:08:58,680 --> 01:09:00,400 Goodbye, Mr Perkins. 1014 01:09:00,640 --> 01:09:03,680 A satisfied customer - we should have him stuffed. 1015 01:09:03,920 --> 01:09:07,600 I asked Bob Spiers to do the second series and it worked quite well. 1016 01:09:08,120 --> 01:09:09,760 I don't think you could see the joins. 1017 01:09:10,000 --> 01:09:13,480 It was in some ways more polished, but... 1018 01:09:13,720 --> 01:09:17,640 I'm only saying this because I directed the first series, 1019 01:09:17,880 --> 01:09:21,440 and I thought the first series by and large was funnier. 1020 01:09:21,600 --> 01:09:23,680 John would probably disagree. 1021 01:09:23,920 --> 01:09:28,880 The second series was different - we knew the first series was very good, 1022 01:09:29,160 --> 01:09:33,200 and people remembered it, as they often do, as better than it was. 1023 01:09:33,480 --> 01:09:36,400 So even if it was there, people remembered as being there, 1024 01:09:36,640 --> 01:09:39,440 so we realised that the new shows had got to be there. 1025 01:09:39,760 --> 01:09:43,240 And by and large I think the second series' programmes ARE better than the first. 1026 01:09:43,480 --> 01:09:47,240 With this new series came a new face, a cheerful Cockney chef 1027 01:09:47,400 --> 01:09:49,680 called Terry, played by Brian Hall. 1028 01:09:49,840 --> 01:09:52,080 Mr Fawlty, take it easy. 1029 01:09:52,280 --> 01:09:53,640 Now look, get one thing clear, 1030 01:09:53,920 --> 01:09:56,560 all right? You don't tell me to take it easy. Well, I... 1031 01:09:56,800 --> 01:09:59,400 I don't pay you to tell me to take it easy, I pay you to take it ea... 1032 01:10:01,760 --> 01:10:03,640 I think that Connie and I felt 1033 01:10:03,880 --> 01:10:07,720 that after six episodes, somehow we needed a new element on the staff. 1034 01:10:07,920 --> 01:10:09,120 Mr Leeman dead. 1035 01:10:09,280 --> 01:10:11,520 Well, that would explain a lot. 1036 01:10:11,760 --> 01:10:15,040 No, Mr Fawlty. Really, Poll just said so. 1037 01:10:15,320 --> 01:10:18,600 What are you on about? I just took him his kippers! 1038 01:10:18,760 --> 01:10:19,960 Oh, my God! 1039 01:10:21,480 --> 01:10:25,040 He was cocky and sturdier than Manuel, wasn't he? 1040 01:10:25,160 --> 01:10:27,640 And a little bit slippery. 1041 01:10:27,960 --> 01:10:33,680 Brian was an absolute sweetie. He said, "You gave me the key to this character," and I said "Did I?" 1042 01:10:33,840 --> 01:10:35,680 And he said, "Don't you remember? 1043 01:10:36,000 --> 01:10:40,600 I came up and I asked you at the very beginning of the first episode, "What's the key to Terry?" 1044 01:10:40,880 --> 01:10:43,680 And you said, "The police are after him." 1045 01:10:44,000 --> 01:10:49,120 And once he had that, he knew how to play it and he just fitted in so beautifully. 1046 01:10:49,440 --> 01:10:53,720 That's our new chef just left, just popped out for a quick prayer, I expect. Ha-ha! 1047 01:10:54,040 --> 01:10:58,840 As well as fresh faces, the second series gave a greater insight into its characters. 1048 01:10:59,080 --> 01:11:03,120 Excuse me, I do apologise but I'm afraid I shall have to ask you to... 1049 01:11:03,360 --> 01:11:08,440 Especially Basil and his very stuffed-shirt approach to sex. 1050 01:11:08,640 --> 01:11:09,880 Very nice. 1051 01:11:10,080 --> 01:11:12,160 Oh, thank you. 1052 01:11:12,360 --> 01:11:13,480 Your thing. 