All language subtitles for fawlty.towers.a.very.british.comedy.2025.1080p.web.h264-cbfm_track3_[eng]

MOOING

THEY LAUGH

I couldn't live without comedy.

What is the point
if you can't laugh every day,

and hopefully several times a day?

STEVEN BERKOFF: Fawlty Towers
is an all-time comedy classic...

When I was growing up,
Fawlty Towers was up there.

..keeping the nation in hysterics
for 50 years.

Do we think that's classic,
Fawlty Towers?

I do, I'm gonna say yes.
Yes.

One of the things
that makes Fawlty Towers brilliant

is John Cleese.
He's the master.

It's a quintessential slice
of old world Englishness

at a time of immense change.

The '70s were a funny time.

It was a time where Britain
was very much changing.

Immensely,
immensely wonderful programme.

A great British farce that was
almost canned before it began.

All this terrible feedback
came back, and yet it still aired.

That's BBC, isn't it, though?

But it's now more controversial
than ever,

with the BBC censoring some scenes.

Racism and sexism, whoo.

It was offensive to everyone.

The bottom line is,
it's not acceptable.

So, is it still funny?

We can't say anything these days.

Despite all of the head-slapping
and goose-stepping.

To try and cut it out and replace it

would just be cutting up
a piece of classic comedy history.

We've assembled a group
of baby boomers and Gen Zs,

who are joined by an expert panel

to help guide us
through this British classic.

They'll be watching it back through
the lens of today and yesteryear

to see if there really should be
the cancellation of Fawlty Towers.

It's 9pm on Friday,
19th of September, 1975,

and the nation is settling down
for the evening.

It's an altogether simpler time.

A time when we would sit down
in unison,

turn on the box and soak up
what was being served to us.

TV ANNOUNCER: BBC Two, hello again.
Good evening to you.

Now time for a new sitcom.

Pack your bags and let's check in
to Fawlty Towers.

ENGINE CLICKING

Come on. Come on.

Start!

SHOUTING: Start,
you vicious bastard! Come on!

THEY CHUCKLE

That episode became quite famous
for his beating the car.

It's quintessentially Basil.

Basil Fawlty is a man at odds
with the modern world,

getting very angry
at an Austin Countryman

on a rainy street in a country

where the cars never seem
to work any more.

ENGINE CLICKING

I'm warning you,
if you don't start...!

I'll count to three!

One... two... three! Right!
That's it!

I've had enough!

You've tried it on
just once too often.

Right! Well, don't say
I haven't warned you!

That is a scene that's stuck
in my head for decades.

I think the beauty of Basil Fawlty
personifying the car.

He basically spoke at it.

He's like, "If you don't start
in the next three seconds...

"Right, that's it, that's it."

We've all been there.

I've laid it on the line to you
time and time again!

Right! Well, this is it!

I'm gonna give you
a damn good thrashing!

THEY CHUCKLE

HE LAUGHS

THEY CHUCKLE

Grrr. And the... "I warned you."

I love this scene. I really do.

This always makes me laugh so much,
doesn't it you?

When he thrashes the car,
that, to me,

is the apex of Basil Fawlty's
character and his comedy.

Do I think we can relate to that?

When we're frustrated,
I think probably, yeah.

Maybe not bashing your own car.

That's a bit extreme,

but you just get a bit frustrated
and you try to, like, act out.

You can see his frustration
just absolutely boils over.

I think he's quite funny.

Like, there's this tall man shouting
at his car in the middle of,

like, a rainy British street.

I think that's... Yeah.
Who would have thought it?

The Gen Zs actually like it.

But that was something that
everybody could enjoy, at any age.

HE LAUGHS

We've given both the Gen Zs
and the baby boomers

a service bell
to ring their approval,

and a kipper
if they think something stinks.

So, what do they think so far?

I would give that a bell.

It's up in the top three, isn't it?
I mean, that is right up there.

Definitely.
It's so funny.

Oh, that's a bell.

Remarkably, the baby boomers
and the Gen Zs

actually see eye-to-eye.

For the baby boomers,

by the mid-1970s,

John Cleese's comedy was a staple
in British households.

I look down on him
because I am upper class.

I look up to him...

But much like Cleese's class sketch,
there can be a big difference

between the baby boomer
and the Gen Zs.

I am middle class.

I'm a baby boomer.

I look down on Gen Z
and modern society,

and I think everybody
is far too sensitive these days.

I'm Gen Z, and I look up
at baby boomers

and think they're all stuck
in the past.

The past is 50 years ago now,
and Britain in 1975

is going through
a bit of a rough time.

There were three-day weeks,

collapsing governments,
kidnappings and bombings.

Then a vote for stronger ties
with Europe meant

more Germans in more British hotels.

There were plenty of people going,
"Yes, we are open to this,"

and, "Welcome to our island."

And welcome to Torquay,
and a tiny part of little Britain

called Fawlty Towers, a place
where nothing has really changed

and where everyone still acts
like Britain rules the waves.

The only image I have of Torquay
in the '70s is Fawlty Towers.

HE CHUCKLES

I think it's become a pillar
for how British society was seen

and satirised
back in that period of time.

You've got characters
that represent social types.

Joining car thrashing
hotelier Basil Fawlty

are a memorable range of eccentrics.

There's a bit where the Major
walks past with a gun,

and Fawlty takes a second
to clock it.

That's classic slapstick.

A huge amount of the actual laugh
is not the thing,

it's the reaction to the thing.

The Major was the voice of old.
He was the pre-war voice.

He was the person
that would come in and say things

to show that even 1970s Torquay
wasn't like that any more.

But did anybody find it weird
that the Major seemed to live there?

In the 1970s,

when there wasn't really the same
social care that there is now,

a lot of retired people
would actually just take to hotels

and live in hotels.

Then there are the staff
who conspire against each other.

I've gone blank.

Bird-brain!

No, no, no, that came in third.
Er...

Fishwife!
What?! No!

Polly gets
into a total mess about it,

and they make that into
a real dramatic comic episode.

Erm, it's quite wonderful.

Polly is the most sensible character
in the hotel.

She's the most capable.

If she was in another comedy,

I think they would have her
in a thing with loads of cleavage.

She'd be a dolly bird,

and she'd just be an idiot
and all that stuff.

No. She's the smart one.
She's the clever one.

Accompanying Polly
is the hotel's waiter.

HE CLEARS THROAT

I know nothing.

What?

What?
I know nothing.

The physicality of Andrew Sachs
is great.

I think his vocal delivery is great.

John Cleese was making a comic point
about what was reality in Britain.

There were a lot of people
who came to do exactly the work

that Manuel was doing
at Fawlty Towers.

And finally,
the hoteliers themselves.

Firstly, Basil's wife, Sybil.

Would you like to deal with this,
Basil?

So you see we couldn't possibly
manage it for at least three weeks.

But if you want it done
straightaway,

I suggest you try someone like, uh,
oh, what's his name?

It's, uh...
O'Reilly?

BASIL: 'Bravo, Polly!
Well done, girl.

'But listen,
where are you speaking from?'

She's in here with me, Basil.

That's very,
very good physical comedy.

And also with the character
of Sybil,

who you know is eventually
going to find out everything,

because it's in the nature of Sybil

that she always does find out
about everything.

