Basil Fawlty is not a man to be trifled with. Unfortunately if you’re staying at his hotel, you’ll not have much choice but to deal with the hysterical hotelier.
He has been completely renovated, remastered, and looks better than ever – just don’t expect his attitude to change. Just don’t mention the war.
Basil (John Cleese) and Sybil (Prunella Scales) run a hotel called Fawlty Towers. Their marriage could be described as adversarial, perhaps an understatement. Basil has to feign interest in all of his guests. He could run a first rate hotel if all of those guests weren’t getting in the way.
The hotel is staffed by waitress Polly Sherman (Connie Booth), Spanish waiter Manuel (Andrew Sachs), and Chef Terry (Brian Hall, in the second series). One consistent guest in the hotel is Major Gowen (Ballard Berkeley) who is the only one that Basil has some affection for. Miss Tibbs (Gilly Flower) and Miss Gatsby (Renee Roberts) are also permanent residents of the hotel and like Basil but their affections are not returned.
If Basil isn’t getting into trouble with his wife he always has to annoyingly deal with the patrons of the hotel. Either way will result in hilarity.
Sometimes the brightest and funniest sitcoms burn for a short time and then extinguish. For an all too short two series, Basil Fawlty would stand behind the desk at his hotel. However, that short series would ensure that “shark jumping” or “tired cast” would never set in and the show has only grown finer with time.
When lists of “Brit”coms are tallied, Fawlty Towers is number one or at least ranks near the top. The shows are funnier than ever, but even better they’ve been remastered to look better than ever (newly renovated in hotel talk). John Cleese, when he was with Monty Python, came across a Torquay vacation hotelier who bullied his guests, who just happened to be the Python stars.
The rest of the cast left, but Cleese stayed behind to study this rare bird. The character bounded around his head until Fawlty Towers opened its doors. Cleese may be the star of the show, but he’s given ample support by Prunella Scales as his life mate (Basil would groan at such a life sentence), bumbling non-English-speaker Manuel played with comedic class by Andrew Sachs, and Connie Booth’s Polly is always pulled into Basil’s schemes and performs admirably (and comedically). It may be a short stay but it’s long on laughs.
Just try and keep a straight face as Basil tries to make his German guests feel right at home.
Fawlty Towers is presented in fullscreen. Special features include commentaries. On disc one (aka series one) we get one by director/producer John Howard Davies and a new one by John Cleese on every episode.
On disc two (aka series two) we get one by director Bob Spiers and a separate new commentary by Cleese on every episode. Disc three gathers the rest of the special features. These include 28 minutes of 2009 interviews with Cleese, Booth, Sachs, Scales, Davies, and guest stars Bernard Cribbins, Geoffrey Palmer, Sabina Franklyn, Nicky Henson, and David Kelley. You also get some older interviews with Cleese (52 minutes), Sachs (25 minutes), and Scales (7 minutes).
“Helpful Staff” contains text filmographies of the cast and “Guest Registry” contains filmographies of the guest stars. The 11 minute “Torquay Tourist Office” looks at the real-life hotelier who inspired Cleese to create Basil Fawlty. Finally you get a 1 minute “Cheap Tatty Revue” that Cleese shot to introduced another show and 90 second of outtakes.
A classic British comedy series finally gets a room upgrade with this new set. You get the series remastered and looking spiff, new interviews with the cast, and you just may even get a chocolate on your pillow during your stay (providing you put it there yourself, don’t expect the front desk to do so).
Fawlty Towers: The Complete Collection Remastered is now available at Amazon . As of yet, there is not a release date for this version of the DVD in the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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