1053 01:11:13,800 --> 01:11:16,840 I mean your charm, your charm, in the middle. Yes, I know. 1054 01:11:17,120 --> 01:11:22,600 Basil has a tremendous problem with sex because he's not getting it. 1055 01:11:22,880 --> 01:11:25,920 You see, I don't think Basil and Sybil have actually had it 1056 01:11:26,080 --> 01:11:28,720 for, oh, quite a considerable time. 1057 01:11:28,960 --> 01:11:33,200 And the dead giveaway, to me, is that they are in twin beds. 1058 01:11:33,440 --> 01:11:37,480 I suppose the oddest thing about them is the bedroom. 1059 01:11:37,720 --> 01:11:40,800 I mean, even Morecambe and Wise slept in the same bed. 1060 01:11:41,040 --> 01:11:45,080 The primary emotion is that the poor fellow is unloved, 1061 01:11:45,280 --> 01:11:46,960 and he feels unloved 1062 01:11:47,200 --> 01:11:51,200 and therefore he is constantly in a state of irritation. 1063 01:11:51,440 --> 01:11:55,520 You are aware of our rule about visitors, are you? Hmm? 1064 01:11:55,760 --> 01:11:58,120 No visitors in guests' rooms after 10 o'clock. 1065 01:11:58,280 --> 01:12:01,000 Oh. Of the opposite...sex. 1066 01:12:01,160 --> 01:12:02,480 No, I wasn't. Ah! 1067 01:12:02,720 --> 01:12:07,080 But I am now. So you'll send up the champagne, will you? What? 1068 01:12:09,160 --> 01:12:12,120 You're drinking it on your own, are you? I guess I'll have to. 1069 01:12:12,400 --> 01:12:15,080 Very well. One bottle of champagne - for one. 1070 01:12:15,240 --> 01:12:18,000 Thank you. And one glass. 1071 01:12:18,240 --> 01:12:20,880 That's all I need, unless you care to join me? Not when I'm on the job. 1072 01:12:21,040 --> 01:12:23,160 That's when I enjoy it the most. 1073 01:12:23,480 --> 01:12:27,480 Basil has a bee in his bonnet with Mr Johnson, because Mr Johnson is obviously sexually successful 1074 01:12:27,880 --> 01:12:31,480 and Basil is jealous. 1075 01:12:31,720 --> 01:12:34,840 Basil is jealous and wants to bring him down. 1076 01:12:35,080 --> 01:12:39,760 This, er...bit of crumpet's your old mummy, is she? 1077 01:12:40,080 --> 01:12:44,160 Oh, this is rich. Oh, old Mother Johnson popped up for a quickie, did she? May I meet her? 1078 01:12:44,320 --> 01:12:45,440 Certainly. 1079 01:12:45,680 --> 01:12:49,480 Mother Johnson! Mother Johnson! Come out, come out wherever you are. 1080 01:12:49,720 --> 01:12:52,080 How do you do? Are you enjoying your stay? 1081 01:12:52,320 --> 01:12:55,320 I thought The Psychiatrists episode was wonderful. 1082 01:12:55,560 --> 01:12:57,760 And you, Doctor? Are you... I'm a psychiatrist. 1083 01:12:57,920 --> 01:13:00,360 Very nice, too. Well, cheers. 1084 01:13:00,600 --> 01:13:02,800 We were both in group therapy at that time, family, 1085 01:13:02,960 --> 01:13:05,560 marital group therapy and whether, 1086 01:13:05,800 --> 01:13:10,480 again, indirectly, the whole idea of having a psychiatrist 1087 01:13:10,720 --> 01:13:13,400 in that episode, and what it would do to Basil 1088 01:13:13,640 --> 01:13:16,480 and all the sexual difficulties, that was just very funny. 1089 01:13:16,720 --> 01:13:19,600 There was the extraordinary encounter 1090 01:13:19,760 --> 01:13:21,960 with the psychiatrist, 1091 01:13:22,200 --> 01:13:26,480 where he thinks he's asking about how often he has sex. 1092 01:13:26,760 --> 01:13:30,400 Now, the sort of sophisticated angle there is that Basil Fawlty 1093 01:13:30,640 --> 01:13:35,560 is actually obsessed by sex, which he would be, because he can't 1094 01:13:35,720 --> 01:13:37,920 actually manage it in real life. 1095 01:13:38,240 --> 01:13:43,880 We were just speculating how people in your profession arrange their holidays. How often you can get away. 1096 01:13:45,880 --> 01:13:49,000 Hmm? How often do you manage it? 1097 01:13:49,160 --> 01:13:50,720 Beg your pardon? 