But the idea that they're getting
one over on Sybil is very well done.

And of course, Basil himself.

Thank you, dear. Thank you so much.

Don't know where I'd be without you.

Land of the living, probably.

It really establishes their dynamic
between the two of them.

How she's gonna tell him
what to do and how to do it.

He's quite a depressed character,
really.

He talks about
how everything's pointless.

And how, you know,
"Do you remember when we had fun?"

It's a satire
of an old-fashioned world

in chaos and decline.

The more you understand
about history,

the better you are placed

to parody, satirise
everything that's happening.

So, what was happening
in 1970s Torquay?

There's an origin story here, right?

The radioactive spider bite moment
is when they're making Monty Python

and they stay in this hotel
in Torquay.

Impressive, Doc.

Never before has Basil Fawlty
been compared to Spider-Man.

The establishment in question
was the Gleneagles Hotel,

which was ideally located

when Monty Python
and the Flying Circus

was filming in nearby Paignton.

Torquay, which was very refined,

you know, very conservative
and all of that,

you'd expect to have good service
and very polite...

Genteel. "Genteel" is the word.

But not in this hotel.

They get
this incredibly rude hotelier.

Who was grumpy and unhelpful and...

obviously such an unpleasant
but interesting character.

Mr Grumpy was a former naval officer

and now hotelier
called Donald Sinclair.

Most of the Monty Python cast
checked out early

to find somewhere
with better service,

but not Connie Booth
and John Cleese.

They stayed on
and started to study him.

So that's where the germ
of Basil came from.

Well, I must be punished, then,
mustn't I?

You're a naughty boy, Fawlty!

Don't do it again!

What am I gonna do?!
She's gonna be back at lunchtime!

He starts hitting himself
on the bum,

which, you know, to watch a man,
six-foot-five, hitting himself,

particularly in that weird,
ill-fitting jacket

that he's wearing at the time,

sort of somehow heightens
the comedy of that.

We were staying
in this hotel in Torquay,

and this guy behind the desk,

who's now, fortunately,
gone to Canada, so...

relieved certain legal problems,
fascinated me.

Just because the guests
were a nuisance.

And when Connie and I wanted
to write something

about five years later, erm,
we sat down one morning,

and by about 11:30, we knew we were
gonna write about this hotel.

But before they wrote Fawlty Towers,
Cleese wrote an episode

of Doctor At Large
called No Ill Feeling,

and gave the impatient hotelier
character a trial run.

Name?
Upton.

George!
What?

Yeah, all right. I mean...

Upton, Mr Upton.

Well, Dr Up... It doesn't matter.

Yes, I know!

It's not anything like as good
as Fawlty Towers.

I think one of the things is,
the character in Doctor At Large

is no Basil, he's just rude.

He's not as lower middle class
as Basil.

He's more working class.

He hasn't got the kind
of affected accent that Basil has.

So the snobbery that drives a lot
of Basil's mania is not there.

But sprinkle a bit more comedy
over the rudeness,

add a little snobbery,
and of course, John Cleese, and...

Could you put both your names,
please?

Well, will you give me a date?

I only use one.
You don't have a first name?

No, I am Lord Melbury,
so I simply sign Melbury.

Go away.

I'm so sorry
to have kept you waiting.

The phone is quite a good
comic device in Fawlty Towers,

and it's used really well
in this scene.

Fawlty Towers is one of the best,

and it is because everything
about it is so intensely comedic.

And he suddenly realises
he's talking to aristocracy,

and he's such a snob.

A lot of the humour
came from the fact

that Basil kowtows
to anyone with status,

and views everyone
with regards to their class.

Basil Fawlty is obviously gonna be
a sycophant, isn't he,

to anyone who comes in?

And I think that the class structure
was even more defined

back in the '70s
than it would be now.

He is somebody who's very conscious
of his position in the class system.

So anybody who he considers
above him, he will fawn over.

Now, is there something, something,
anything that I can do for you?

Anything.

Yes. Well, I have filled this in.

Oh, please don't bother with that.

Now, a room! A room, a special room.
A single? A double? A suite?

Well, we don't have any suites,
but we have some beautiful doubles.

Oh, no, no, no, just a single.
Just a single, absolutely!

How very wise, if I may say so,
Your Honour.

With a bath?
Oh, naturally. Naturally.

Naturellement!

BASIL LAUGHS

I'm not too sure
that there are many people

who could deliver lines
like Basil Fawlty, like John Cleese.

But Cleese and Booth were about
to do the most shocking thing yet.

You would no way be able
to air that today.

STEVEN BERKOFF: In the 1970s,
Fawlty Towers was a huge hit,

but one episode in particular
was the most controversial ever.

It's only a bit of comedy, though.

How bad can it be?

Well, it turns out to be really bad.

Some of the language
in the next scene is so offensive,

it's rarely broadcast,
given today's standards.

And the strange thing was
that throughout the morning,

she kept referring to the Indians
as ni...

'I said...

' "BLEEP are the West Indians.
These people..." '

I was not expecting that.

' "No, no, no," she said...'
' "No, no, no, no, no," I said.'

That... That was a hard watch.
Erm...

The unsayable racial slurs
are the "W-word"

and what is often referred to now
as the "N-word".

I must have been keen on her
because, er,

because I took her to see India!

India?
At The Oval.

India? And in fact, it was India
playing cricket at The Oval.

None of them really understands

the true meaning
of what they're saying.

And that's funny.
That's what makes it funny.

"No, no, no, no, no," I said.

"BLEEP are the West Indians.
These people are BLEEP."

You would no way be able
to air that today.

How uncomfortable was that,
watching that?

Well, it was... It...

I was trying to understand
why it was funny.

"No, no, no," she said,
"All cricketers are BLEEP."

There's a lot of words in there

that nowadays people would go,
"Oof."

We were a little bit, I think.

It's quite shocking, to be fair.

For those type of derogatory terms
just to be used on TV like that,

it just makes it more acceptable.

It's a bit too much.

In those days, it was funny,
and it still is funny to me.

But, erm, you know,
it just wouldn't...

People would be reporting it and...

SHE CHUCKLES

I can't say things like that.

I'm gonna give that a kipper.

I would definitely say kipper.

Like, derogatory terms, I just feel
like it was not funny at all.

Can I be controversial
and just give it the bell?

Because from a comedy perspective,
it makes me chuckle.

And for me to say...
to give it the kipper,

I think I wouldn't be
telling the truth.

The Major's controversial use
of the N-word

has divided the generations.

And it also is a reflection
of what you could get away with

back during the '70s,

which is a sad indictment of...
of media back then as well.

I mean, it was of its time,
and I think if somebody

doesn't enjoy watching it,
they don't need to watch it.

But how was it ever OK
to even say that on British TV?

Well, it almost never made it
past the pilot stage.

Connie and John
wrote Fawlty Towers together,

which famously took them
almost six weeks for each episode

due to them refining the plots
and maximising the comedy.

But at the time,
not everyone saw the potential.

BBC script editor Ian Main
was handed the pilot script,

and promptly sent back
a rather scathing response.

I think this is
another classic story, really.

Somebody sees the first episode,

it's not what they're expecting,
and so they write it off.

