Some great gag from one of my all time favorite British TV Shows: Fawlty Towers. The builders must have gone wrong on that one. A hotel with an owner that makes one doubt how on earth he became one. Extremely rude, unpleasent, and yet, that is what makes it comedy, the extreme magnification of reality. For me the British are great in making that kind of almost dark close to real life comedy. Cynicism, sarcasm and irony, it is all there. Basil, the owner of the Hotel, played by John Cleese, manages to put an almost believeable neurotic man with an extremely clinched bottom in front of the viewer. "Right...", and he is off to do as his better half Sybil wants him to do. You can see they are a happy couple. Almost a relief to the world they were never blessed with any offspring.
The title is from a line of the bellboy/waiter from Spannish origin, Manual, played by Andrew Sachs, who went out off time recently. Fun fact is that the actor was actually German by origin ,but was said to speak better English than the native British. In the episode where Manual says this to a bunch of builders is just as hilarious as all the other episodes. Almost excausting to watch more than one at a time. The builders from a local builders firm called O' Reilly, Irish roots, are secretly hired by Basil to do a job in the hotel. But Sybil, played by Prunella Scales, wanted another builder contracted. Yet, Basil, cheap as he is, decides to hire O' Reilly to do the job. And he makes another mistake by leaving the wrong person in charge when he and Sybil move away for the weekend.
His then wife, Connie Booth, plays Polly, and he actually asked her to take care of business while he and the misses are gone. But Polly leaves things to Manual as she decides to go for a little nap. That's when the men of O' Reilly come in. And Manuel asks them at a certain point if they are 'Oraly, are you men of oraly, you men are oraly', sexual innuendo, tongue in cheeck style. The men of O' Reily seem to get offended, but finally understand and go to do their inside building job after Manual tells them to do so: "You men, you work!" And they mess it all up very badly... Of course Sybil was right to not trust this builders company with a bad reputation. Door gone, opening to the diner room unsafely build.
In the end the trusted builder has to be brought in and restore everything the way it has to be done. And Basil loses another battle with Sybil due to his own stuberness and wanting to get things done as cheap as possible. They sure are a happy couple. Only two series of Fawlty Towers have been made. But for me all episodes have become classics on their own.
And so there are many more
There are many British comedy series that I like, from Alloo Alloo all the way to another side of the spectrum: Bottom. Blackadder, the Thin Blue Line, Black Books, Couplings and so on. But Dad's Army still can do the trick for me once in a while.
So, how about you? What is your favorite British comedy series? Brittas Empire, Red Dwarf? Or On the Busses, maybe? Some mothers do 'ave 'em: "ow Frank...", feel free to share it with us here at Steem. There are so much more that come to mind, but I'm curious what your favorites one is/ or are.
Have a good one!
photo CC0/Public Domain courtesy of Dassel at Pixabay