1098 01:13:51,000 --> 01:13:54,160 How often can you and your wife manage it? 1099 01:13:58,520 --> 01:14:02,480 If you don't mind my asking. 1100 01:14:02,640 --> 01:14:04,280 About average, since you ask. 1101 01:14:04,440 --> 01:14:06,640 Average? Mm-hm. 1102 01:14:06,800 --> 01:14:09,560 What would be "average"? 1103 01:14:09,720 --> 01:14:12,440 Well, you tell me. 1104 01:14:12,640 --> 01:14:14,360 Well, a couple of times a year. 1105 01:14:15,680 --> 01:14:17,000 What? 1106 01:14:17,120 --> 01:14:18,320 Once a year? 1107 01:14:19,800 --> 01:14:21,880 Well, we knew it must be difficult. 1108 01:14:22,120 --> 01:14:25,520 My wife didn't see how you could manage it at all, you know. 1109 01:14:28,360 --> 01:14:31,640 Well, as you've asked, two or three times a week, actually! 1110 01:14:31,800 --> 01:14:33,600 A week? 1111 01:14:33,880 --> 01:14:37,520 Yes, pretty normal, isn't it? We're quite normal here in Torquay. 1112 01:14:37,760 --> 01:14:44,360 The vision of the two of them having sex is quite a nerve-wracking idea. 1113 01:14:44,680 --> 01:14:49,800 The state of Sybil and Basil's marriage was explored further in The Anniversary, 1114 01:14:50,120 --> 01:14:54,160 although viewers would have to wait a little longer than expected to see this slice of insanity. 1115 01:14:54,400 --> 01:14:56,800 Is everything all right, dear? You seem just a little bit... 1116 01:14:57,040 --> 01:14:59,600 It was going very well and the most extraordinary thing happened. 1117 01:14:59,840 --> 01:15:04,200 There was a strike at the BBC because a rigger punched a BBC executive, 1118 01:15:04,360 --> 01:15:06,720 and immediately it was all out. 1119 01:15:22,040 --> 01:15:25,560 Production staff downed tools and walked out for seven days. 1120 01:15:25,880 --> 01:15:30,280 They came back, they said, "It's been settled, we'll be recording again next week." 1121 01:15:30,600 --> 01:15:36,160 The character eventually played by Ken Campbell was being played by a lovely actor called Julian Holloway. 1122 01:15:36,480 --> 01:15:42,800 But Julian Holloway said, "I can't do it next week, I've got another job, I can't get out of it." 1123 01:15:42,960 --> 01:15:44,760 We said, "Well, we have to recast," 1124 01:15:45,000 --> 01:15:48,160 so we brought Ken Campbell in, who was wonderful. 1125 01:15:48,440 --> 01:15:50,560 Yes, I'll just get a brush. A Basil Brush. 1126 01:15:52,760 --> 01:15:54,920 That wonderful character of Ken Campbell, you know. 1127 01:15:55,160 --> 01:15:58,000 He's needling Basil. And the way it builds, 1128 01:15:58,240 --> 01:16:01,880 everyone's so concerned about Sybil, they've got to see Sybil 1129 01:16:02,120 --> 01:16:04,640 and oh, it's excruciating, the way it mounts, 1130 01:16:04,880 --> 01:16:07,520 the nuts and the wine - oh, it just... 1131 01:16:07,680 --> 01:16:09,320 I think it's wonderful. 1132 01:16:09,560 --> 01:16:11,440 I don't know if you've seen the moulding... 1133 01:16:11,680 --> 01:16:14,640 Oh! It's all right, it's all right, don't worry, I'll clean it up. 1134 01:16:14,800 --> 01:16:16,680 What time's the main feature? 