Gourmet Night

After seeing the multi-layered character that is Basil Fawlty this episodes reminds us what he's best remembered for - a brazen snob . It's Goumet Night and so no riff-raff . Having a gourmet night reminds me of something Groucho Marx said about never wanting to join a club that would have me as a member . After all who wants to spend a very expensive evening in the company of punters who are just there to splash money around on food that isn't worth it . I hope they choke on it . Oh hold on this is Fawlty Towers so my wish might just come true

This is one of the more farcical episodes and it says something about the well defined writing and acting that it never comes close to being silly as everything that could go wrong does as all sort of high jinx befall Basil's much vaunted gourmet night with a homosexual chef with a drink problem . Everyone will have their favourite scene and mine's is the the " damn good thrashing " scene . It's interesting in that a scene seems to be badly edited when someone vomits and the audience react in a genuinely disgusted manner which led me to believe the original seen might have been too graphic for broadcast

This episode is very well put-together, not to mention very funny. Basil, as he does in many of the episodes, tries to raise the stature of Fawlty Towers by staging a gourmet evening and turning away any so-called "riff-raff." So the big night arrives and Kurt, the chef, has decided to get very drunk. In a memorable sequence, Polly tries to tell Basil without saying the word "drunk." The fate of the evening now rests with Basil delivering the gourmet meal promised to the guests. He calls Andre, the owner of a restaurant in town, and asks for his help. But the only suitable dish he can offer is duck. When informed of the change in the menu, one of the guests asks "what do you do if you don't like duck?" Basil replies "well, if you don't like duck, you're rather stuck." The rest of the episode consists of the staff trying to make the evening go as smoothly as possible without letting on about the chaos in the kitchen. One of the best scenes in the whole series is when Basil beats his car with a tree branch after it stalls when he is on the way back to the hotel with the duck from Andre's.

This episode features one of the most well recognised scenes in the history of British TV comedy: a desperate Basil Fawlty giving his broken down car a damn good thrashing. Actually, it's just one of many great moments in yet another classic episode of Fawlty Towers.

This time around, Basil is trying to give his establishment some class by organising a gourmet night (no riff raff!), but problems arise when his new chef gets seriously sozzled and is unable to prepare anything on the menu.

My favourite moment (car thrashing aside) is when Basil introduces a couple, Mr and Mrs Twitchen, to Colonel Hall, who has a repetitive neck spasm, but there are many other great scenes guaranteed to have your sides splitting, including Basil cuffing an obnoxious brat, and Manuel getting his foot stuck in a roast duck.

Gourmet Night is without a doubt one of the best episodes of Fawlty Towers, and on that basis one of the funniest things ever made. It is moment after moment of pure comedy joy, no matter how many times I see The Colonel's introduction, or the Duck throw, or indeed The famous car thrashing it never stops being funny. I'm not sure if anyone else feels the same, but I find it an exhausting watch, I'm sure it genuinely raises my blood pressure, Cleese is truly at his maniacal best, he leaves me breathless watching him. By the time he rifles the trifle I am out of breath. The characters are just glorious, the Colonel and his wife are simply magical, Alan Cuthbertson and Ann Way are flawless in their delivery, how they manage not to laugh is beyond me. Steve Plytas was hilarious also, 'just say ugh.' Who though could bet against that red mini being the star of the show.

I like the bit where he hit the car with a tree branch