The Germans

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Fawlty Towers episode
“The Germans”
Episode no.	Season 1 Episode 6
Writer(s)	John Cleese & Connie Booth
Director	John Howard Davies
Production no.
Original airdate	24 October 1975
Episode chronology
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List of Fawlty Towers episodes

"The Germans", alternately titled "The Fire Drill", is the sixth episode of the BBC sitcom Fawlty Towers. It is perhaps the most famous episode of all, in particular for the line "Don't mention the war" and Cleese's "funny walk" when he is impersonating Adolf Hitler.

1 Synopsis
2 Cast
3 Plot
4 Trivia
5 External link

[edit] Synopsis

After a heavy blow on the head during a fire drill, Basil finds himself unable to stop himself mentioning 'the war' when a group of German tourists come to stay at the hotel.

[edit] Cast

Episode Credited cast:

With:

Lisa Bergmayr as German Guest
Willy Bowman as German Guest
Brenda Cowling as Sister
Claire Davenport as Miss Wilson
Iris Fry as Mrs. Sharp
Dan Gillian as German Guest
Nick Kane as German Guest
John Lawrence as Mr. Sharp
Louis Mahoney as Doctor Finn

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

In this episode, which starts with Basil and Sybil in the hospital (where Sybil is about to have an ingrowing toenail removed), the viewer gets to see Basil's bluntness and sarcasm at its finest.

Basil is not at all sympathetic to Sybil's problem - "I wish it was an ingrowing tongue", and he claps his hands with glee when he finds out that she will be in pain after the operation.

Chivvied out of the hospital by an efficient nurse, Basil returns to the hotel where he begins to put up a moose's head, as instructed by Sybil. She rings to remind him of the task while he is trying to put it up - he replies, "I was just doing it Sybil but you stopped me to tell me to do what I was already doing. What is the bloody point Sybil, I mean what is the bloody point?". The moose head is then left on the front desk. While cleaning under the desk Manuel practises his English, and the Major thinks that it is the moose talking.

It is soon time for a scheduled fire drill. However, in fetching the fire alarm key from the safe, Basil sets off the hotel's burglar alarm, and then abuses guests who assume that the alarm is the fire drill and begin to evacuate. He tells them the latter is a semi-tone higher and demonstrates the two. The actual fire drill is finally held. During the drill Manuel accidentally sets the kitchen on fire. However when he shouts "Fire!", Basil believes he is confused by the drill, and locks him in the burning room - "there is no fire, is only bell!"

Basil finally realises there is a fire - "I don't know how to say this, but... fire. Fire. F-f-f-f-f-fire. FIRE! FIRE!!!", but he can't set off the alarm as he can't find the key. After cursing God he eventually sets it off by smashing the glass with the telephone. He gets a fire extinguisher, managing to spray himself in the face before finally being smacked on the head by Manuel's frying pan. In a rage Basil prepares to punch him, but passes out before he does so. Suffering from concussion, he is taken to hospital, where we see him lying in bed while Sybil is sitting in a chair in the same room. He insults the nursing sister - "Don't touch me! I don't know where you've been." and tries to leave but is put back to bed by a doctor, with whom he is obviously uncomfortable because the doctor is black.

Basil feigns sleep until everyone leaves and then escapes from the hospital, arriving back at the hotel just in time to meet the German guests they have been expecting.

Basil can't speak a word of German, and when they tell him, "Wir wollen ein Auto mieten" (we want to hire a car), he thinks that they're "volunteering to go out to get some meat". He responds with "not necessary, vee haff meat here in zee building!" He also uses charades to take another group of Germans through to the restaurant, to which the Germans reply in perfect English, "Can we help you?". Basil is most shocked by the fact they speak English. He carefully warns the rest of the staff to not mention "the war".

However Basil, for once concussed rather than simply rude, manages to make reference to the war in almost every sentence he speaks to them. Basil then goes for the big one and does an impression of Hitler himself (despite Polly's desperate attempts to have him do Jimmy Cagney instead)- "I'll do the funny walk" - and proceeds to goose-step across into the lobby and back, still wearing a bandage on his head. When told by one of the Germans that he isn't funny and is upsetting one of their party, Basil responds with "Not funny? I'm trying to cheer her up you stupid kraut!" The episode ends when Basil is knocked out by the moose which is finally hung up on the wall, fleeing the doctor who has arrived to sedate him.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Trivia

This episode popularized the phrase "don't mention the war". The Hitler impression has become infamous, and has been compared with the silly walk, also performed by John Cleese. Cleese turned the phrase into a song for the FIFA World Cup 2006, the first time Cleese has played Basil Fawlty for 27 years[1].
The very last line of the episode, and the first series, comes from one of the Germans – "however did they win?", which is among the reasons the episode has never been considered anti-German. The butt of the joke is Basil, who makes a bigger fool of himself with every outburst. At the same time, the Germans remain calm (although understandably annoyed and upset) throughout.
This was the only episode from the series to be omitted when it was first aired in Germany, for reasons of cultural sensitivity. It has subsequently been shown there.
Andrew Sachs (himself ironically German-born) suffered burns to his entire arms whilst filming the sequence in the kitchen when Manuel caught fire. He had his arms in bandages for the rest of filming, and still bears scars to this day. This was the second occasion that Sachs was hurt via Fawlty Towers, having been seriously concussed by the frying pan-over-the-head routine in the climax of the episode "The Wedding Party".
Manuel claims in this episode that he has a hamster, an idea that Cleese later recycled into the series finale "Basil the Rat".
"Don't Mention The War!" was used as a title for a humorous travel book written by Stewart Ferris and Paul Bassett, detailing travels through Germany and other European countries.
This is the only episode where the opening sequence does not show the exterior of the hotel. It shows the outside of the hospital (actually Northwick Park Hospital) where Sybil is having an "operation" where the first scene is set.
At the end of the episode when the doctor arrives at the hotel and Basil runs through into the kitchen a television monitor is visible through the kitchen door.
When the doctor wheels Sybil out of Basil's hospital room the door seems to open automatically (somebody is probably opening it from the other side). This is obviously so that there can be a seamless exit from the room.
Near the end, after arguing with the German guests, Basil is confronted by the doctor at the hospital. As the concussed Fawlty runs off, the doctor almost immediately takes off after him, as if expecting this.