1135 01:16:16,920 --> 01:16:19,720 The nice thing was, we had two weeks to rehearse it. 1136 01:16:19,960 --> 01:16:22,880 You see, Ken was able to come in. The rest of us knew the part. 1137 01:16:23,400 --> 01:16:29,320 And it was the one time that we really began to get relaxed because we'd done the lines enough times 1138 01:16:29,640 --> 01:16:33,840 to really relax and I think it has some of the best performing we ever did in that particular show. 1139 01:16:34,080 --> 01:16:38,120 Happy anniversary. Happy anniversary. 1140 01:16:38,280 --> 01:16:41,000 Oh, you poor dear. 1141 01:16:41,240 --> 01:16:44,480 How are you feeling, dear? Ahhh! It's a shame. 1142 01:16:44,680 --> 01:16:47,320 'The Anniversary is my least favourite episode,' 1143 01:16:47,560 --> 01:16:51,760 because I'm in it, and I can't bear looking at anything that I'm in. 1144 01:16:52,000 --> 01:16:56,760 But also, I can see I was nervous, because it is quite nerve-racking 1145 01:16:57,040 --> 01:17:01,240 being a guest on something, especially something as great as that. 1146 01:17:01,520 --> 01:17:04,480 She won't mind me seeing. Oh, she would, I think she would. 1147 01:17:04,760 --> 01:17:07,360 Oh, but it's her anniversary. She's up there all on her own! 1148 01:17:07,520 --> 01:17:09,640 Ahhh! Ah! 1149 01:17:09,800 --> 01:17:12,160 Old leg, bit of gyp, oh! 1150 01:17:12,320 --> 01:17:14,000 There's an extraordinarily 1151 01:17:14,240 --> 01:17:19,800 sad moment when you see Sybil's vulnerability. 1152 01:17:20,040 --> 01:17:23,000 I came back for my clubs, Basil, I'm not staying. 1153 01:17:23,200 --> 01:17:24,880 Oh, aren't you? OK. 1154 01:17:27,600 --> 01:17:30,920 You don't even want me to, do you? Um... 1155 01:17:31,080 --> 01:17:32,840 Oh, what's that? 1156 01:17:33,120 --> 01:17:38,960 'I think the scene I look back on with great fondness' 1157 01:17:39,240 --> 01:17:43,640 is when they've had a fight and she's sort of trying to make it up, 1158 01:17:43,880 --> 01:17:47,520 and you realise that actually she is emotionally quite dependent on him. 1159 01:17:47,760 --> 01:17:50,360 I'm going now, Basil. I think it's best, don't you? 1160 01:17:53,240 --> 01:17:56,960 She's trying to establish connection with Basil, 1161 01:17:57,200 --> 01:18:01,080 but Basil is in the thralls of extreme embarrassment 1162 01:18:01,360 --> 01:18:07,080 and only has one thought in mind, which is to get her out of the hotel 1163 01:18:07,320 --> 01:18:11,960 before all the guests discover that she's not upstairs in bed at all, 1164 01:18:12,120 --> 01:18:14,440 and that must be someone else. 1165 01:18:14,600 --> 01:18:16,560 Bye, Basil. 1166 01:18:16,720 --> 01:18:18,920 Cheerio, dear. 1167 01:18:19,160 --> 01:18:21,240 'I certainly sometimes found myself thinking,' 1168 01:18:21,480 --> 01:18:24,880 "What is this woman doing with this man? Why did she stick it out?" 1169 01:18:25,200 --> 01:18:28,840 Obviously there is a deep-rooted affection that they have for each other. 1170 01:18:29,160 --> 01:18:34,040 I mean, he knows his place, you know, he needs a woman like that - they work so well together. 1171 01:18:34,240 --> 01:18:36,000 I'm sure there's many marriages like that. 1172 01:18:36,600 --> 01:18:40,520 Do you remember when we were first manacled together, 1173 01:18:40,680 --> 01:18:43,040 we used to laugh quite a lot. 1174 01:18:43,200 --> 01:18:45,680 Yes, but not at the same time, Basil. 1175 01:18:45,920 --> 01:18:48,080 It sounds terrible, probably, but I think 1176 01:18:48,400 --> 01:18:55,080 I have to say that Basil and Sybil's marriage is like most marriages that I have observed in my 70 years. 