The Germans

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"The Germans"
Fawlty Towers episode
Episode no.	Season 1 Episode 6
Written by	John Cleese & Connie Booth
Directed by	John Howard Davies
Original airdate	24 October 1975
Episode chronology ← Previous Next → "Gourmet Night" "Communication Problems"
List of Fawlty Towers episodes

"The Germans" is the sixth episode of the BBC sitcom Fawlty Towers. It is remembered for its line "Don't mention the war" and Cleese's "funny walk" when he is impersonating Adolf Hitler.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Cultural impact 3 Connections and errors 4 Cast 5 References

[edit] Plot

The episode starts with Basil and Sybil in the hospital, where Sybil is about to have an ingrowing toenail removed. 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 Dr. Finn warns him that Sybil will be in some pain after the operation.

Chivvied out of the hospital by a bustling but efficient ward sister, 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, and he angrily tells her that he had been in the process of doing it. The moose head is then left on the front desk. While cleaning under the desk Manuel practises his English, and the bewildered Major hears him and 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 (which Sybil had set, for no apparent reason), and then abuses the rather stupid guests who assume that the alarm is the fire drill and argue with Basil, despite him telling them that the drill has not started. A protracted series of misunderstandings ensues while Basil tries to explain the difference between the bells, during which he tells them the latter is a semi-tone higher and demonstrates the two. The actual fire drill is finally held, but during the drill Manuel accidentally sets the kitchen on fire. However when he shouts for help, Basil believes he is confused by the drill, and locks him in the burning room.

Basil finally realises there is a fire, but he can't set off the alarm as he can't find the key. He eventually manages to set it off by smashing the glass with the telephone receiver. 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, Basil is taken to hospital, where we see him lying in bed while Sybil is sitting in a chair in the same room. He gradually remembers the recent events and decides he must get back to the hotel at once, insults the nursing sister who tries to manhandle him back into his bed, and tries to leave but is put back to bed by Dr. Finn.

Basil feigns sleep until everyone leaves and then (somehow) escapes from the hospital, arriving back at the hotel just in time to meet and be rude to the German tourists they have been expecting. Basil can't speak a word of German but is too proud to admit this to the first Germans he encounters, and, when asked "Wir Wollen ein Auto mieten" (we want to hire a car), he thinks that they are offering to go out to get some meat and his subsequent response evidently bewilders the German guests. Polly and Manuel notice, especially with the big bandage on Basil's head, that Basil is not himself. He then attempts to communicate to another group with charades, only to discover, to his astonishment, that they speak English. Basil hypocritically instructs Polly "Don't mention the war".

However, Basil, due to his concussion, accidentally makes references to the war in almost every sentence he subsequently speaks to them. This ultimately leads to one of the German ladies crying, and Basil tries to cheer her up by goose-stepping across the room. The German men become enraged and an argument ensues.

Meanwhile, Polly has called Dr. Finn, who arrives into the room to sedate Basil and return him to the hospital. After a short chase, during which Manuel is knocked senseless by Basil, Basil himself is knocked out cold when the moose head (which has finally been hung up on the wall, shoddily as it transpires) falls down on him, then ends up over Manuel's head. Manuel then starts moaning about how Basil hit him on the head and the Major, still thinking that the moose is talking, reminds it that it had hit Basil on the head and cuffs it on the nose (Manuel's head yet again). During this time, the bewildered German guests shake their heads in disbelief and one mutters, "However did they win?".

[edit] Cultural impact

• In 2008, John Cleese confirmed that he has been learning German for a while and described himself as "speaking simple German fluently now". Referring to the Fawlty Towers episode "The Germans", he explained "Everybody thinks that was a joke about the Germans but they missed it. It was a joke about English attitudes to the war and the fact that some people were still hanging on to that rubbish".^[1]
• This episode popularised 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 had played Basil Fawlty in 27 years.^[2] The phrase 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. It is also the title of a book by John Ramsden, published in 2006, which examines Anglo-German relations since 1890 and a 2004 Radio 4 documentary looking at the British perception of Germans.^[3]
• 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.^{[citation needed]}
• This episode was voted as number 11 in Channel 4's One Hundred Greatest TV Moments in 1999.^[4]
• G.O.L.D., a channel that regularly shows Fawlty Towers, agrees that while "The Germans" is the most famous episode, the best episode is "Communication Problems".^[5]
• Empire magazine listed this as the best episode of the show ints list of the 50 greatest TV episodes of all time. ^[6]

[edit] Connections and errors

• Andrew Sachs suffered allergic chemical burns over his entire arms while filming the sequence in the kitchen when Manuel caught fire after his shirt, which had had a chemical applied so it would smoke, burned through. 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 Wedding Party"'s climax.
• During the final seconds of the episode, when Basil makes his escape through the kitchen pursued by the doctor and nurse, a monitor displaying the scene is clearly visible through the dining room doors.
• During the fire drill when the ringing of the fire bell is supposed to be stopped by using the appropriate key, Basil appears to ad-lib the action and very obviously misses the "keyhole".
• When Basil rants at the guests over the difference between the Fire Bell and the Burglar Alarm, shrieking that the Fire Bell is "... a semitone higher!!", this is in fact correct from a musical point of view, although both bells' sound and timbre are otherwise identical, rendering it laughable that he expects guests somehow to know the difference upon first hearing.
• Manuel's pet hamster is first mentioned in this episode, and not seen until the final episode, "Basil the Rat", in which it is revealed that the hamster is actually a domestic rat, which Manuel has named Basil after his superior.
• At about 15:05 when the guests start to leave the hotel because Basil rang the fire bell, the boom mike is visible on the top right-hand corner.
• The original audio LP adaptation of this episode was called "Fire Drill" and the "Large Woman" character was retitled as "Bossy Woman" in the sleeve notes.
• When Manuel responds to Basil's call much too late, Basil sarcastically calls him "The Admirable Crichton."

[edit] Cast

Episode Credited cast:

• John Cleese as Basil Fawlty
• Prunella Scales as Sybil Fawlty
• Andrew Sachs as Manuel
• Connie Booth as Polly Sherman
• Ballard Berkeley as Major Gowen
• Gilly Flower as Miss Abitha Tibbs
• Renee Roberts as Miss Ursula Gatsby
• 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] References

• Fawlty Towers: A Worshipper's Companion, Leo Publishing, ISBN 91-973661-8-8
• The Complete Fawlty Towers by John Cleese & Connie Booth (1988, Methuen, London) ISBN 0-413-18390-4 (the complete text)

v • d • e Fawlty Towers Characters Basil Fawlty · Sybil Fawlty · Manuel · Polly Sherman · Major Gowen · Terry · Miss Tibbs & Miss Gatsby · Notable guests Series One episodes "A Touch of Class" · "The Builders" · "The Wedding Party" · "The Hotel Inspectors" · "Gourmet Night" · "The Germans" Series Two episodes "Communication Problems" · "The Psychiatrist" · "Waldorf Salad" · "The Kipper and the Corpse" · "The Anniversary" · "Basil the Rat" Related articles Donald Sinclair · Wooburn Grange Country Club · Torquay