They can't see
the obvious value in it.

Other comments from execs questioned
why it was all set in one place,

and why would he
leave Monty Python for this?

I love the fact that all
of these terrible things came back.

All this terrible feedback
came back, and yet it still aired.

That's BBC, isn't it, though?

And look, 50 years later,

I guarantee, somewhere,
they're taking credit for it.

"Yeah, that was...
That was my idea. I put that on."

SHE LAUGHS

Nevertheless,
on 19th of September, 1975,

Fawlty Towers aired
for the first time,

and the laughter began
even before the action did

with this iconic theme tune.

MUSIC: 'Fawlty Towers'
by Dennis Wilson

ALL: # Da, da, da, da, da, da
Da, da, da, da, da, da... #

THEY LAUGH

The very much loved music
and the accompanying hotel sign

soon became a talking point.

You used to love those anagrams,
didn't you?

I like that, to be fair.
I like that. That's...

I think that's, like...
I think that's clever, I like that.

And, like,
it's something fun every week.

Like, if you're watching the show
every Friday night,

you can be like,
"Oh, did you spot it?

"Did you see what it was?"
I think that's quite fun.

But you always imagine
there was some vandal,

or somebody who had a thing
against Basil,

coming by the sign every week
and changing it.

That kind of feeling to it.
Yeah, yes.

Some of those, I remember, like,
howling with laughter.

"Flowery twats" is one
of the few pure anagrams,

like, every letter used.

It's a perfect anagram.

"Flowery twats", you would never
say that in front of your parents.

THEY CHUCKLE

There are one or two
which sneak in there

which are quite naughty, actually.

I just feel like that's such, like,
a British thing to say.

Like, no-one else
really says "twat".

And, I don't know, that just...
That tickled me.

People don't realise how obscene
the word "twat" is, actually.

It's another word for BLEEP,
basically.

Shush. Don't tell
the Gen Zs that, Prof,

they're just starting to enjoy it.

A little bit like The Simpsons -
every opening is different.

I think they had a different sign
for every episode,

which was quite fun.

It has that magical attraction,

and that is what's so great
about it.

And that is what made it
as famous as it is.

A sitcom lives or dies
by how memorable its theme tune is.

And if you can't sing to it,
then I'm sorry, it's...

Just cancel the whole show.

The question is,
do our discerning viewers agree?

Yeah, I would give the anagrams
a bell.

Absolutely a bell for me.
What do you think?

Yeah.

Once into the action,

the fast-paced farce is driven
by Cleese's character, Basil.

Farce is a theatrical form,
originally, and it...

And farces are kind of
manic comedies, really,

where there's high stakes.

They're built on tension
and things going wrong.

It wasn't just a farce,

cos we'd seen farces before
and loved them.

Just so much more
than anything we'd seen before.

I think John Cleese is probably one
of the funniest people you'd meet.

And the plots often centred round
Basil's fear of his wife, Sybil,

and his desire to elevate
the standing of the hotel.

You really wonder how,
in calmer times,

the relationship between Basil
and Sybil could ever work.

He gets the last laugh,

because the idiot that he is
landed Sybil.

She's the idiot that married him.

Like, in that regard,
he's the genius.

He married a woman
that keeps his hotel afloat.

Their encounters had the audience
in stitches.

But does the portrayal
of Basil and Sybil's relationship

stand the test of time,
or is it downright sexist?

Basil?
Yes, dear?

Are you going to hang the picture?
Yes, I am, dear. Yes. Yes.

When?
Well, when I've... When I've...

Well, why don't you do it now?

I'm doing this, dear.
I'm doing the menu.

You've got all morning
to do the menu.

Why don't you hang the picture now?

I like their dynamic,
like, as a couple.

I think that it's believable.

I think that's very realistic
of a couple at the time.

Like, I enjoyed that.
Yeah.

Well?
Yes, all right! I won't do the menu!

You don't realise how long it takes
to do the menu, but, no,

I'll hang the picture now.

If the menus are late,
it doesn't matter,

the guests can all come and look
at the picture until they're ready.

Lower.

Lower.

That's a typical Basil and Sybil
exchange, isn't it?

She knows what she wants,
and he knows what he wants,

but he always has to give in
the most.

That's right.
Yeah.

I do wonder, why didn't she...?
Why isn't she doing the menu?

What does she do?
Like, what does she do?

Maybe she is the smart one
for marrying him.

She gets a whole hotel
and doesn't do anything...

Oh, I'm gonna have to rewatch it.

The nagging wife routine
wasn't just a one-trick pony.

Or should that be a one-trick moose?

Yes, Fawlty Towers. Hello?

I was just doing it,
you stupid woman.

I just put it down to come here
to be reminded by you

to do what I'm already doing.

What is the point of reminding me
to do what I'm already doing?!

I mean, what is the bloody point?
I'm doing it, aren't I?!

Because of their dynamic, like,

you can see through their acting
that it's, like...

They still love each other.
Like, it's... Like, it's banter.

But it's just really giving the idea
that the wife is so annoying.

They're trying to normalise
this type of relationship.

I just... I don't find
the humour in it at all.

But many viewers
did find the humour,

and the moose will forever
be associated with Fawlty Towers.

Mr Moose is up.

It's done, done, done.
It's up.

It's down again.

Did you use a wall plug?

Give it to me. Give it to... Argh!

He went much, much further
than he needed to go.

But it showed, you know,
how dedicated he was

to making it as realistic
as possible.

And at the same time,
as comic as possible.

Sybil wouldn't be the sort of person
to stay in that relationship

if she didn't love him -
she'd just have walked.

She's far too strong a woman,

which was great to have
a strong woman like that.

She'd just have walked.

But Sybil wasn't
the only female lead.

Connie Booth played aspiring artist
and hotel maid Polly.

Polly's a point-of-view character.

She's the most reasonable character
in the entire sitcom.

It was very much a comedy cliche

of the straight-laced wife
and the bit of fluff.

Women very often were portrayed
on television

as a pair of boobs on legs,
in a way.

Women weren't exactly divided
between those two.

But in very broad terms, they were
very recognisable characters.

Polly's character on the whole
wasn't sexualised,

apart from perhaps in one scene.

POLLY: I'm sorry, Mr Fawlty.

Look here, Polly.
We were just saying goodbye...

What sort of a place do you think
this is, a massage parlour?

I mean, we are running a nice,
respectable, high...

Sorry, did I say something funny?
No, I was just looking for...

No, no, obviously, I said
something frightfully comic.

No, it's just the heat.

So long as I amuse the staff.
I mean, that's all I'm here for.

That was the only time in the series

that I can remember
where you ever saw Polly

with that sort of dress code.

Well done, Nick,
you managed to safely navigate that.

Viewing it in the 21st century
in the context of today,

there would be people who would
find that offensive and think,

"Oh, yes, you know, as a woman,
she's being objectified."

But then I think
what they're doing is challenging

the societal attitudes
that were held towards women,

and the way that women
were perceived.

One other thing, Polly.

I'm afraid we've abandoned the idea
of the topless afternoon tea.

So if you wouldn't mind changing

before you go in
where people may be trying to eat.

I was going to.

There's no objectification
of women going on here,

because the whole of Fawlty Towers

is about caricatures
and stereotypes.