1177 01:18:55,280 --> 01:18:56,640 We all make mistakes, dear. 1178 01:18:57,080 --> 01:18:59,520 They work together, they can never escape from each other. 1179 01:18:59,680 --> 01:19:01,400 You never, ever learn! 1180 01:19:01,640 --> 01:19:04,520 How on earth did the two of us ever get together? 1181 01:19:04,680 --> 01:19:07,360 Black magic, my mother says. 1182 01:19:07,360 --> 01:19:09,560 Well, she'd know, wouldn't she? 1183 01:19:09,880 --> 01:19:16,600 The second series was due to come to the end of its illustrious run on 2nd April, 1979. 1184 01:19:16,760 --> 01:19:17,640 Great fun. 1185 01:19:17,880 --> 01:19:22,000 But another strike threw production into jeopardy once more. 1186 01:19:22,320 --> 01:19:26,160 From tonight, the recording of drama and light entertainment will have to be suspended. 1187 01:19:26,400 --> 01:19:29,680 As a result, some comedy shows have had to be cancelled, 1188 01:19:29,920 --> 01:19:34,480 including the final episode of Fawlty Towers which will now never be made. 1189 01:19:34,720 --> 01:19:37,600 Thankfully, this over-zealous reporter got it wrong. 1190 01:19:38,000 --> 01:19:43,840 The final episode was made, but it would take a full six months before Basil the Rat went to air. 1191 01:19:46,120 --> 01:19:50,000 Coming up, problems of a furry kind cause havoc on set. 1192 01:19:50,160 --> 01:19:51,240 Do you mind? 1193 01:19:51,400 --> 01:19:52,560 Que? 1194 01:19:52,800 --> 01:19:55,960 Why this iconic sitcom stopped after just two series. 1195 01:19:56,200 --> 01:19:58,880 They offered John everything to do another series and he said, "No". 1196 01:19:59,120 --> 01:20:02,840 And we go in search of the legendary lost episode. 1197 01:20:07,670 --> 01:20:12,430 It took up just six hours of TV time, 12 perfect half-hour episodes. 1198 01:20:12,750 --> 01:20:17,390 And even though it's been 30 years since it left our screens, this multi-award-winning sitcom 1199 01:20:17,630 --> 01:20:21,470 is still regarded as the finest comedy ever written. 1200 01:20:23,550 --> 01:20:24,470 PHONE RINGS 1201 01:20:24,670 --> 01:20:26,390 Not you. 1202 01:20:26,550 --> 01:20:28,430 Could I get my hat? 1203 01:20:29,470 --> 01:20:30,710 Your hat? 1204 01:20:30,950 --> 01:20:34,070 Yes. It's just there. Yes, I'll have it sent on. 1205 01:20:34,310 --> 01:20:38,590 It's fitting that the best was saved till last. 1206 01:20:38,830 --> 01:20:41,510 Although, owing to more strikes at the BBC, it would be 1207 01:20:41,750 --> 01:20:45,390 a full six months before the final episode, Basil The Rat, aired. 1208 01:20:45,550 --> 01:20:46,910 Basil! 1209 01:20:47,070 --> 01:20:49,350 'We had a sort of recap rehearsal,' 1210 01:20:49,590 --> 01:20:53,430 went into the studio on the Saturday, which we never, ever did, 1211 01:20:53,750 --> 01:20:59,150 and because we had the rat, it was the only scene that was ever pre-recorded, just in case 1212 01:20:59,470 --> 01:21:04,070 there was somebody in the audience, or the crew, who had a real phobia about it. 1213 01:21:04,230 --> 01:21:05,590 Don't move. 1214 01:21:05,830 --> 01:21:08,870 I was told on the first day that I would be going into a studio 1215 01:21:09,110 --> 01:21:12,710 and it would be a real rat that I'd be working with. 1216 01:21:12,950 --> 01:21:16,190 I thought, "Oh, that's going to be interesting". 1217 01:21:16,350 --> 01:21:18,910 So that's one pate and one Windsor... 1218 01:21:19,030 --> 01:21:20,430 SQUEAKS: Soup! 1219 01:21:22,390 --> 01:21:23,190 Pssst. 1220 01:21:23,430 --> 01:21:26,790 John would go to great lengths to make sure that all members 1221 01:21:27,030 --> 01:21:30,470 of the crew, and particularly the cast, were comfortable. 1222 01:21:30,710 --> 01:21:35,070 And John just got himself in her eyeline and basically mugged at her 1223 01:21:35,230 --> 01:21:36,750 to take her mind off the fact 1224 01:21:36,990 --> 01:21:40,510 that there was a small furry rodent running around her feet. 1225 01:21:40,750 --> 01:21:43,550 I mean, how many people get John Cleese to themselves 1226 01:21:43,790 --> 01:21:46,590 for a whole evening and just listening to funny stories? 1227 01:21:46,830 --> 01:21:49,390 So it was a fantastic deterrent to the fear of the rat. 1228 01:21:50,830 --> 01:21:52,030 What ARE you doing? 1229 01:21:52,270 --> 01:21:54,830 What? He had his hand in my bag. 1230 01:21:54,990 --> 01:21:57,430 What? No, I... You know something? 1231 01:21:57,710 --> 01:22:00,350 You're getting my dander up, you grotty little man. 1232 01:22:00,590 --> 01:22:02,830 You're asking for a bunch of fives! 1233 01:22:02,990 --> 01:22:03,870 Bomb scare! 1234 01:22:04,030 --> 01:22:05,470 What?! 1235 01:22:05,630 --> 01:22:06,630 There's been a bomb scare. 1236 01:22:06,790 --> 01:22:07,750 A bomb scare? Yes. 1237 01:22:07,990 --> 01:22:11,110 Yes, that's why he was in your bag. He didn't want to alarm you. 1238 01:22:11,270 --> 01:22:13,870 Yes, may I? Well, I... Thank you. 1239 01:22:14,030 --> 01:22:15,310 We had a call, you see. 1240 01:22:15,550 --> 01:22:17,270 Shouldn't you get everybody out? 1241 01:22:17,470 --> 01:22:20,070 That's why we were looking under your table... Argh! 1242 01:22:23,830 --> 01:22:26,710 The rat popping up in the biscuit box is one of my favourite bits. 1243 01:22:26,950 --> 01:22:29,630 I know it doesn't look like a real rat, and that's part of its charm. 1244 01:22:29,790 --> 01:22:31,430 Biscuits? 1245 01:22:44,710 --> 01:22:47,670 Would you care for a rat, or...? 1246 01:22:47,910 --> 01:22:54,390 When we recorded the last episode, we knew it was the end. 1247 01:22:57,830 --> 01:23:01,670 "Oh, don't worry, we'll be back in four years, we'll do series three in four years, it'll be fine." 1248 01:23:02,870 --> 01:23:09,870 Fawlty Towers shut its doors for the last time on Thursday 25th October, 1979. 1249 01:23:13,390 --> 01:23:16,310 and best comedy performance by Cleese, 1250 01:23:16,550 --> 01:23:20,430 and Basil duly handed over the comedy baton to his successors. 1251 01:23:20,670 --> 01:23:23,150 Now, listen, I am not going to do it this week. 1252 01:23:23,390 --> 01:23:28,110 You must have something - what about edited Motocross highlights or... 1253 01:23:28,430 --> 01:23:33,190 Horse Of The Year Show, or inter-counties basket weaving or something? 1254 01:23:33,390 --> 01:23:35,630 Well, how about a cheap, tatty revue? 1255 01:23:37,270 --> 01:23:39,510 All right, if that suits you. 1256 01:23:39,750 --> 01:23:41,910 Cheap tatty revue then. Stand by and... 1257 01:23:42,070 --> 01:23:42,950 Cue! 1258 01:23:44,310 --> 01:23:47,190 They offered John everything to do another series and he said, 1259 01:23:47,470 --> 01:23:51,030 "No. We had two series of six and if you do a third series 1260 01:23:51,350 --> 01:23:55,510 "and it's not as good as the other two, you then devalue the currency of the first two." 1261 01:23:56,030 --> 01:23:59,270 Although only a dozen shows were ever aired, rumours persist 1262 01:23:59,510 --> 01:24:04,670 of legendary lost episode lurking in a dusty BBC building somewhere. 