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Fawlty Towers is a British television sitcom written by John Cleese and Connie Booth, originally broadcast on BBC Two in 1975 and 1979. Two series of six episodes each were made. The series is set in Fawlty Towers, a dysfunctional fictional hotel in the English seaside town of Torquay in Devon. The plots centre on the tense, rude and put-upon owner Basil Fawlty (Cleese), his bossy wife Sybil, the sensible chambermaid Polly (Booth), and the hapless and English-challenged Spanish waiter Manuel. They show their attempts to run the hotel amidst farcical situations and an array of demanding and eccentric guests and tradespeople.
John Marwood Cleese is an English actor, comedian, screenwriter, producer, and presenter. Emerging from the Cambridge Footlights in the 1960s, he first achieved success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and as a scriptwriter and performer on The Frost Report. In the late 1960s, he cofounded Monty Python, the comedy troupe responsible for the sketch show Monty Python's Flying Circus. Along with his Python costars Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin, and Graham Chapman, Cleese starred in Monty Python films, which include Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), Life of Brian (1979), and The Meaning of Life (1983).
Bernard Joseph Cribbins was an English actor and singer whose career spanned over eight decades.
Prunella Margaret Rumney West Scales is an English retired actor. She portrayed Sybil Fawlty, the bossy wife of Basil Fawlty, in the BBC comedy Fawlty Towers, Queen Elizabeth II in A Question of Attribution by Alan Bennett and appeared in the documentary series Great Canal Journeys (2014–2021), travelling on narrowboats with her husband, fellow actor Timothy West.
Connie Booth is an American actress and writer. She has appeared in several British television programmes and films, including her role as Polly Sherman on BBC Two's Fawlty Towers, which she co-wrote with her then-husband John Cleese. In 1995, she quit acting and worked as a psychotherapist until her retirement.
Andreas Siegfried Sachs, known professionally as Andrew Sachs, was a German-born British actor. He made his name on British television and found his greatest fame for his portrayal of the comical Spanish waiter Manuel in Fawlty Towers.
"The Germans" is the sixth episode of the first series of the British television sitcom Fawlty Towers. Written by John Cleese and Connie Booth and directed by John Howard Davies, it was first broadcast on BBC2 on 24 October 1975.
The "Four Yorkshiremen" is a comedy sketch that parodies nostalgic conversations about humble beginnings or difficult childhoods. It features four men from Yorkshire who reminisce about their upbringing. As the conversation progresses they try to outdo one another, and their accounts of deprived childhoods become increasingly absurd.
Brian Charles Hall was a British actor. He is best remembered for his role as hotel chef Terry Hughes in the British sitcom Fawlty Towers.
Payne is a 1999 American sitcom adapted from the 1970s British television comedy Fawlty Towers. This adaptation, which was a mid-season replacement on CBS, originally aired from March 15 to May 4, 1999. It costars John Larroquette, who was also an executive producer for the series, and JoBeth Williams. Featured too as regular supporting characters are Julie Benz and Rick Batalla. Despite receiving the blessing of John Cleese, who reportedly agreed to be an "irregular cast member" and perform in a recurring role as a rival hotelier if Payne were renewed, the series was cancelled following the broadcast of its eighth episode. A total of nine episodes were filmed, but one was not aired as part of the series' original presentation on CBS.
Basil Fawlty is the main character of the 1970s British sitcom Fawlty Towers, played by John Cleese. The proprietor of the hotel Fawlty Towers, he is a cynical and misanthropic snob, desperate to attract hotel guests from the British upper class. His inept attempts to run an efficient hotel, however, usually end in farce. Possessing a dry, sarcastic wit, Basil has become an iconic British comedy character who remains widely known to the public despite only 12 half-hour episodes ever having been made.
Sybil Fawlty is a fictional character from the BBC sitcom Fawlty Towers. She is played by Prunella Scales. She is listed as 34 years old as seen on her medical chart in the 1975 episode "The Germans", presumably indicating she was born in 1941. Scales was 43 years old when Fawlty Towers began production.