To be fair, she's putting herself
in that situation

to be sexualised
while she's doing her job.

PHONE RINGS

Hello, Fawlty Titties.

When he answers the phone and says,
"Oh, Fawlty Titties,"

erm, you realise that he, too,
has fallen for the whole situation.

And that's the brilliance
of the comedy there.

But Basil doesn't just push
his staff's buttons.

He's not above grabbing
a few things either.

Like in this creepy scene.

Just turn left out of the gate
and straight on,

and it's on your right.

You left this downstairs.

I was trying the switch. I'm sorry.
Sybil, Sybil, Sybil!

I didn't know she was there.
I was trying the switch.

It's choreographed so perfectly.

I mean, it is offensive
when you look at it, but in a way,

in those days, it didn't
give offence because it was just...

It all flowed and seemed so natural.

I've read about it, Basil.
The male menopause, it's called.

Oh, and one word of advice -
if you're going to grope a girl,

have the gallantry to stay
IN the room with her

while you're doing it.

This is a brilliant line.

"If you're going to grope a girl,
at least be in the same room."

That's so, so wonderful.

Those two scenes
were absolutely typical.

The hand coming round onto...
onto the bosom.

It wasn't as shocking then
as it is now.

Our generational viewers
will be the judge of that.

Yeah, it's a timid bell, but a bell.

I would say it's a bell cos
it's showing typical relationships.

I'll definitely give it a bell.

I thought that was probably
the funniest clip so far.

Who was it that said
this generation are snowflakes?

Coming up, we'll be taking
a closer look at Manuel.

There are elements of the way

that the character
of Manuel's handled

that are uncomfortable today.

And why did the BBC cancel
one of the episodes?

I don't think it was right then,

it's not right now,
and it never will be.

STEVEN BERKOFF: In the 1970s,
if you changed the channel,

the chances are
it would be to another sitcom,

and they were lapped up
by the British audience.

Some of the things like,
obviously, Fawlty Towers,

but then we did, like,
Till Death Us Do Part and so on.

Did you find that funny?
I thought it was... Alf Garnett.

Monty Python's really good,
Only Fools And Horses,

but I haven't seen Fawlty Towers.
LAUGHTER

Only Fools And Horses
was actually 1981,

but that is still over 20 years
before these Gen Zs were born.

That makes me feel very old.

I have an old people's bus pass now.

Come on,
you don't use the bus, Sir Trevor!

The very first series of
Fawlty Towers ran for six episodes,

but that was very nearly
the end of it.

For us, it was a release,
because somehow I think, too,

in the relationship
of Sybil and Basil,

we were able to get out
a lot of our frustrations

with each other through
those characters,

and, um... it was a terrific time.

It was really good.
It was kind of like therapy.

Those frustrations never went away.

In 1978, Booth and Cleese divorced,

and Connie later said
marriage counselling was crucial

to them making a second series,
which later aired in 1979.

12 perfect episodes, and you can
watch them time and time again,

you laugh every time.

You laugh every time
at the same place.

One character that brought a lot
of those laughs is Manuel.

You see, I speak English well.

I learn it from a book.

ENGLISH ACCENT: Hello. I am English.

Manuel is lovable.
He's an adorable character.

When I was watching it as a kid,

I used to absolutely identify
with Manuel.

The portrayal of that character
by Andrew Sachs was brilliant.

Of course, Manuel wasn't English.

All together now.

He's from Barcelona.
From Barcelona.

AS MANUEL: "I am Manuel.
I am from Barcelona."

He's hired the cheapest waiter
he could get,

somebody from Barcelona.

And Andrew Sachs, the actor,

was neither Spanish
nor English-born.

What's interesting
about Andrew Sachs

is that he was actually born
in Germany,

and he came over
right before the war, as a child,

and lived in England.

Sachs later became an actor
in London's West End,

but he also appeared
in corporate training videos

by a company called Video Arts,
owned by John Cleese.

Incredibly, he wasn't being paid
enough for Fawlty Towers.

At the time, it wasn't uncommon
for the nation's biggest stars

to get paid modest sums.

John Cleese was paid £6,000
in 1975 for 43 weeks' work,

writing and performing in
the first series of Fawlty Towers.

That's just over £63,000
in today's money.

Oh, Mike,
I've noticed that you are probably

in the early stages
of a severe nervous breakdown,

so I suggest a personal crisis
meeting this Friday at 4:35,

immediately following the
regional sales figures presentation.

How the films work is that you see
characters being unreasonable,

so you can sort of see, in a way,

Fawlty is a bit like a twist
on that, isn't it?

The fact that Cleese had
this company, Video Arts,

where he was bringing actors in
to work with him

and play these comedic characters,
would have made casting easier.

And I adore people with problems.

In fact, the worse the problem,
the more I adore them.

Video Arts was brilliant

because a corporate training video
could be as dry as ditchwater.

It must have been very useful
for John and Connie

to see this array of actors
and to say,

"Well, look.
Oh, gosh, she's fantastic,"

or, "He's brilliant," and be able
to give work to these budding stars.

I'd been working with John Cleese
in the early '70s

on some training films
for his company, Video Arts.

And during the making
of one of those films,

he brought up this pilot
that he'd written for the BBC,

and would I like to play
the Spanish waiter?

"I love the idea. Thank you, John.

"But could you make him
a German waiter?

"Because I'm not sure
I can do a Spanish accent."

And I come from Germany.
German's my first language.

John Cleese said,
"No, no, it has to be a Spaniard,"

which, again, with the number
of digs that he makes

at Manuel being from Barcelona,
you go,

"Where did that stereotype...?
What stereotype are you playing on?"

Ah, good question, Ria.
I'm glad you asked.

Spain experienced a huge wave
of emigration in the 1970s,

particularly from Barcelona.

This was in part
down to General Franco,

who ruled Spain as a dictator
after winning the Spanish Civil War.

I think it's significant
because of the increase

in the Spanish population
of British Isles at that time.

So I buckled down to it,

mugged up the accent on the way
to the studio, as it were,

and we got on with it.

John Cleese might have moaned
about £6,000,

but Andrew Sachs only got £350
for all 12 episodes.

"Andrew, this is definitely
your role."

He went, "Can we make it German?"
They went, "No, it's Spanish."

He goes,
"I'm not sure I can do Spanish."

They go, "That's all right.
Still your role.

"We're only gonna pay you 350 quid
for 12 episodes."

And he still went, "OK."

And for the British audience,

the language barrier made for
some highly comedic moments.

LAUGHTER

Throw it away.
Que?

Throw it away.
Throw it away.

Throw it away!

Now!

Throw it...

English isn't his first language.

That opens up the door
to loads of language gags.

Throwing away the grapefruit
is brilliant because,

yet again,
Basil can't make himself understood.

Manuel really trying, but failing.

And then the actual throw is genius
because it's a non-obvious throw.

It's not just down onto the floor.
It's not at Basil.

It's just sideways. Sideways!

It's another angle to get a laugh.

You know that "throw it away"?

Bang! Hits that kid on the head.

I do think that situation was funny.

Saying, "Throw it away,"
and he throws it at the customers.

I've waitressed before.

If someone chucks something
at a customer, that's funny.

