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.

More and more over the last few years I find myself watching television shows that I either never tried or that it has been decades since I last watched properly. The thing I normally end up noting is that many shows seem to take some time to bed in. Curb Your Enthusiasm is certainly better after the first season, likewise Battlestar Galatica, Always Sunny and many other shows. It is a compliment to the quality then to come back to shows like Yes Minister and Fawlty Towers and find that they pretty much hit the mark from the very first episode of the very first season – indicating that they knew what they were about and were able to find their targets from the start.

With Fawlty Towers the "target" is the creation of Basil himself. Basil is a great comedy character because he is a character we can easily laugh at because he is quite unlikeable but not so unlikeable or victorious that we feel bad that he exists. Basil is irritable, smarmy, intolerant and exaggerated – in short, funny. Season 1 nails this from the very start with the episode that makes the class system the focus. In it of course we see Basil treat people differently based on his perceptions of them only for them to change again as he finds himself to be incorrect. As a device it is simple but it works and is repeated several times in different forms with the episode with the hotel inspectors and the one where everyone appears to be "at it". He is a tragic clown who is arrogant, unable to admit he is ever wrong and also self-destructive to a fault, with his frustrations building up inside him as he goes. In short he is about the last person you would want to have in a role that involves dealing with the public in any capacity, far less being at their beck and call.

Cleese delivers this perfectly from the very start and his exaggerated reactions really draw the laughs. He is well supported by a cast that don't get the credit they deserve for letting him play off them as he does. Booth in particular never gets enough of the credit that her joint writing credit should give her. OK she has much less time to shine but she acts with Cleese very well. Scales has more comedy material and her intolerant and bullying Sybil is a simple but effective character that feeds Basil more. Sachs' "Spanish" is an easy joke but his physical timing is great and again he is best when allowing Cleese to react around him. All of them are very funny in this first season and they are all part of the show not even having a "settling in" period of a minute.

Watching it in full rather than in clips shows (which is how most of us have probably seen it in the last few years) the effect is to be more impressive. It is a very well delivered show that has great physical humour built around a wonderful comedy character in the shape of Fawlty. That he is so well delivered by Cleese while the others help him do it just makes this stronger. I'll give it a minute but I'm looking forward to properly watching the second season for hopefully more of the same.

This is it . The best remembered episode of probably the greatest comedy show Britain has ever made so do I really need to comment on it ? I will say in the 21st Century everyone associated with the show claims this episode is meant to be ironic , that is the episode is making fun of people who have to bring up the second world war every time Germany is mentioned in any context . Hmmm if I remember correctly people claim the same about LOVE THY NEIGHBOUR and are we to seriously believe 20 million people tuned in to that show to hear a black character make equally racist remarks about his rabidly racist white neighbour ? I don't think so . Let's not forget even for people in Britain like myself who were born over twenty odd years after the war had ended it was impossible not to think of Germany as being a land of Stukas , Panzers and goosestepping soldiers

There is much more to this episode than German tourists and includes Basil putting up the stuffed head of a moose on the wall and a fire alarm . Of course the episode becomes ingrained in to television history once the Germans turns up and ... well you know what happens next . There's so much to remember and laugh at in this episode but my favourite line is when Basil is taking the tourists order and replies " I'll just get you hors d'oeuvres - hors doeuvres that must be obeyed at all times without question " . And so ends season one of FAWLTY TOWERS which will always win my vote as the greatest comedy Britain has ever made

In the days before video was widely available, one relied on occasional repeats, but mainly on many conversations with one's friends discussing and reminiscing about great TV. The Fawlty Towers episode where the Germans visit was an instant classic - I remember as a boy at the first broadcast being in helpless hysterics. Thereafter one relied on memory - "do you remember the one with the Germans?"

Only with the advent of video and DVD technology could we properly appreciate that not just one, but three classic Fawlty Towers sequences are crammed into these 30 minutes. This is the episode that also contains the moose, and the fire drill - each of which would have supported a perfectly good half-hour sitcom in its own right. But these were not three separate shows, as imperfect memory suggested; they were woven together to create a perfect piece of comedy, a fugue of chaos as Basil struggles to cope with Sybil's absence (and attempts to micromanage from her hospital bed). Several deathless scenes - Basil's sympathising with Sybil's ingrown toenail, the Major's conversation with the moose, Basil's frustration with the guests assembled in the foyer for the fire drill, and then of course the beautifully timed and choreographed dinner with the Germans, with its sublime climax - will remain absolute classics.

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!