Fawlty Towers

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 Miss Gatsby. Very few other guests ever stayed long.

Related Topics:
British sitcom - BBC - BBC2 - 1975 - Fictional - Hotel - Devon - Town - Torquay - Wife - Maid - Spanish - Porter - English - Chef - Senile - Major

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The plots are as intricate and farcical as those of Feydeau, involving coincidences, misunderstandings, cross-purposes, accidental meetings and missed meetings. The sex of the bedroom farce is sometimes present, but it is Basil Fawlty's eccentricity, not his lust, that drives the plots.

Related Topics:
Farcical - Feydeau - Bedroom farce

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Only twelve episodes were ever broadcast, but the series has had a lasting and powerful influence. In a list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes drawn up by the British Film Institute in 2000, voted for by industry professionals, Fawlty Towers was placed first. It was also voted fifth in a BBC poll in 2004 of the general public to find "Britain's Best Sitcom". Many commentators considered this surprisingly low.

Related Topics:
100 Greatest British Television Programmes - British Film Institute - 2000 - BBC - 2004 - Britain's Best Sitcom

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