We're gonna laugh about it, but...

"I know nothing," he said.
"I know nothing." Yeah.

Whilst Basil
didn't seem to know Spanish,

Cleese and Booth did,

which helped them to write
some of the best gags.

BELL DINGS

Manuel.
Si, senor?

There is too much butter
on those trays.

Que? There is too much butter
on those trays.

No. No, no, senor.
Not... Not "on those trays".

No, sir. Uno, dos, tres.

It becomes this incredible wordplay.

How they worked that out,
I don't know,

but it comes so fast,
and so it's pure joy.

What's brilliant about that is,
yeah, you need to kind of get

that he's saying "one, two, three"
in Spanish

to kind of get the point
of that gag.

I mean, I think Cleese and Booth
are really, really good

at writing language gags.

So, I think the best example
would be Mrs Richards and Manuel.

I specifically asked for a sea view
in my written confirmation,

so please make sure I have it.

Que?

What?
Que?

K?
Si.

C?

KC?

KC? What are you trying to say?

"K?" "Si." "CK?"

"What?" "No, que, 'what'."
"CK Watt? Is that the owner?"

You know, that's fantastic writing.

Mrs Richards, fantastic.
She was wonderful.

She was just...

She was just fantastic.

No, no, no, no. Que, "what".
K Watt?

Si. Que, what.

CK Watt?
Yes!

LAUGHTER

Who is CK Watt?
Que?

Is it the manager, Mr Watt?
Oh, manager!

He is?
Ah, Mr Fawlty.

What?
Fawlty.

It's clever.
Like, the plots are clever,

and the character writing's clever,
and the physicality's clever.

The wordplay is also clever.

He's not explaining himself
correctly,

and he's misunderstanding
what he's saying anyway.

So I think the joke's on both
of them, so I'll give it a bell.

BELL DINGS

Yeah, it's a bell.
Bell, bell.

Bell for me.

But Basil's frustrations
with communicating with Manuel

often led to violence.

This, Basil's wife. This, Basil.

This, smack on head.

It's comedy violence.
It's like cartoon violence.

It's like Tom and Jerry.
People don't get hurt.

Manuel, let me explain.

Agh!

In Laurel and Hardy,
in every episode,

there was that kind of scenario

where there was a slap or a kick...
It was classic.

..or a poke in the eye.
Yeah.

And it made me laugh,
and I viewed that there

no different than Laurel and Hardy.
You know they're not actually hurt.

But the joke comes across,
his frustration, what he's doing,

but it's slapstick, they're not
actually hurt, so it's OK. Yeah.

So, like...

But what will a generation more used
to duvet days and working from home

make of this?

And it's just, like, internalising
that that kind of violence is OK.

Like, I love a bit of slapstick,
but that's just...

That feels really harmful.

Like, I didn't enjoy that.
Yeah. Yeah.

It wasn't just the violence
Manuel was subjected to.

You want room 16 for him?

Yeah, with a bath, you dago twit.

You mad? You mad?
You pay for room first.

There's a lot of use
of the word "dago",

which, even in those days,
was demeaning.

It's a corruption of the name Diego.

So, it's just the name Diego
kind of uttered simply as "dago".

It probably has
its highest frequency of usage

in Fawlty Towers, actually.

I don't think many other TV sitcoms
actually use the term very much.

I think it's really unfortunate.

And why was Manuel so...
well, Spanish?

The awareness of stereotypes
was always going to be there,

but there was probably less
of an awareness

of how harmful it could be
to portray those stereotypes.

This one, the joke is,
like, purely on him.

You're supposed to laugh at him

for being a Spanish immigrant
who doesn't speak the language.

I think he does have
an exaggerated foreignness.

I loved Manuel.
I really loved Manuel.

I can't stress that enough.

But I do think
that there are elements

of the way that the character
of Manuel was handled

that are uncomfortable today.

The Brits would be very
condescending towards the Spanish.

That was a kind of arrogant way
that... in general,

that the British felt
towards foreigners.

Because we speak English, and
if they don't understand English,

well, you know, "What's wrong
with them?" sort of thing.

Which is completely unjustified.

It's, like, belittling him,

just making it seem like
people that are "foreigners",

quote unquote, just...
they don't understand.

They don't comprehend stuff.
They're slow. They just...

Yeah, they're just there,

and the English people are,
like, kind of superior.

It was clever in that it highlighted
the British attitude,

which was archaic,
when you think about it,

that somehow, just because
we spoke English, we were superior.

I hope the wider audience would see
that that wasn't supposed to happen.

Well, what do our audience think?

I'd definitely give it a kipper.

If somebody says something
and it's funny

and it doesn't make sense, you say,
"Don't worry, he's from Barcelona."

And people still, when they
misunderstand things, say, "Que?"

It's one of the major catchlines
from Fawlty Towers.

Definitely bell.
Good for you.

Coming up,
it wasn't just the Spanish

getting it from both barrels.

Here we go again.
It's Pick On Ireland Week again.

And Cleese goes on the defensive.

Where I would disagree with Cleese

is the whole,
"You're supposed to laugh AT him."

I'm blown away that that is...
brave, I suppose.

STEVEN BERKOFF: By the 1970s,
television sets were commonplace,

with over 90% of UK households
owning one.

Quality of the TV was better because
there was only three channels.

Three channels, yeah.

So the quality of the programme had
to be good to attract the viewer.

And now our viewers of Gen Zs
and baby boomers

are binge-watching the entire
12 episodes of Fawlty Towers.

And one of the standout episodes
is The Builders.

When will you finish
our garden wall?

We are tired of having
that pile of bricks blocking...

Listen, I told you not to call.

My wife thinks Stubbs is
doing the doors.

Basil has yet again
made a poor decision.

The poor decision is
to bring in builders

that he knows to be incompetent

because it's gonna save him
a few bob.

And so he has to hide it from Sybil.

Now, that's a great little bit
of fuel to drive the farce.

The phone's used many times
in the series.

In this case,
this is an interesting one

because he's having
a double conversation.

He's talking to O'Reilly

whilst pretending to talk
to the builder that Sybil wants.

Yeah, that's right.

Yeah. It's clever. It is clever.

That's such a comic construction
which works so brilliantly well

because Basil sets it up,

much to Sybil's, er, disagreement.

If you study comedy,
you'll recognise it for what it is.

"We're gonna hire in
someone who's rubbish.

"What's gonna happen?
They're gonna screw it up.

"And then we remove
anyone with competence

"that can oversee the rubbish,"
and then hilarity ensues.

And who is the most incompetent
character in Fawlty Towers?

Sin ofender, Manuel.

I go upstairs...

Ah, si, is easy.

..for a little sleep.
Is difficult.

For siesta.
Siesta? Little sleep?

Yes.
Ah, same in Spanish!

When O'Reilly's men come,
you must wake me.

What I thought
was interesting here is,

they wanted to have Manuel deal with
a very difficult situation.

So, they've set it up.
So, he's there on his own.

There's no Sybil,
there's no Basil, there's no Polly.

You are man with "Orally".
What?

You Orally man.
What does that mean?

You Orally!
You watch it.

Where Orally?!
What's he going on about?

He means O'Reilly.
Wh...? Oh!

GIGGLES

We are Orally men.

