Fawlty Towers (hotel)
| Fawlty Towers | |
|---|---|
Series title card. The "Fawlty Towers" sign varied between episodes.
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| Genre | Sitcom |
| Created by | John Cleese Connie Booth |
| Developed by | John Cleese Connie Booth |
| Written by | John Cleese Connie Booth |
| Directed by |
John Howard Davies Bob Spiers |
| Starring |
John Cleese Prunella Scales Andrew Sachs Connie Booth Ballard Berkeley Brian Hall Renee Roberts Gilly Flower |
| Theme music composer | Dennis Wilson |
| Opening theme | "Fawlty Towers" |
| Ending theme | "Fawlty Towers" |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of series | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 12 |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | John Howard Davies Douglas Argent |
| Editor(s) | Susan Imrie Bob Rymer Bill Harris |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Production company(s) | BBC |
| Distributor |
BBC Worldwide 2entertain ABC (Australia, home video) Warner Home Video (US, home video) |
| Release | |
| Original network | BBC Two |
| Picture format | 576i (4:3 SDTV) |
| Audio format | Mono |
| Original release | 19 September 1975 – 25 October 1979 |
| External links | |
| Website | www |
Fawlty Towers is a British television sitcom broadcast on BBC Two from 1975 to 1979. Only 12 episodes were made (2 series of 6 episodes each). The show was created and written by John Cleese and Connie Booth, who also starred in the show. They were married at the time of series 1, but divorced before recording series 2. One of the best loved shows in British popular culture, it was ranked No. 1 on a list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes drawn up by the British Film Institute in 2000.
The series is set in Fawlty Towers, a fictional hotel in the seaside town of Torquay on the "English Riviera". The plots centre on tense, rude and put-upon owner Basil Fawlty (Cleese), his bossy wife Sybil (Prunella Scales), comparatively normal chambermaid-cum-receptionist Polly (Booth) who often is the peacemaker and voice of reason, and hapless and English-challenged Spanish waiter Manuel (Andrew Sachs), showing their attempts to run the hotel amidst farcical situations and an array of demanding and eccentric guests and tradespeople.
In May 1970 the Monty Python team stayed at the Gleneagles Hotel (which is referred to in "The Builders" episode) in Torquay while filming on location. John Cleese became fascinated with the behaviour of the owner, Donald Sinclair, later describing him as "the rudest man I've ever come across in my life." This behaviour included Sinclair throwing a timetable at a guest who asked when the next bus to town would arrive; and placing Python member Eric Idle's briefcase (put to one side by Idle while waiting for a car with Cleese) behind a wall in the garden on the suspicion that it contained a bomb. Sinclair justified his actions by claiming the hotel had "staff problems". He also criticised the American-born Terry Gilliam's table manners for not being "British" (that is, he switched hands with his fork whilst eating). Cleese and Booth stayed on at the hotel after filming, furthering their research of its owner. (Cleese later played a hotel owner called Donald Sinclair in the 2001 movie Rat Race.)
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