Fawlty Towers | Tellyspotting

Posted November 27, 2021 - No Comment

Sans ‘Fawlty Towers’, Torquay named the 9th worst place to live in the U.K.

Based around an exceedingly chaotic and poorly run seaside hotel in Torquay, Fawlty Towers has not only provided laughter to British comedy fans worldwide for the better part of four decades, it is widely considered to be the best British comedy of all-time. Unfortunately, sans Fawlty Towers, the same cannot be said for the Devonshire seaside town of Torquay where the sitcom was based, which now has the coveted distinction of being named one of the worst places to live in the UK, actually #9 on the list.

Posted August 5, 2021 - No Comment

Bear with…Germany begins filming on ‘Miranda’ remake, ‘Ruby’

In an attempt to shed their title of being voted ‘the least funniest country in the world‘ following a 2011 international survey conducted by Badoo.com, Germany has begun filming on a German language version of the British sitcom, Miranda. Currently with the working title of Ruby, the series will star German actress Anna Böger in the […]

Posted June 5, 2021 - No Comment

John Cleese talks ‘Creativity’ as we celebrate all-things Python on KERA!

John Cleese has spent the better part of five decades looking at what makes creative people so darn good at it. As one of the original founding members of the Monty Python comedy troupe and then alongside former wife Connie Booth being the creative force behind Fawlty Towers which just so happens to be, IMHO, the greatest British comedy […]

Posted March 23, 2021 - No Comment

‘Fawlty Towers’ and Vinyl = ‘Fawlty Towers: For the Record’

Easily the funniest comedy of all-time, the 12 episodes (yes, there were only 12) of Fawlty Towers are nothing short of comedy perfection comprised of brilliant line after brilliant line and unmatched to this day, some 45+ years after its premiere in 1975. Not only is it a masterclass of comedy writing and performance, the series […]

Posted January 30, 2021 - No Comment

Remembering Michael Gwynn, a.k.a. Lord Melbury in ‘Fawlty Towers’

With a TOH to John Cleese, we remember Michael Gwynn who momentarily fulfilled Basil’s wishes of improving the class of guest that stayed at Fawlty Towers. Gwynn was one of a long line of talented actors who paid a visit to Fawlty Towers over the course of the 12 episodes (yes, there were only 12). Gwynn passed away on 29 January 1976 at the age of 59.

Posted November 17, 2020 - No Comment

Study shows you can’t just turn it off and back on again as ‘The IT Crowd’ achieves the most laughs per minute!

Full disclosure, I didn’t need to see results of a study to tell me that The IT Crowd had the most ‘laughs per minute’ in a recent survey conducted by OnBuy.com. The U.K. online marketplace surveyed 2,325 fans and asked them to name the top 10 funniest British sitcoms of all time. That said, I will quietly […]

Posted November 6, 2020 - No Comment

British acting legend, Geoffrey Palmer, passes away at 93. RIP, Geoffrey.

From Jimmy Anderson in The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin to Ben Parkinson in Butterflies to Lionel Hardcastle in As Time Goes By, Geoffrey Palmer has been a constant fixture in our collective British comedy lives for the better part of four decades with these three series alone. Palmer, who had numerous guest roles in series such as Doctor Who, Inspector Morse, Blackadder Goes Forth, Poirot, Ashes to Ashes and Rev, had perhaps his most well-known guest starring role as Dr Price in “The Kipper and the Corpse” episode of Fawlty Towers in 1979. With a celebrated career that spanned seven decades, Palmer, who turned 93 years young in June of this year, passed away peacefully at his home on Thursday, 5 November.

Posted September 20, 2020 - No Comment

Happy belated 45th, ‘Fawlty Towers’!

On Saturday, as Planet Earth quietly celebrated the 45th anniversary of Fawlty Towers, series co-creator/co-writer John Cleese posed a question on Twitter to which the ability to come up with an answer is next to impossible, if not impossible. Easily the funniest comedy of all-time, the 12 episodes (yes, there were only 12) are wall-to-wall […]

Posted August 21, 2020 - No Comment

Friday Funny — DYI with Basil Fawlty and Mr. O’Reilly

With a majority of Planet Earth still in some form of lockdown or, at least, a sheltering-at-home mode, many people are turning to a variety of different DIY projects to stay busy, remain sane or just pass the time in-between the seemingly endless number of Zoom calls that populate the daylight hours. For today’s Friday Funny […]

Posted August 9, 2020 - No Comment

Social distancing — The Torbay way! 2 metres = 1 Basil Fawlty!

If our new normal of social distancing still has you confused as to what actually constitutes a ‘safe social distance’, consider this from one, John Cleese, with the ultimate in visual explanations for those thick of mind, courtesy of the Torbay Council. Going forward if I see you too close to one another I shall […]