Thick as a plank.

We still say "Orally men".
"Should we get the Orally men in?"

I mean, whatever's...

You know, a plumber or a builder,
"Should we get the Orally men in?"

I like the scripting there
because, erm...

it means there's no way Manuel's
gonna know what needs doing,

so it absolutely ensures that, er,
later on in the episode,

that things have been
completely set up.

The cheap O'Reilly builders
from Ireland

do indeed make a mess of it,

which sends Basil into a panic,
knowing Sybil is on her way home.

Rather you than me, Basil.

There's a lot of physicality
in Fawlty Towers.

There's a lot of hitting in it,
which I didn't like.

But there's one scene
that I thought was really well done.

HE SOBS AND MOANS

Come on!

LAUGHTER

Initially, you go,
"Whoa, where are you taking this?"

because it's believable,
and it's believable

because he's been hitting
everybody else up to this point,

and he's been beating up Manuel
every other episode.

That's quite weird, right?

Cos he's a big guy
going to hit a woman.

And, you know,
it's not an OK thing to do.

So, when he got slapped by Polly,

I think that seemed
perfectly acceptable

because that was a woman
fighting back.

And I think we all thought that
then, "Oh, good."

Again!

Harder!

Right, I'll call O'Reilly.

LAUGHTER

She slaps him another three
or four times to snap him out of it.

It's actually a really interestingly
choreographed scene.

We need that. We need her to slap
him back after he went for her,

because even in 1975,
that was a step too far.

Really, really interesting scene.

Cleese and Booth's scripts
are often a portal

into the life of the 1970s
and its wider society.

So, why were the builders Irish?

The Irish construction industry
in Britain in the '70s,

when this was made, was to the fore,

and every second builder
probably was Irish.

They'd come over
from the '30s onwards,

and they were helping
rebuild Britain after the war.

And, you know, 12% of nurses
in the NHS were Irish in the '70s.

Ireland in the '70s was
quite miserable, to be honest.

The economy was in ruins in Ireland,
like, for a long time.

That's probably why
a lot of Irish people up to then

had emigrated to England.

But rather than welcome them
with open arms,

the Irish immigrants received
a hostile reception.

In general,
we were terribly disrespectful

to people from Ireland,

who were a part of the backbone

of some of the services
that we all needed.

Two stereotypes
around Irish people -

one, they're supposed to be stupid.

The other is that they're likely to
be involved in the building trade.

There are also lots of jokes
about Irish people being stupid,

and that was incredibly prevalent
in '70s comedy.

IRISH ACCENT:
This is Air Fungus speaking now.

How are you going? Nice to see you.
LAUGHTER

And a special mention for my mum,
who's at the tea kiosk

round the corner,
by the cigarette shop.

We're announcing the departure
of flight number double-oh zero-oh

to Belfast...

..I think.

I do remember programmes
in the '70s,

like Jim Davidson on British TV,
and he'd... Irish jokes.

I was quite offended by them,
you know?

Back in the day, they had those -

which I would consider
really offensive -

the Paddy Englishman,
Paddy Scotsman,

Paddy Irishman jokes,
which you never hear any more.

The Englishman is always
the default, the norm,

the acceptable way
of doing something,

whereas the Scotsman is always mean,
and the Irishman is always stupid.

The unwarranted prejudice
may have originated

because many
of the young Irish immigrants

were young
and only had primary education.

As for now...

Most Irish people
are in well-paid jobs,

and they're pretty much, you know,
on a par with people in Britain,

if not even better educated.

The complexity of the Irish language
speaks to how intelligent they are.

Do you know that they have
three different sets of numbers

according to what you're counting?

We only have one.

Ireland is the country
that produced Oscar Wilde.

Clearly, the idea that
a whole nation of people are stupid

is ridiculous.

But the 1970s IRA bombing campaign

added an extra layer of prejudice
for Irish immigrants.

EUGENE: I remember coming to England
in 1972, I first came.

Coming with an Irish-registered car
would get a lot more attention.

You'd have to be careful
where you parked it.

It immediately drew suspicion.

It's easy to forget, actually,

how fraught a time it was
because of the Troubles.

Between the Troubles
and the economy,

it was quite dark
and quite desolate.

So, luckily, we had comedy
to humour us up a bit, I suppose,

given the difficult times.

Ah, yes. Back to the comedy, Eugene.

He belongs in a zoo!

Oh, Sybil, you never give anyone
the benefit of the doubt.

He's shoddy, he doesn't care.

He's a liar, he's incompetent,
he's lazy.

He's nothing but a half-witted,
thick, Irish joke!

Oh, hello, O'Reilly. How funny.
We were just talking about you.

And then we got onto another
Irish builder we used to know.

Oh, God, he was awful!

Here we go again.
It's Pick On Ireland Week again.

It very much perpetuated
the stereotypes that existed,

and it played into them.

Unlike when Basil's talking
to the Major,

and the Major uses inappropriate
words about the cricketers,

and Basil goes,
"Mmm, I'm not sure I endorse this."

Unlike in that scene, in this scene,

Sybil lets loose,
and there's nobody there to say,

"Uh, that's not OK."

Now, Sybil, that's enough.

Come on, mate, give us a smile.

That's it.
Agh!

O'Reilly, I have seen
more intelligent creatures than you

lying on their backs
at the bottom of ponds.

I have seen better organised
creatures than you

running round farmyards
with their heads cut off.

Now, collect your things
and get out. Agh!

The British people watching
would have watched that and gone,

"Oh, yeah, so funny.

"These are the tropes
that we have about the Irish."

I think that that's something

we definitely wouldn't be allowed
to get away with now.

He has this incompetent builder
who's Irish.

I think that's unfortunate.

But the context of when
it was written has now moved on.

I was just looking at it
as in they were just bad builders,

and I wasn't really thinking about
the historical context and stuff.

The bit that did make me laugh
was when she was ranting,

and then the guy walked in,
cos that's, like, a funny concept.

But I didn't get any of the...
I didn't realise

that that was, like...
against Irish people, though.

Even the idea of, like,
Basil being a cheapskate

and hiring cheap people,
that could be funny as just, like,

he pretends to be this posh guy,
but he's hiring,

like, the cheapest he can find.

But then they're intertwining
the idea of being cheap

with being foreign or being Irish
or being Spanish or whatever.

Which is degrading.
Yeah.

Did you feel
that it was out of order?

I felt it was about the character
of that particular builder,

not Irish builders in general.

I felt it was
just that particular builder.

I think, at that time,

there were a lot of Irish workers
that came over.

There were, yeah.

And I think that's where
that comes from, a bit.

So, did Booth and Cleese make
a botched job of the builders?

I thought that,
before I knew the context,

I sort of thought, like...
thought it was a bit humorous.

But now that I know the context...

from what you guys said,
I'd probably go kipper.

Do you know what?
It was funny before that,

but I'm gonna give this one
a kipper,

just that bit where she loses
the plot, cos I wish she hadn't.

Coming up, it's just not cricket.

The first time
I heard the word "racism"

is when I arrived in the UK.

And things go from bad to worse.
CHANTING: "I can't breathe."

It was one of the most disgusting
things we've seen in our time.

STEVEN BERKOFF: For many Gen Zs,

the Brexit referendum
was the first time they got to vote.

