Fawlty Towers Page 10

Fawlty Towers is to be shown unedited on Britbox.

Modern viewers new to Fawlty Towers and its wonders will be able to see "The Germans" in all its original glory, and they'll also be able to hear the major explaining about cricketers and their ethnic origins.

Trevor Phillips, former chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, believes it is right to leave such programmes unedited rather than change them to avoid offending the more sensitive members of 21st-century British society.

Appropriate warnings will be given before the start of each episode.

He suggests that if people are particularly keen not to be offended, they should avoid watching the episodes.

Sounds like good advice to me.

I would be interested to know how the writers* view those moments all these years later and if they believe they should never be cut or if they think it's behind the times and editing is needed in this more modern society. I've seen a lot of documentaries with Cleese and Booth and they don't mention it. Perhaps the writers** prefer to avoid it.

*Cleese and Booth

**Cleese and Booth

In the book, Fawlty Towers, written by Morris Bright & Robert Ross and published by the BBC in 2001, John Cleese is quoted as saying that one of his fondest memories is, when in Hamburg:

A German voice shouted to me "Hey, Mr Cleese, don't mention zee war". I thought that was terrific. It's taken a little time but I felt really good about that.

In the late 1970s, I was sharing a house with a friend of mine and we had two German girls come over from Germany to stay with us for a fortnight during the summer.

For that entire fortnight, my friend and I were continually amusing ourselves by reminding each other not to mention the war.

In much more recent years, my next-door neighbours were a German professor and his Swiss wife: they were among the nicest people I've ever met.

Every time I encountered either one of them, I had to remind myself not to mention the war - not because I was trying to be funny in my own head but rather because I felt an almost overwhelming compulsion to mention it simply because to do so would relieve the almost unbearable pressure of reminding myself on an almost moment by moment basis that I simply must NOT mention it.

Clearly, John Cleese and Connie Booth hit upon something very deep-rooted in the British psyche when they wrote that episode of Fawlty Towers.

Quote: Rood Eye @ 8th December 2019, 11:28 AM

Clearly, John Cleese and Connie Booth hit upon something very deep-rooted in the British psyche when they wrote that episode of Fawlty Towers.

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Or did they create it?

Quote: Aaron @ 8th December 2019, 1:03 PM

Or did they create it?

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No, I think you'll find that it was the war that created it and that the innumerable war films & TV series of the 50s & 60s played their part in maintaining it long before Fawlty Towers arrived on the scene.

Quote: Billy Bunter @ 8th December 2019, 2:43 PM

No, I think you'll find that it was the war that created it and that the innumerable war films & TV series of the 50s & 60s played their part in maintaining it

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But not the very specific "don't mention the war" notion.

In line with other recent events, The Germans has been removed from streamimg services:

https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/news/5804/fawlty-towers-removed-by-uktv/

Utterly unconscionable. Censorship is never the answer.

Quote: Definitely Tarby @ 8th December 2019, 12:20 AM

I would be interested to know how the writers* view those moments all these years later and if they believe they should never be cut or if they think it's behind the times and editing is needed in this more modern society. I've seen a lot of documentaries with Cleese and Booth and they don't mention it. Perhaps the writers** prefer to avoid it.

View original

You're kidding, Tarby. Cleese has been very outspoken with his views on political correctness and its censorship of pre PC age written material. I'm sure you can guess what they are.

Quote: Sitcomfan64 @ 11th June 2020, 9:29 PM

in line with other recent events, The Germans has been removed from streamimg services:

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What recent events Who have they invaded now ffs? If there was ever a nation who shouldn't dare complain about being targets for comedy and satire it's the Krauts.

Quote: Aaron @ 11th June 2020, 9:29 PM

Utterly unconscionable. Censorship is never the answer.

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I agree. Not least because the entire point of the episode is Basil's bigotry coming into conflict with his desire not to offend. His reaction to the black doctor for example is funny because it's an overreaction. Not to mention the fact that it contains arguably one of the greatest comedy scenes in the Fire Drill.

The Major's language is of course racist. But the character is a racist. Should we never write racist characters because they would say racist things? Where does that end?

John Cleese himself in the DVD commentary says something along the lines of 'You cannot censor comedy in case it offends idiots". He was talking about how Johnny Speight created Alf Garnett to make fun of a stupid racist but who was then hijacked by racists as a hero.

The BBC doesn't seem to realize that pulling, censoring and editing old shows will only result in a backlash and could even have the unintended effect of prompting greater support for right-wing politicians. Exercising a little restraint, such as simply prefacing potentially sensitive episodes with a message along the lines of: "this show depicts/satirizes cultural attitudes of the time with language and characters that may be deemed inappropriate today" would be smarter than pulling entire episodes/series.

Exactly. I think editing old shows or removing them is a very dangerous road. It's akin to sweeping things under the carpet and pretending it never happened and you simply cannot edit history. It happened whether people like it or not. If they don't then simply don't watch, but you cannot start removing things.

Love Thy Neighbour uses horribly racist language. That was the point. If people actually watched it they would see that both characters are as bad as the other and give as good as they get. The words have to be put in context and I'm afraid these days context seems to have been forgotten entirely.

Interesting comments by John Cleese:
"It seems to me the best parts of the George Floyd protests have been very moving and very, very powerful," he said.
"There are looters, just as there are rogue police, but if we let our focus be on the 10 per cent who are always trying to f--- everything up, we might forget that what it's really about is trying to behave a bit more kindly towards everyone."
https://www.smh.com.au/culture/tv-and-radio/john-cleese-slams-uktv-decision-to-remove-fawlty-towers-episode-as-stupid-20200612-p5523w.html

I think it's disgraceful the episode has been removed. I am not the biggest Fawlty Towers fan, but it's a classic and I know lots of people love the show and it has a huge fanbase, just because of a few snowflakes, they have to get rid of it. I am sorry, but if people gets offended it's their fault surely? Not the writer's fault or the actor's fault? I think it's ridiculous, I want to know what will be removed next! It's getting way out of hand. Sorry for the rant, but it's a disgrace that this episode has been removed. It's one of my favourite episodes, people say buy the DVD's but surely DVD's are on the way out? Like VHS was back in the late 90s early 2000s