Mine's the Nicky Henson character in The Psychiatrist, the one Cybil fancies and Basil calls an orangutan. The seething jealousy he conjurs up in Basil is superb, all his puritanism comes to the surface because he secretly wants to be doing what Henson is doing. That's probably my favourite episode as well.
Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ September 5 2009, 9:23 AM BSTall his puritanism comes to the surface because he secretly wants to be doing what Henson is doing.
I didn't ever make that connection. Why do you say he secretly wants to be doing what Henson is doing?
I think if Basil wanted to be like Henson he kept it very well hidden !
My feeling is that he loathes everything that people like Henson stand for, youth, looks, money,freedom from convention etc. All totally alien to Basil's Churchillian world and way of doing things.
Hello Nogget, well because this is really the main thread of this episode, a psychiatrist is in the hotel and sexually repressed Basil is terrified that he may be the subject of a withering analysis by him. The Henson womaniser character represents all that stale and uptight Basil is not capable of, and as most psychiatrists will tell you, all sexual inhibitions and phobias mask a deep longing to be sexually attractive and sexually active. People with strong inhibitions or a puritanical attitude towards sex, if it isn't brought on by religious reasons then they are usually like this because of some bad experience, a rejection or a ridiculing of their sexual performance, or a fear about size of manhood, etc. Basil fits this classic sexually repressed stereotype perfectly by repeatedly saying 'Oh we do it about twice a week, we're perfectly normal down here...' when he thinks the psychiatrist is going to analyse him. What he is revealing is that he is actually quite obsessed about sex and very frustrated that he isn't getting more. What has happened is that Henson the successful womaniser has sparked off this innate fear in Basil of his impotence and lack of libido and sexual performance, he has sparked this off because Basil is secretly humiliated by his lack of sex and low sex appeal, and would actually love to be getting more than he is. There is great jealousy there too because his wife is all over the vulgar, overtly sexual Henson character. So basically Basil is condemning Henson for being so sexually popular when he himself is anything but, and he does this by bringing out the old puritanical act, (just as many religious fanatics in history have done) trying to smear Henson as being sexually perverted, abnormally overactive or even dangerous, when the reality probably is that Basil is abnormal, being sexually repressed and hung up about it. In other words his strong anti-sex stance against Henson is very classic Freudian 'repressed behaviour' and this is the whole point of this fine episode.
Thanks for the reply; I saw that episode when I was about 9, so the Freudian stuff escaped me.
Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ September 5 2009, 11:27 AM BSTHello Nogget, well because this is really the main thread of this episode, a psychiatrist is in the hotel and sexually repressed Basil is terrified that he may be the subject of a withering analysis by him. The Henson womaniser character represents all that stale and uptight Basil is not capable of, and as most psychiatrists will tell you, all sexual inhibitions and phobias mask a deep longing to be sexually attractive and sexually active. People with strong inhibitions or a puritanical attitude towards sex, if it isn't brought on by religious reasons then they are usually like this because of some bad experience, a rejection or a ridiculing of their sexual performance, or a fear about size of manhood, etc. Basil fits this classic sexually repressed stereotype perfectly by repeatedly saying 'Oh we do it about twice a week, we're perfectly normal down here...' when he thinks the psychiatrist is going to analyse him. What he is revealing is that he is actually quite obsessed about sex and very frustrated that he isn't getting more. What has happened is that Henson the successful womaniser has sparked off this innate fear in Basil of his impotence and lack of libido and sexual performance, he has sparked this off because Basil is secretly humiliated by his lack of sex and low sex appeal, and would actually love to be getting more than he is. There is great jealousy there too because his wife is all over the vulgar, overtly sexual Henson character. So basically Basil is condemning Henson for being so sexually popular when he himself is anything but, and he does this by bringing out the old puritanical act, (just as many religious fanatics in history have done) trying to smear Henson as being sexually perverted, abnormally overactive or even dangerous, when the reality probably is that Basil is abnormal, being sexually repressed and hung up about it. In other words his strong anti-sex stance against Henson is very classic Freudian 'repressed behaviour' and this is the whole point of this fine episode.
I think you're over-analysing just a teeeeeeeny bit. 
Not really Aaron, I could have been less windy for certain, but it's actually quite hard to explain the Freudian content without all that detail. You could say 'well it's just a funny episode with a psychiatrist, a playboy and an Australian bird' but this just wouldn't go anywhere near to doing justice to this genius sitcom episode. This is indeed a complex episode, it has an incredible amount of action it, a ludicrous number of action cuts and it overruns by several minutes. Even for an FT episode this one is incredibly rich and the Freudian stuff is all there, I've watched it dozens of times.
Mr Kipper
Then again, Freudian analysis and interpretation has subsequently been challenged over the years and found often to be, at best, incomplete or debatable. A lot of Freudian assertions rely on conjecture rather than on extensive evidence-based studies. Also, the Mr Johnson character is insufferably smug and I rather agree with Basil's distaste for him.
Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ September 5 2009, 6:02 PM BSTNot really Aaron, I could have been less windy for certain, but it's actually quite hard to explain the Freudian content without all that detail.
I didn't make any comment on the length or the detail.
Bernard Cribbins playing Mr. Hutchinson. The spoon salesman Basil mistakes for a hotel inspector. The scene where he does actual violence to him in the restuaraunt is, to my mind, Fawlty Towers funniest scene ever.
The Australian in 'The Psychiatrist'....I could look at her all day.
Quote: Dolly Dagger @ 14th August 2009, 9:22 PMAgreed. Also Lord Melbury.
Lord Melbury was played by Michael Gwynn. If you want more 'Melbury', Gwynn has an interesting supporting role as a slightly mad organ-playing snob in What A Carve Up, a 1961 comedy horror starring Sid James, Ken Connor, Dennis Price, Donald Sinden and Shirley Eaton. A silly film, plodding in parts, but the cast are enjoyable: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUvanNjCqrY
For me it has to be Mrs Richards played by Joan Sanderson, wonderful performance from a great veteran star, fondly remembered for Please Sir and All Gas and Gaiters etc. Very funny
Geoffrey Palmer is up there - "I'm a doctor. I'm a doctor and I want my sausages!". The obnoxious Waldorf Salad American too. Actually, I'd be hard pressed to think of a guest who isn't memorable in some way, which is some feat.
Mr "A gin and orange, a lemon squash and a scotch and water, please!"
Or the Woodworm?