1263 01:24:06,310 --> 01:24:10,630 I have it at home and, for a small fee, can be... 1264 01:24:13,390 --> 01:24:17,790 ..persuaded to send it to you by mail order. 1265 01:24:17,950 --> 01:24:20,190 No, no. Lovely idea. 1266 01:24:20,350 --> 01:24:21,830 A 13th episode. 1267 01:24:22,150 --> 01:24:26,830 Unless it was made by an entirely different team, there is no 13th episode. 1268 01:24:30,870 --> 01:24:34,630 then Connie and I looked at each other and we thought we'd done it. 1269 01:24:34,870 --> 01:24:37,670 We didn't want that pressure to be as good again. We would have failed. 1270 01:24:37,910 --> 01:24:40,630 People would have said it was very funny but it wasn't as good 1271 01:24:40,870 --> 01:24:42,990 as the first two series, so what was the point? 1272 01:24:43,270 --> 01:24:47,070 I said, "Would you ever think of writing some more?" 1273 01:24:47,190 --> 01:24:49,110 He said "Yes, I suppose I could." 1274 01:24:49,390 --> 01:24:51,510 I said, key question, "Would you do it without Connie?" 1275 01:24:51,670 --> 01:24:53,870 He said "No. No." 1276 01:24:54,110 --> 01:24:58,470 And I think her contribution was much bigger than people believe. 1277 01:24:58,790 --> 01:25:04,270 I think it was absolutely right, true, that we, covering the taboo subjects, we'd done it 1278 01:25:04,510 --> 01:25:08,430 and it felt like there were three sort of situations within 1279 01:25:08,670 --> 01:25:12,830 each half hour, so it felt like a lot more than 12 episodes I think. 1280 01:25:13,070 --> 01:25:16,030 I don't think by then John and I could have gone on working together. 1281 01:25:16,190 --> 01:25:20,190 I think... 1282 01:25:20,430 --> 01:25:25,230 30 years after this hopeless hotel closed up for good, Fawlty Towers 1283 01:25:25,470 --> 01:25:29,150 retains an affectionate place in the hearts of the British nation. 1284 01:25:34,430 --> 01:25:38,430 And in 2008, fans were treated to a reunion of Basil and Manuel, 1285 01:25:40,670 --> 01:25:42,590 CHEERING 1286 01:25:42,830 --> 01:25:47,030 Well, I'm fond of Andrew, and somebody suggested it would be good, 1287 01:25:47,270 --> 01:25:51,710 in view of what had happened with Jonathan Ross and the other guy. 1288 01:25:52,030 --> 01:25:56,510 The audience would like to see us together or something, and it worked very well emotionally. 1289 01:25:56,750 --> 01:26:02,190 What is the 11th letter of the English alphabet? 1290 01:26:02,430 --> 01:26:04,710 Que? LAUGHTER 1291 01:26:04,950 --> 01:26:09,750 John rang me up, said would I come on, just do a brief entry as Manuel. 1292 01:26:09,990 --> 01:26:13,470 I can't very well say no to John, because he's so much bigger than me. 1293 01:26:13,630 --> 01:26:16,910 Now run for it, you stupid... 1294 01:26:17,230 --> 01:26:22,430 I thought the outflowing of love that evening was so wonderful, and you could tell it with him as well. 1295 01:26:22,670 --> 01:26:26,030 And I said to him afterwards, I said, "That was the old John, wasn't it?" 1296 01:26:26,270 --> 01:26:30,030 He said, "What do you mean?" I said, "You should be back here, mate." 1297 01:26:30,190 --> 01:26:32,590 He always feels that Michael Palin's 1298 01:26:32,830 --> 01:26:36,430 become a national institution and he would have done if he'd stayed. 1299 01:26:36,670 --> 01:26:39,830 Not that he's jealous of Michael, they're still great friends. 