Fawlty Towers
The Kipper and the Corpse (a.k.a. Death)
TV Flash files “The Kipper and the Corpse (a.k.a. Death)” as a desk essential hour — Fawlty Towers (1975–1979) on BBC Two, season 2, episode 4, aired 1979-03-12, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S02E04: listed hour 10 of 12 in the Fawlty Towers guide, hour 4 of 6 in season 2. It aired 1979-03-12 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “Waldorf Salad” (S02E03). Next is “The Anniversary” (S02E05).
Essential hour: “The Kipper and the Corpse (a.k.a. Death)”. The Kipper and the Corpse is death as farce logistics. Second-series brickwork: a body in a seaside hotel, still no wasted scene, still proof that less outlives whole sitcom empires.
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
A guest dies at the hotel and Basil and the staff are left with the unpleasant task of removing the body discreetly, while the doctor staying at the hotel, Dr. Price, waits for his sausages. Also, Polly and Manuel feed an elderly woman's pampered pet dog some extra spicy sausages after it bites them both.
Viewer FAQ
Where does The Kipper and the Corpse (a.k.a. Death) sit in the Fawlty Towers guide?
S02E04 is listed hour 10 of 12 — hour 4 of 6 in season 2, season 2 episode 4.
When did Fawlty Towers S02E04 air?
The Kipper and the Corpse (a.k.a. Death) aired 1979-03-12 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…