1977: How a TORQUAY hotel inspired FAWLTY TOWERS | Read All About It | Classic Comedy | BBC Archive
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 23 ส.ค. 2024
- In 1977 Fawlty Towers was released in book form, which was a good excuse to bring John Cleese onto Read All About it. He discussed all things behind the hit comedy show with Mervyn Bragg, including the inspiration for Basil Fawlty, which goes back to a hotel Cleese stayed in while filming the Monty Python.
Also features poet Elaine Feinstein, philosopher Sir Alfred J Ayer and cricketer Mike Brearley.
Clip taken from Read All About It, originally broadcast on BBC One, Sunday 13 November 1977.
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The colour of that backdrop is the official shade of the entire 1970s.
Taupe was the way forward .... Then .
Like how John cleases jacket blends into the background
Hearing aid beige
Painters were on strike.
Beige, brown, mustard, olive and avocado.
Cleese has just turned 38 here. As a kid I guessed he was in his 50s during the show.
He looks more like 50.
Cleese did state that Basil Fawlty was older then him.
John Cleese's character was a veteran of the Korean War, probably conscripted under National Service- which would mean he would have been born around 1930. John Cleese was born in 1939 during the "Phoney War" stage of WWII. The real Donald Sinclair was born in 1909 and served in WWII, in the British Royal Navy.
Prunella Scales was playing some years younger than Cleese (36 in The Germans, which was Cleese's actual age), although she was in fact born in 1932. So, she was playing his age, he was playing hers.
He could easily play a believable mid forties Basil. I mean, never in the series he comes up as looking younger than the character.
He looks in his faultys
Love seeing these old interviews when everyone was still relatively young.
I wonder if John Cleese realised how much Fawlty Towers would still be loved 45 years after this interview.
Quite !
It's an interesting contrast from John Cleese's more recent interviews. Nowadays, when he's being interviewed, he comes across as very relaxed. He likes to giggle, joke around, etc.
In this older interview, he comes across as more restrained, quiet, proper, etc.
These BBC archive videos are just fantastic. A brilliant record of the past - a past that is mostly forgotten, like this little discussion. Yet it was a fascinating, though light, analysis of a truly outstanding sitcom and the fact that nobody on the panel dissented, illustrates just how good Fawlty Towers was.
2:42 John Cleese with the poshest yeah “yarr” I’ve ever head 😂
😂😂😂😂
My uncle bought my dad this book when it came out. I read and reread it many times as a kid, which added to my love of the show. Still my fave comedy of all time. Untouchable IMO.
I remember reading this as a kid in the 90s. My dad had them all on VHS too, recorded off the tv, and we'd have them on every Sunday morning!
Now I'm approaching 40, Dad has gone, and I find myself endlessly quoting "Samaritans were engaged!"
The script is incredible. Had it for years, always revisit.
You can almost hear a sigh in cleeses voice as if to say "I've told this story so many times of how Fawlty Towers was made and who Basil was based on"
Doing a tour can be dull for that reason, but the selling is the point of it. Hopefully, one's attitude can make it fresh each time.
@@mortalclown3812 profoundly put
Except he hadnt at that stage cos this was still not long after hed made it.
Was lucky enough to get that book and have it signed by the great man at a book signing at Debenhams in Oxford street, London, way back in late '77. Quite the gentleman and a British institution, true British royalty.
It's great to get this archived interview insight into one of the UK's greatest ever comedies (in my opinion).
In 1977, books about BBC or ITV shows were best sellers, as this was really the only way the public could keep their favourite shows in their minds. VCRs in 1977 were rare and hugely expensive. No DVDs, no online streaming. And repeats were few and far between due to actors rights payments. So books, records, magazines etc were the best momentos to have of your favourite BBC or ITV show, and it made both companies a fortune.
I can just imagine Sybil commenting on JC attire ….
‘Basil you are not wearing that awful paisley tye with that terrible safari jacket’
‘ It’s for herding buffalo dear’
😎👌
"I can speak English, I learnt it from a BOOK!"
Being from the U.S. and Luving MOST British Comedies, "Fawlty Towers" will Always be in my Top 5!! Very Interesting hearing John speak about the Characters development and How that Translated to writing The Book in a "Script Format"! Really ENJOYED This "Shorts" video..Cheers!!😉🎉🎊
Fantastic archive material!
Best comedy ever made. Timeless.Still after 45-50 years later.😊
Remarkable to consider that at this point, there were only 6 episodes aired as the 2nd series didn’t get underway until 1979.
Love the cameo by Mike Brearley!
The books are great because they include lines that were eventually cut -fascinating.
THE GREATEST SITUATION COMEDY EVER WRITTEN.
Amazing clip. Takes me back to a time when the whole world wasn't obsessed with image.
What? With those “look at me” collars?!
@@therealcaldini 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Yeah and also we have the nauseating upper class posh accents.
You're kidding, right?
Please upload more John Cleese and Monty Python interviews/videos on the BBC Archive! Love seeing these higher quality videos.
My dad Ken was the chef in that hotel and used to do Judo after work, which made it into the script at some point.
Did that mean "having fun with a Finn"?
@@anonUK Or maybe even a pin .
John Cleese must have been influenced by 'Arsenic & old lace' for the set up of this series ie
The Major ... Teddy
The two old ladies ,
The set with the stairs ..used to such good effect ,
The episode with the dead body in trunk (laundry basket)
A brilliant series.. and just imagine seeing these when they first went out
This interview is to me more like a meeting for PhD viva where a PhD candidate is struggling to deal with his or her examiners, albeit in a rather serious-looking-but-actually-covivial manner.
Love seeing these archives of John Cleese! Fawlty Towers is one of my all-time favorite shows.
Masterpiece Of Comedy
“Mike Brearley” 😀 That was unexpected.
He never should have divorced Connie, she was so gorgeous in Fawlty Towers.
I think they were divorced when they wrote the second series, so real respect from each of them, still good friends I believe.
I imagine she would have had some say in that as well.
Undoubtedly the best sitcom of all time, given even what had come before and all since in a way too, whether on BBC or ITV. It was a shame really that they did not continue with the series, whether with a third one or more which would have been nice. I know that Mark Lewisohn in the Radio Times Comedy Guide in 1998 and 2003 commented at the time that it would have been nice too if they had done so. Thank you indeed.
I think you’d probably have to put The Office above Fawlty Towers now, given how much The Office changed U.K. sitcoms.
And now there’s some extra time for some footage of Melvyn and his guests that didn’t quite make it into the show. Would anyone like tea or coffee
Very good.
Two and a coo m8
Somehow I think that you have been listened to a few too many podcasts of "In Our Time". ps I can't seem to download new episodes from BBC Sounds.
They spent SIX WEEKS writing PER EPISODE. That's 36 weeks in total for a series of only six episodes. If anyone wonders why the series still holds it's because they spent the better part of a year writing it.
It's incredible the background to the characters and the plot.
Fawlty Towers is actually a horror movie, when you look at it this way th-cam.com/video/ww7v6NrvjYw/w-d-xo.html
Wonderful.....just wonderful 😍
Eric Idle at 3:15
Don't know what it is, but conversation seemed to have a sort of innocence behind it then which it doesn't have now. People probably weren't as hung up on creating an impression maybe. Accents weren't as hidden either and educated people appeared more comfortable in their own skin without feeling the need to dumb down their speech to keep the egalitarians happy.
i think the book that John was eluding to, was "Games People play" I have read it. very interesting insight into Human behavior.🤔
They should find an interview the original hotel owner
He was middle-aged 50 years ago so probably not alive today.
His daughter reportedly said he or his family would not give interviews. Also, the man is long dead.
Hope Prunella Scales having alziemers 92 years old still remembers Fawlty Towers Timothy West is a great husband to her
As a zoomer, I can't imagine a world where television was like this
Oh my gosh intelligent 70s chat show this is amazing
John Cleese is just funny.
Anyone got a link, pdf or can point me in the directions of that script? It'd be useful and we would get a larger understanding of Faulty Towers. I also want to read the scene where basil pauses to review his sense-data.
Basil Fawlty: Well perhaps you should consider moving to a hotel closer to the sea. Or preferably in it.
John Cleese on a completely different intellectual plain that the people interviewing him.
Good morning 🌄 break from the news! Ahh, better than Stilton cheese. 🧀
Temperance of Zealous Cunning... Resentment and fury, you say...
When raw talent got through without being filtered by umpteen hurdles for hiring and then ultimately strained by being politically ‘correct’.
I wonder if the real reason the snooty lady "hates" Sybil so much is because Sybil clearly has working class roots, yet dares to always get the upper hand?
But Cleese is 6’5” that’s much taller than all the other guests! Unless they stand on each other’s shoulders!
I'll get you for that, Eversley!
One would think that one would think
4:00 this applies to so many irritating characters, one that comes to mind for me is Sheldon cooper (in the first few seasons). Characters you love but, on screen
Dear BBC - I'm fairly sure this is Melvyn Bragg not Mervyn ;-)
It is a little in joke at the BBC - Fry and Laurie used to call him Mervyn, so they kept it
Ive always found John Cleese very atractive ❤
The Grosvnor?
there is something weirdly terrifying about seeing john cleese pretending to be polite and charming
Lets admit it. If the real owner was still alive today everyone would be desperate to experience it. I would be sure i was there when there were Germans at the same time.
Luckily they stopped uncensoring the episodes
Do you mean 'censoring'?
God I bet Cleese get so bored telling the story of Basil Fawlty all the time
Let’s have a highbrow discussion about a cheap bit of cash-in merch!
Que?
Yes! So much better than today though, don't you think?
@@spanishtickle5684 nah
5:07 that's not how you sell a book. will people not having seen the show enjoy the book?
"absolutely. even if you haven't seen the show yet this book practically takes you onto the
set. so, yes. familiar with the show or not the book is a wonderful look at how we make a
comedy show."
you don't say: eh, I'm not sure. i don't know.
Stop picking your nose John you're on TV ffs
Genius for sure but didn’t care for the “yah” at 2:44. Ugh!