1300 01:26:40,070 --> 01:26:43,150 Tantalising though it was to have Basil back, what the public craves 1301 01:26:43,390 --> 01:26:50,110 is for Fawlty Towers to open its doors once more for another series. 1302 01:26:53,550 --> 01:26:55,110 "Is John going to write some more?" 1303 01:26:55,430 --> 01:27:00,630 My only sadness is that they didn't go on to write another, at least another 12, 1304 01:27:00,870 --> 01:27:03,750 then we could have had 24 to watch and watch and watch. 1305 01:27:03,990 --> 01:27:09,750 The only idea that Connie and I ever had for an extension of Basil 1306 01:27:09,990 --> 01:27:12,950 was that Manuel has left and set up 1307 01:27:13,230 --> 01:27:19,030 an establishment in Spain, and Sybil and Basil 1308 01:27:19,270 --> 01:27:21,950 decide that they're going to go and visit him. 1309 01:27:22,150 --> 01:27:23,750 Which I think would be fun. 1310 01:27:24,030 --> 01:27:26,630 And I thought that what would happen was, 1311 01:27:26,910 --> 01:27:30,350 Basil has the usual appalling experience at Heathrow 1312 01:27:30,590 --> 01:27:33,470 or some other terminal, where a hijacker... 1313 01:27:35,710 --> 01:27:40,390 ..tries to hijack the flight, and Basil becomes so furious 1314 01:27:40,630 --> 01:27:44,750 that he actually overcomes the hijacker, becomes a hero. 1315 01:27:44,910 --> 01:27:47,270 HE LAUGHS 1316 01:27:52,510 --> 01:27:58,430 'I've been 52, 53 years on stage and yet Fawlty Towers,' 1317 01:27:58,670 --> 01:28:02,350 that full nine minutes in one episode of The Builders, 1318 01:28:02,590 --> 01:28:06,310 makes me recognised anywhere in the world. 1319 01:28:06,550 --> 01:28:09,990 A number of episodes in Fawlty Towers, I think, 1320 01:28:10,230 --> 01:28:13,510 were pretty close to perfection in comedy 1321 01:28:13,750 --> 01:28:16,750 and I've never, ever got that myself. 1322 01:28:16,990 --> 01:28:20,630 That's why I said, "I'll never get that, I'll give up." 1323 01:28:20,870 --> 01:28:25,750 I was delighted to have been part of Fawlty Towers. 1324 01:28:25,910 --> 01:28:27,550 It was a lovely job. 1325 01:28:27,790 --> 01:28:32,150 I think I did my very best with it, and it was a bloody good episode. 1326 01:28:32,390 --> 01:28:36,510 I just think it was absolutely the best of its kind 1327 01:28:38,910 --> 01:28:43,590 You know, it stands out from practically everything else going on at the time. 1328 01:28:43,870 --> 01:28:47,910 Knowing that you're going to go to work and laugh and laugh and laugh 1329 01:28:48,150 --> 01:28:53,630 and laugh, even though you'd seen the joke many times before, 1330 01:28:53,870 --> 01:28:58,630 and to say, "Oh, I'm going to work today, I shall be drained 1331 01:28:58,870 --> 01:29:02,390 "of stomach muscles by midday," that's a terrific feeling. 1332 01:29:03,710 --> 01:29:11,070 Well, what Connie and I tried to do in comedy is make people laugh as much as possible. That's what I love. 1333 01:29:11,350 --> 01:29:13,830 I love the intensity, because that brings the biggest laugh. 1334 01:29:14,150 --> 01:29:18,750 I suppose it felt kind of like a freak event in our lives. 1335 01:29:18,990 --> 01:29:21,310 Yes, I'm incredibly proud to have been associated with it. 1336 01:29:21,550 --> 01:29:25,470 But I think the main quality it had, it was so bloody good. 1337 01:29:25,710 --> 01:29:30,230 Out! Everybody out! Go on upstairs, pack your bags, adios, out! 1338 01:29:56,190 --> 01:29:58,510 Subtitles by Ericsson