But if you are a baby boomer,
you might be saying...

You're joking? Not another one?!

The UK joined the EEC in 1973,

and in '75, a referendum asked

whether we should remain
in the European Economic Community,

which later became the EU.

Basically, the opposite of Brexit
and without the catchy title.

We know that Basil knows about that
cos he refers to it

in one of the episodes -
"I didn't vote for it."

Course he didn't vote for it, cos,
you know, he's a Little Englander.

You'd had people
going on foreign holidays.

That had started to happen
because, basically,

it became affordable
for ordinary people

to go on holiday,
for example, to Spain.

And in return, it meant Europeans
came on holiday to Old Blighty,

perhaps to a seaside hotel
in Torquay.

Europeans such as the Germans.

Although it was 30-odd years
since the end of the war,

there were still people
within living memory.

I wasn't part of it,
but my parents were.

What we live by today
had been determined

by what happened in our history.

You can't erase that history easily.

You can't forget the war.

There was a generation
that was... maybe one,

maybe almost two generations
divorced from the war.

You're talking
about the Silent Generation

and the Greatest Generation,

who had fought in the war
and were getting on a little bit.

How did people not talk
about the war more?

The war was closer to people
in the 1970s

than things I remember as being...

you know, Margaret Thatcher was
to us now.

My father's German.
He grew up post-war.

I think that most German people
were incredibly embarrassed

and reticent and,
to a certain amount, ashamed.

My father wasn't born
until after the war.

But in school,
he was made to feel guilty

for something
that he wasn't even a part of.

But clinging to the idea that
the British holiday is still alive,

Basil wouldn't turn them away.

May I say how pleased we are
to have some Europeans here

now that we are on the continent?

Can I speak to Dr Finn, please?

I didn't vote for it myself,
honestly.

But now that we're in,
I'm determined to make it work.

The whole scene
is beautifully choreographed.

Not just physically,
but also just the linguistics of it,

the words of it,
and how he gets to that point.

We start seeing
this freedom of movement,

and that's what we see
in this episode,

is these Germans have come
to Torquay on holiday.

And if there's one thing
Germans love, it's a beach holiday.

But us Brits are famously awkward.

There's always an element of,

"Oh, God, the elephant
in the corner, don't say anything."

"Oh, Christ, it's an elephant,"
and you blurt it out.

Because everybody's,
you know, "Ooh."

Literally, "Don't mention the war."

There would have been awkwardness.

How do we handle them?
What do we say? What do we do?

It's kind of awkward
to look someone in the face

when you've beaten them
at a world war.

Allow me to introduce myself.
I am the owner of Fawlty Towers.

And may I welcome your war...

your war... you war... you war...

you ALL, and hope that your stay
will be a happy one.

I think that the writing
in the whole German bit

is all very complex.

You know, the bit where he goes,

"The war... I mean, your war...
you war... you war... you all,"

that bit was beautifully done.

And again,
he is the butt of that joke.

You know, he's concussed.
He's trying not to mention the war.

Earlier in the episode,
Basil had taken multiple blows

from different objects,
including the moose.

Listen, don't mention the war.

I mentioned it once, but I think
I got away with it all right.

So, it's all forgotten now,
and let's hear no more about it.

So, that's two egg mayonnaise,

a prawn Goebbels, a Hermann Goring
and four Colditz salads.

No, wait a minute.
I got a bit confused here.

Sorry, I got a bit confused cos
everyone keeps mentioning the wars.

When you mention Fawlty Towers,

first thing
that they talk about is...

"They said don't mention the war."
That's right, yeah.

Playing on the idea
that this was a taboo

between these two groups of people,
I think, was quite clever.

The wordplay is exquisite
in that scene.

The fact that he manages to put
the name of prominent Nazis

into popular foodstuffs -

prawn Goebbels -
that's really funny.

I think it's a very British thing
to do that awkward, like,

you mention something
you're not supposed to mention,

and then you end up doing it
50 times over.

I think that's very British humour.

Perhaps the most iconic scene
of Fawlty Towers

is the climax
of the Germans episode.

Here, watch. Who's this, then?

IMITATES HITLER,
SHE SOBS

I'll do the funny walk!

LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE

The crowning glory of that scene,

which is meant to be
really so offensive,

is Basil doing the goose-stepping.

You know why he's doing it
and what he's referring to.

But yet it's funny
seeing John Cleese do it.

He does an incredible goose-step.

I mean, it's an amazing movement
of his legs.

I'm trying to cheer her up,
you stupid Kraut!

LAUGHTER

Funny?! Not funny? You're joking!

It's not funny for her, not for us,
not for any German people.

You have absolutely
no sense of humour, do you?

This is not funny!

Who won the bloody war anyway?!

But was making light of the war
and our attitudes to Germans funny,

or big, or clever?

I don't know if people know this.

Germans love that episode.

My father's favourite episode
of Fawlty Towers

is the Germans episode.

That was an important part
of the healing and the bonding.

My father was working in very
international settings in the '70s.

In fact, he said, in one workplace,

you know,
he was their favourite Nazi.

In my opinion,
I thought it maybe reflected

the time of when it was filmed,

that, collectively,
everyone was trying to process

the huge trauma of World War II.

I'd give that a bell.
Bell!

The epitome of Fawlty Towers,
so two bells for me.

BELL DINGS,
SHE CHUCKLES

Cleese's mocking of British
awkwardness towards the Germans

may have been given
the seal of approval,

but in 2013, when repeating
The Germans pre-watershed,

the BBC decides
to censor racial slurs

from the Major's cricket anecdote.

Remember the notorious scene
from earlier?

I don't personally think
we should censor.

I'm a firm believer in the truth...

and that what stood then,
however flawed, should remain.

But for some, the Major has tainted
the legacy of Fawlty Towers.

I always call her Winnie...
Well, because she looks like Winnie.

She's not Black.

Black? Churchill wasn't Black.
LAUGHTER

I think the Major was well acted.

I mean, in what he says
and his attitude to things.

The Major
is totally round the twist.

He's obviously... Had been
badly affected by the war.

It was thought that there were
people like that at the time.

The '70s were a funny time.

It was a time where Britain
was very much changing.

And the Major is a man out of
his time in this changing country.

MANUEL: I can speak English.

I learn it from a book.

Did you? Did you really?

The Major was absolutely foxed and,
you know, perplexed by this.

If it happened to you, you could...

"What is that...? Why...
Why is this animal speaking to me?"

And, you know,
it's terribly effectively done.

But there are some who felt

that the Major's ramblings
shouldn't have even made it

onto the British prime-time TV
in the first place.

The first time I heard
the word "racism"

is when I arrived in the UK.

Tony Bowry left the West Indies
in a boat headed for the UK

the day after Winston Churchill died
in 1965.

Once in the UK,
Tony settled in Leeds.

My first experience of racism
was in a church,

in the Leeds Cathedral.

At the end of one service,
the local priest came and told me

I must go to a church in Chapeltown,
"where my friends are".

Tony became part of what is now
known as the Windrush generation.

The Windrush generation
were invited over to the country

to help rebuild the country
from World War II.

And for Tony, it was also
an opportunity to get involved

in a shared love of cricket.
All right.