Manuel is a fictional character from the BBC sitcom Fawlty Towers, played by Andrew Sachs. He reappeared for a small sketch with John Cleese in We Are Most Amused in November 2008.
Donald William Sinclair was the co-proprietor of the Gleneagles Hotel in Torquay, Devon, England. He helped manage the hotel after an extensive career as an officer in the Merchant Navy and the Royal Navy. During the Second World War, Sinclair twice survived the sinking of the ships on which he was serving.
"Waldorf Salad" is the third episode of the second series of the British television sitcom Fawlty Towers. Written by John Cleese and Connie Booth and directed by Bob Spiers, it was first broadcast on BBC2 on 5 March 1979.
Amanda's is an American sitcom television series based on the 1970s British sitcom Fawlty Towers that aired on ABC from February 10 to May 26, 1983. The series starred Bea Arthur as Amanda Cartwright, who owns a seaside hotel called "Amanda's by the Sea" and was Arthur's first return to series television since her sitcom Maude ended in 1978.
Claire Nielson is a Scottish actress primarily known for her television roles. On television, she played the wife of the belligerent American guest, Mr. Hamilton, in the "Waldorf Salad" episode of Fawlty Towers, appeared as Jean 'Porridge' Carter, Geoffrey Stock's secretary, in the popular 1960s crime series Ghost Squad and played the wife of Rikki Fulton's character in many sketches of the Scottish Hogmanay show Scotch and Wry from 1978 until 1993. Other TV credits include Warship, Sutherland's Law, Upstairs, Downstairs, Monarch of the Glen, The Brothers, The Two Ronnies, Take The High Road, Z-Cars, Special Branch, Thriller and Taggart. She also appeared as Barbara Grant in the 1971 film version of Kidnapped, opposite Michael Caine and Trevor Howard.
Polly Sherman is a fictional character in the BBC sitcom Fawlty Towers. Played by Connie Booth, she is Fawlty Towers' long-suffering waitress and hotel maid.
The Gleneagles Hotel was a hotel in Torquay, Devon, England. The 41-bed establishment, which opened in the 1960s, was the inspiration for Fawlty Towers, a British situation comedy first broadcast in the mid-1970s. John Cleese, and his then wife Connie Booth, were inspired to write the series after they had stayed at the hotel, where they witnessed the eccentric behaviour of its co-owner, Donald Sinclair, who ran the hotel with his wife, Beatrice, until they sold it in 1973. Later the hotel was managed by Best Western. The hotel closed in February 2015 and replaced by retirement apartments.
Fawlty Towers: The Play is a comedy play by John Cleese based on his TV sitcom of the same name that he co-wrote with Connie Booth.
References
Citations
- 1 2 3 4 Bright & Ross 2001, p. 150.
- 1 2 Gilberti, Ben (26 June 2002). "Waiter, There's Cork in My Wine" . The Washington Post . Archived from the original on 26 June 2020. Retrieved 31 August 2024.
- ↑ Bright & Ross 2001, p. 150–153.
- ↑ Kempton, Martin (March 2024). "The programmes". TV Studio History. Archived from the original on 20 April 2024. Retrieved 5 October 2024.
- 1 2 3 4 5 Bright & Ross 2001, p. 44.
- 1 2 Bright & Ross 2001, p. 192.
- 1 2 "The Government Inspector". Wimborne Drama Productions. Archived from the original on 22 May 2023. Retrieved 31 August 2024.
- ↑ "Fawlty Towers". BBC . 28 October 2014. Archived from the original on 15 January 2024. Retrieved 20 July 2024.
- ↑ Bright & Ross 2001, p. 113–114.
- ↑ Bright & Ross 2001, p. 113.
Works cited
- Bright, Morris; Ross, Robert (2001). Fawlty Towers: Fully Booked. London: BBC Worldwide. ISBN 0-563-53439-7.