Fawlty Towers - Series 1 [1975] [DVD]

Well may I ask what you expected to see out of a Torquay hotel bedroom window? Sydney Opera House perhaps? The Hanging Gardens of Babylon? Herds of wildebeest sweeping majestically

Fawlty Towers is hilarious, but has become a little dated in my opinion. Many other successful sitcoms have aged much better - like Dad's Army and Only Fools and Horses.However, Basil Fawlty is an exceptional character and if more episodes were avaialble, I would definately watch them

Good service and price

It’s the best. Sure - there’s old school British racism and sexism… but if you’re not actually a racist or a sexist it probably won’t bother you

Glad to see/hear - so far - no PC editing has been done on original series.

This comedy series from the 1970s is extremely laugh out loud funny. It is now also a history piece but it has not lost its power to make people laugh. It is highly visual and often works even as a silent movie or for non-English speakers. In its day it was verbally amazing and most of the jokes still stand up.It was made in a pre-multi-racial Britain with a much greater sense of different classes (upper, upper middle, middle, lower middle and lower class) and with the central character being insanely desperate to climb the social ladder and repeatedly frustrated. The target of the jokes is the insane, incompetent, perpetually angry hotel manager who will endure astonishing pain and suffering to avoid public embarrassment.The plots are unusually unpredictable and surprising.Probably the greatest comedy series made in Britain in the last century.

Having enjoyed this series many times over the years, I was pleased to find it accessible on Amazon Video and with the addition of subtitles, which I do require, so I purchased it.I was a bit disappointed though to find that subtitles do not seem to be available on the Season 2 Amazon Video set, so am biding my time in the hope that a version with subtitles will be made available for me to purchase in the future.Apart from this, I would heartily recommend this Amazon Video version, which is a pleasure to watch.

Comedy like this could not be made today, in the days of political correctness.Now there are some famous episodes in the series where this is very true, The Germans for example. But although the comments made by Basil and the Major may be have ended up in the out takes bin if the series were made today, the real joke is actually at the expense of these characters for their ignorance.The relationship between Basil and Cybil, providing the husband and wife gags has a touch of the Les Dawson's about it.This has stood the test of time, it's frantic, funny, even if by today's standards unsubtle.