A Touch of Class (Fawlty Towers)

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Fawlty Towers episode
“A Touch of Class”
Episode no.	Season 1 Episode 1
Writer(s)	John Cleese & Connie Booth
Director	John Howard Davies
Production no.	01
Original airdate	19 September 1975
Episode chronology
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List of Fawlty Towers episodes

"A Touch of Class" is the pilot episode in the first series of the BBC television sitcom Fawlty Towers.

1 Synopsis
2 Cast
3 Plot
4 Trivia

[edit] Synopsis

Basil Fawlty has become smitten with a guest, a supposed rich aristocrat named Lord Melbury. Little does Basil know that he is getting himself entangled into a complex confidence scam.

[edit] Cast

Episode credited cast:

John Cleese as Basil Fawlty
Prunella Scales as Sybil Fawlty
Andrew Sachs as Manuel
Connie Booth as Polly Shearman
Michael Gwynn as Lord Melbury
Ballard Berkeley as Major Gowen
Gilly Flower as Miss Abitha Tibbs
Renee Roberts as Miss Ursula Gatsby

With:

Terence Conoley as Mr. Wareing
Robin Ellis as Danny Brown
David Simeon as Mr. Mackenzie
Lionel Wheeler as Mr. Watson
Martin Wyldeck as Sir Richard Morris

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The episode begins with the nagging monologue that we will come to know and love as Sybil Fawlty, who is desperately trying to persuade her incompetent husband Basil to hang a picture up, and write out the new menu. After introducing Manuel (we hired him because he was cheap, Sybil - and eager to work), Major Gowen and Polly the central plot begins.

Sybil confronts Basil about an expensive advert he has placed in an up-market magazine, and he explains he is trying to encourage a higher class of clientele. Almost immediately, A Cockney guest, Danny Brown turns up asking for a room, much to Basil's annoyance. However he is soon put out when Mr. Brown shows that he can communicate better in Spanish with Manuel than Basil himself.

Whilst on the phone to O'Reilly (the builder who is featured in the next episode) Lord Melbury, a snooty aristocrat turns up out of the blue and Basil immediately becomes infatuated by his alleged class and breeding. Embarrassing incidents follow, where Basil tries to treat Lord Melbury better than his other guests, and asks a family to move, knocking Lord Melbury off his chair in the process.

When Polly goes into town to take out some money for Basil (who is borrowing it in order to cash a cheque from Lord Melbury, an offer he unwisely made while fawning on the aristocrat) she comes across Danny Brown and a police inspector. They explain that they are from the CID, and are watching Melbury who is revealed to be a confidence trickster, and pulling off a large scam in town.

Basil continues to ignore other guests while attending to Lord Melbury in the bar, neglecting to get them their drinks. Melbury offers to take Basil's collection of coins to have them valued while visiting another aristocrat that evening. Basil is honoured and agrees.

Polly confronts Basil with the information that Melbury is a con, but he refuses to believe her. She tells Sybil, who takes out Melbury's valuables suitcase fom the safe, and the contents are proven to be nothing but bricks! Sir Richard Morris, a real aristocrat, and his wife arrive to check in and witness Basil's furious rage, as he swears at Melbury who is promptly arrested by Brown and his colleague. Basil takes the money he has given Melbury from Melbury's own pockets, and then promptly kicks the conman. Horrified by what he has seen Sir Morris leaves, vowing never to return to such a terrible hotel.

Basil re-enters the hotel, and a very angry Mr. Wareing (whom Basil moved from his table earlier in the episode) shouts (after several prior requests) that he would like a gin and orange, a lemon squash, and a scotch and water, PLEASE!, for which he has been waiting in the bar for some time. Basil smashes the picture he hung up previously, and violently guides his guest back to the bar and tells him to pour his own drinks.

[edit] Trivia

After this episode modifications were made to the set (for example, in the next episode the wallpaper is a totally different colour, and the hotel layout slightly wider).
After the transmission, Fawlty Towers was given a very bad rating, however this was not to last long, by the end of the first series, the show was phenomenally popular, and ever since has been regarded by many as the finest British sitcom ever made.
This was Michael Gwynn's (Lord Melbury) final televised role. He died less than a year after the series ended.
Basil keeps getting distracted from hanging the picture on the wall. Throughout the episode the picture clearly has no glass covering it, yet at the end when Basil smashes the picture on the ground we hear the distinct sound of glass breaking.
Another continuity error occurs when Basil goes outside to collect Lord Melbury's cases. The cases have switched hands when he returns to the lobby.

Fawlty Towers

Characters: