Fawlty Towers
The Germans
TV Flash files “The Germans” as a desk essential hour — Fawlty Towers (1975–1979) on BBC Two, season 1, episode 6, aired 1975-10-24, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S01E06: listed hour 6 of 12 in the Fawlty Towers guide, last listed hour of season 1. It aired 1975-10-24 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “Gourmet Night (a.k.a. Gourmet's Paradise)” (S01E05). Next is “Communication Problems (a.k.a. Theft)” (S02E01).
Essential hour: “The Germans”. The Germans is the don't-mention-the-war hour the culture filed. Twelve-episode craft at full bruise: class panic, national gaffe, the hotel still a trap Basil built himself.
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
With Sybil in the hospital with an ingrowing toenail, a moose's head to hang up and some German guests arriving the next day, Basil has his work cut out for him. After an attempted fire drill goes wrong and Basil lands up in the hospital with concussion, he succeeds causing much offense to the German guests after finally escaping back to the hotel. This episode is the origin of the quote "Don't mention the war."
Viewer FAQ
Where does The Germans sit in the Fawlty Towers guide?
S01E06 is listed hour 6 of 12 — last listed hour of season 1, season 1 episode 6.
When did Fawlty Towers S01E06 air?
The Germans aired 1975-10-24 and is listed at 30 minutes.
Is twelve episodes really the whole show?
Yes. Two series, deliberate scarcity. Watch all of them — short-run sitcom as cathedral, not a missing-season mystery.
In the series
Why this series still plays
Twelve episodes. John Cleese's Basil turns a Torquay hotel into a pressure cooker of class panic, Sybil combat, and don't-mention-the-war. Short-run sitcom as cathedral: every farce brick laid on purpose. The rage, the waiter Manuel, and proof that less can outlive whole sitcom empires.
Picture a Torquay hotel that only needed twelve keys. 1975–1979, BBC Two: hostile hotelier Basil Fawlty terrorizes guests and staff in farces that escalate to operatic disaster. Fawlty Towers, from John Cleese and Connie Booth, runs two series — deliberate scarcity inspired by a real hotelier the Pythons once encountered. Prunella Scales's Sybil, Booth's Polly, Andrew Sachs's Manuel. Class panic, marital combat, don't-mention-the-war. Every farce brick laid on purpose. On the palate: damp carpet, a sign that will…
Filed against
- John Cleese as Basil Fawlty
John Cleese’s various Monty Python’s Flying Circus turns rewired sketch so a punchline did not have to bow — 1960s catalog BBC cutouts, then Fawlty Towers stretching the rage into twelve episodes of a Torquay pressure cooker. TV Flash…
- Prunella Scales as Sybil Fawlty
Prunella Scales played Sybil Fawlty on Fawlty Towers, twelve 1970s episodes in which John Cleese’s Basil turns a Torquay hotel into a pressure cooker of class panic, Sybil combat, and don’t-mention-the-war. Short-run sitcom as cathedral:…
- Connie Booth as Polly Sherman
Connie Booth played Polly Sherman on Fawlty Towers — twelve episodes, John Cleese's Basil turning a Torquay hotel into a pressure cooker of class panic, Sybil combat, and don't-mention-the-war. Short-run sitcom as cathedral: every farce…
- Andrew Sachs as Manuel
Andrew Sachs’s Manuel made Fawlty Towers’ twelve-episode cathedral ring — John Cleese’s Basil as class panic, Sybil combat, don’t-mention-the-war, and a Torquay waiter who turned farce bricks into a national catchphrase. Short-run sitcom…