A perfectly calibrated Swiss watch of cringe': why Fawlty Towers remains the greatest ever sitcom, 50 years on

"The first episode of Fawlty Towers was broadcast on 19 September 1975. We are now half a century distant from that point; as far away as the first episode of Fawlty Towers was from John Logie Baird's first successful transmission of greyscale television pictures in 1925. And, while the creation of Fawlty Towers wasn't a technical breakthrough on quite the same level, Fawlty Towers does feel almost as fundamental and foundational to the medium. Like the music of the Beatles, it's become part of the dominant cultural language of the era."

"The apparent genesis of Fawlty Towers seems too good to be true and very easy to imagine. During the filming of the second season of Monty Python's Flying Circus, the cast were staying at a hotel in Torquay. Thanks to the uptight, schoolmasterly proprietor, it was an interesting visit. He made a habit of waiting in the lobby for the group to return after an evening out, and even demonstrated the correct British use of a knife and fork to the American Python Terry Gilliam. This hints at the enduring, antihero appeal of Basil Fawlty."

"To rewatch Fawlty Towers is to be reminded of how appalling Basil really is. He's sneaky, pompous, pedantic, xenophobic, rude beyond description, and an appalling snob. And, yet, in a way that offers a clue to the show's lasting legacy, he's usually just about got a point. Like Larry David in Curb Your Enthusiasm, Basil takes tricky situations and amplifies them into comic absurdity by his inability to cut his losses. Curb is one of an endless list of sitcoms that simply would not exist without Fawlty Towers."

Fawlty Towers premiered on 19 September 1975 and now stands fifty years from its debut, echoing the distance from early television experiments in 1925. The series became a foundational element of British television comedy and earned top recognition in a 2019 Radio Times list as the greatest British sitcom. The show's inspiration came from an uptight hotel proprietor in Torquay whose mannerisms informed Basil Fawlty. Basil is depicted as sneaky, pompous, pedantic, xenophobic, rude and snobbish, yet often close to a point. John Cleese and Connie Booth established a template of escalating, character-driven farce that shaped later comedies such as Curb Your Enthusiasm.

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