This was going to be an opportunity
for them to create a new life

in a place where they were going
to be accepted and welcomed.

The West Indies cricket team
were a formidable force.

They won the inaugural World Cup
in 1975,

handed to them by Prince Philip.

It was terribly, terribly relevant,

and I think that's what makes...

you know, the whole 40 episodes
so interesting.

Yes, I think the Major would be
nicely prejudiced

about the West Indies playing a game

and playing it so well
when it had a very English root.

Brothers Adnan and Aman,

whose parents migrated from India,
had similar experiences.

I think they called us the P-word
and they told us to,

you know, "F off back to where
you're from," and things like that.

It is historically recorded

that people went around
seeing signs saying,

"No Irish, no Blacks, no dogs."

That was the degree
of the prejudice.

So when Basil and the Major
have these conversations,

and when there are
odd references to this,

it immediately strikes a chord.

So, why did John Cleese
and Connie Booth put this on TV?

Well, in Cleese's audio commentary
on the Fawlty Towers Blu-Ray,

he gives us an insight.

'There's a lot in this speech.
Listen carefully.'

HE BABBLES
INCOHERENTLY

Never came back.
What a shame.

And the strange thing...

'There's a punch line to that
in a moment.'

She kept referring
to the Indians as... BLEEP.

No, no, no, no, no...

'Now, would one get away with that
these days?

'I don't think so.
I don't think so.'

If you're trying to educate people,

I don't think comedy's the medium
to try and do that. Absolutely.

In some ways,
it's educated the racists

because it said, "These are
the words that you should be using."

Cleese goes on to explain

that the Major was supposed to be
a figure of fun,

and therefore you could make fun
of racial attitudes.

'If you were worried about it and
then didn't do that kind of humour,

'then a whole range
of satirical humour

'would disappear from our culture.

'So I don't think
that you can edit humour

'because it may be misunderstood
by idiots.'

Where I would disagree with Cleese

is the whole,
"You're supposed to laugh AT him."

I think nowadays we would say, no,
you're supposed to tell him off.

You're not supposed
to laugh at him and go,

"Isn't he silly
for using the wrong word?"

"Why can't you have a bit of fun?"

Well, it's not funny.

And Irish know all about it as well,

because they've been lampooned,
and Asians, over t'years,

so it's no different.

I'm blown away that that is...
brave, I suppose.

Cos he's not really doing
anything overly clever.

He's just saying, "Racism is bad,"
very, like, subtly,

which is, like... not that crazy
of a thing to say. Yeah.

No matter how old you are,
it's upsetting, and it hurts.

Start using the N-word,

and it were much worse, I thought,
Keith, than taking a punch.

I don't think it was right then,

it's not right now,
and it never will be.

Coming up, is Fawlty Towers
about to be consigned

to the dustbin of history?

It was one of the most
appalling things I've ever seen.

STEVEN BERKOFF: The year is 1975.

Labour are in power,

Liverpool are embarking
on a title-winning season,

Rod Stewart is on a world tour,

and Fawlty Towers hits our screens
for the first time.

Well, may I ask
what you were expecting to see

out of a Torquay
hotel bedroom window?

Sydney Opera House, perhaps?
The Hanging Gardens of Babylon?

Herds of wildebeest
sweeping majestically?

Don't be silly.
I expect to be able to see the sea.

You can see the sea.

It's over there,
between the land and the sky.

LAUGHTER

She says there's no view,

and we can see in the cheap set
that there is a view there.

CHUCKLES

"It's over there,
between the land and the sky."

It was also quite erudite, right?
"What would you expect to see?

"The Hanging Gardens of Babylon,
perhaps?"

That's because Cleese was,
you know, university-educated,

so he had all that in his armoury.

Fast forward 50 years,
Labour are in power,

Liverpool top the league,

Rod Stewart's
a little bit less sexy,

and British comedy fans are treated

to a West End reboot
of Fawlty Towers.

I saw the stage play
just a few months ago and loved it.

It was hilarious.

It was the greatest hits, basically,
all together on stage,

and it worked perfectly.

But rewind five years,
and a global news story would go on

to prompt the BBC to review
some of its back catalogue,

including Fawlty Towers.

So, in 2020,
George Floyd got murdered,

and that triggered a review
at the BBC

in which this episode got taken down
because of what the Major said.

With the horrendous tragedy
of the George Floyd murder,

that did jolt people
into reassessing

how we were portraying
different races on television.

And quite rightly, the George Floyd
incident got us talking.

'Fawlty Towers regularly tops polls
as one of our best-loved sitcoms.

'Tonight, UKTV,
a channel controlled by the BBC,

'has confirmed to Newsnight

'that it's removed the
"don't mention the war" episode.'

"My God, did we say that?"

Or, "Was that allowed to happen?"

And, "Should we do that?"
and, "Oh, does that make it...?"

"Oh, God,
that's not funny any more."

So that was
a kind of watershed moment.

John Cleese, though,
stood by his work.

I think that the BBC
is a slightly special case.

They do have a little bit more
of a responsibility

to make sure that all people
in the country

are feeling serviced
by that service.

A month later,
and UKTV reinstated the episode.

REPORTER: UKTV is to bring back the
Fawlty Towers episode The Germans,

saying viewers will be warned
about its content.

Fair enough to say, "There is
language that you won't like

"and attitudes to race

"or... other cultural aspects."

You can't rewrite history,
and you shouldn't.

Oh, you can't rewrite history,
but you can rewrite the future.

The Fawlty Towers stage play

is an amalgamation of three
classic Fawlty Towers episodes,

including The Germans,

which raised questions about the use
of the N-word in the reversion.

I'd say don't use it.

I don't think there's any case
for that in the stage play now.

Cleese was challenged
on using the N-word

at the press launch
for the stage play.

Have you had to airbrush parts of it
for modern sensibility?

A couple of things, and I wouldn't
have done it in a perfect world.

But you know
what social media's like.

People get so excited,
it's not worth the candle.

So we changed a couple of
the Major's lines, but nothing else.

Yeah.
Anything else?

I don't agree with
policing of language.

But at the same time,

I also don't agree with
upsetting people unnecessarily.

So I think he made the right call.

They got it right in not using it.

I think today, where there is
so much hard discrimination around,

the people who did the play

are quite responsible
not to use it in that way.

So, where does this leave
the legacy of Fawlty Towers?

I think the legacy of Fawlty Towers
is that it will go down

as one of the most famous comedies
ever on television.

You got the iconic elements,

like Basil Fawlty beating the car
with the tree branch.

That's always gonna be, I think,
one of the top moments

in British history
in terms of comedy.

Our generational viewers
awarded 12 bells and four kippers,

so I guess
it's not completely cancelled.

And the Gen Zs liked it much more
than we thought they would,

which goes to show you,

you shouldn't stereotype people
for comic purposes,

even if it is really, really funny.

I think that we can all
look back on Fawlty Towers

with 80%, 90% degree
of fondness and pride

for it being a wonderful
British product of British comedy.

But the Major, that scene today
is incredibly problematic.

I hope you've enjoyed your stay
here at Fawlty Towers.

And if we notice so much as
a facecloth missing from your room,

we will be issuing a warrant
for your immediate arrest.

Good night.