The Germans

Cybil is nagging Basil from her hospital bed as he presides over a series of disasters..

This episode is crammed with humour from start to finish. So much so it takes repeat viewings to catch it all. There are no weak moments or let ups as the punchlines fly at you from every angle.

Cybil in hospital with Basil hoping she suffers. The debacle of the moose head. The shambolic fire drill. Basil in hospital with an oversized head bandage. The classic scene with the Germans. It all works fantastically well.

The episode has been accused of racism, but it's not. The Major is being ridiculed as a bigoted old relic of the upper classes and Basil is not far off certifiably mad in his treatment of the Germans.

A brilliant half an hour of BBC comedy and an incredible performance from John Cleese.

This is the episode most people remember. And it is certainly one of the funniest in the series. Sybil is in the hospital for an operation, leaving Basil in charge of the hotel. Disaster strikes, of course, in the form of a moose's head falling on Basil. The next morning, the hotel is to conduct a routine fire drill, when an actual fire breaks out in the kitchen. Refusing to believe there is really a fire, Basil locks Manuel in the burning room. When he won't stop screaming and pounding on the door, Basil finally unlocks it and sees the blaze. After evacuating the guests for a second time, Basil goes for the fire extinguisher, which promptly explodes in his face. That lands him in the hospital with a concussion. Meanwhile, back at the hotel with Polly now at the helm, things are running very smoothly. That is until Basil unexpectedly shows up after bolting from the hospital. When he begins to interact with the German guests who have arrived, things really start to get funny, as he can't stop "mentioning the war." If you're looking for non-stop laughs, this episode certainly delivers!

I have watched Fawlty Towers numerous times and this is my favorite. It is pure slapstick fun and John Cleese is outstanding in it. Andrew Sachs (Manuel) & "The Major" are comedy gold. I roll with laughter every time I watch it. Is it politically correct? Absolutely not and thank god!

Although it isn't my personal favorite, "The Germans" is arguably the most 'classic' of the 12 episodes. It's the one everyone seems to know or remember. Sybil is laid up with an ingrown toenail (Basil: "I wish it was an ingrown tongue"), but meanwhile she has to make sure the hotel doesn't fall apart, demanding even more things from Basil and calling him every few minutes to make sure things are getting done. There are many hysterical moments to be had, including the whole moose-hanging sequence, replete with The Major thinking that the stuffed concoction can talk. The German guests obviously don't know what to make of it all, but we see Basil at the upper bound of his own insanity. The best part comes at the end when the African doctor shows up at the hotel - I won't give it away for anyone who hasn't seen it.

Basil suffers from concussion when an ornamental moose head falls on him. When he gets home from hospital, still suffering from the effects of his accident, he cannot help but insult his latest guests, a group of Germans.

Even though The Germans features some of the most frequently quoted Fawlty Towers dialogue ("Don't mention the war!"), I do feel that it is a rather uneven episode: the first act features some great gags involving the stuffed moose head (love the Major's conversation with the moose!), but it also suffers from a drawn out and not very funny scene about a fire drill.

Thankfully, the second act—the part with the Germans—is all-out hilarious, with John Cleese giving us some of his greatest comedy ever, making numerous references to the war ("So that's two egg mayonnaise, a prawn Goebbels, a Herman Goering and four Colditz salads"), and performing a brilliantly funny walk as he does his Hitler impersonation.