Fawlty Towers was a British sitcom made by the BBC and first broadcast on BBC2 in 1975. It is set in a fictional hotel named Fawlty Towers in the Devon town of Torquay on "the English Riviera". The hotel is owned and run by the eccentric Basil Fawlty and his censorious wife Sybil, helped by the maid Polly, the Spanish porter Manuel who could barely speak English and (in the second series) the chef Terry. Permanent guests were the half-senile Major Gowen and the bewildered old ladies Miss Tibbs and ...

Including:

• Fawlty Towers - Credits
• Fawlty Towers - Characters
• Fawlty Towers - Background and inspiration
• Fawlty Towers - Episode list
• Fawlty Towers - Fawlty Towers influence
• Fawlty Towers - Awards

Read more here: » Fawlty Towers: Encyclopedia - Fawlty Towers

Arthur Mathews and Graham Linehan have cited Fawlty Towers as a major influence on their sitcom Father Ted. Two U.S. remakes were made called Amanda's and Payne. There also was a German sitcom series based on Fawlty Towers. A few hotels and guesthouses have called themselves "Fawlty Towers", including: A youth hostel in Darwin visited in an episode of the travel documentary Full Circle with Michael Palin. A hotel in Sidmouth which was painted like a Union Flag ...

See also:

Fawlty Towers, Fawlty Towers - Credits, Fawlty Towers - Characters, Fawlty Towers - Background and inspiration, Fawlty Towers - Episode list, Fawlty Towers - Fawlty Towers influence, Fawlty Towers - Awards

Read more here: » Fawlty Towers: Encyclopedia II - Fawlty Towers - Fawlty Towers influence

Basil is a snobbish, miserly, xenophobic, sexually repressed paranoiac who is desperate to belong to a higher social class, and sees the successful running of the hotel as his means to this end ("turn it into an establishment of class..."), yet he is trapped in a job where he has to be pleasant to people he either despises or yearns to be above socially; people he would much rather snub. He is terrified of his wife's sharp tongue, yet fiercely wishes to stand up to her. Always trying to cover his mistakes and always the penny pincher ...

See also:

Fawlty Towers, Fawlty Towers - Credits, Fawlty Towers - Characters, Fawlty Towers - Background and inspiration, Fawlty Towers - Episode list, Fawlty Towers - Fawlty Towers influence, Fawlty Towers - Awards

Read more here: » Fawlty Towers: Encyclopedia II - Fawlty Towers - Characters

Even before this programme existed, English seaside boarding houses and their proprietors had something of a reputation for firmness and intransigence, possibly stemming from the days when soldiers were billeted in small hotels during wartime or national service. Cleese had also parodied the contrast between organisational dogma and sensitive customer service in many personnel training videotapes issued with a serious purpose by his company Video Arts. Basil Fawlty's behaviour ca ...

See also:

Fawlty Towers, Fawlty Towers - Credits, Fawlty Towers - Characters, Fawlty Towers - Background and inspiration, Fawlty Towers - Episode list, Fawlty Towers - Fawlty Towers influence, Fawlty Towers - Awards

Read more here: » Fawlty Towers: Encyclopedia II - Fawlty Towers - Background and inspiration

The cast: Basil Fawlty (played by John Cleese) Sybil Fawlty (Prunella Scales) Polly Sherman (Connie Booth) Manuel (Andrew Sachs) Major Gowen (Ballard Berkeley) Miss Tibbs (Gilly Flower) Miss Gatsby (Renee Roberts) Terry the Chef (Brian Hall) The scripts were written by John Cleese and Connie Booth, who were married at the time of the first series, 1975. By 1979 (second series), Cleese and Booth had divorced after ten years of marriage, 1968–78. The first series was Produced and Directed by John Howard Davies, the second Produced by D ...

See also:

Fawlty Towers, Fawlty Towers - Credits, Fawlty Towers - Characters, Fawlty Towers - Background and inspiration, Fawlty Towers - Episode list, Fawlty Towers - Fawlty Towers influence, Fawlty Towers - Awards

Read more here: » Fawlty Towers: Encyclopedia II - Fawlty Towers - Credits

First broadcast on BBC 2 on September 19, 1975. The episodes of the first series were: "A Touch of Class" Basil is delighted when a member of the aristocracy chooses to stay at the hotel. Featuring Michael Gwynn as Lord Melbury. Sign outside the hotel reads: FAWLTY TOWERS. Sign is wider and font is fancier than the plain, Times-like font it would use later on. "The Builders" When some work is required on the hotel lobby, Basil goes for the chea ...

See also:

Fawlty Towers, Fawlty Towers - Credits, Fawlty Towers - Characters, Fawlty Towers - Background and inspiration, Fawlty Towers - Episode list, Fawlty Towers - Fawlty Towers influence, Fawlty Towers - Awards

Read more here: » Fawlty Towers: Encyclopedia II - Fawlty Towers - Episode list