Fawlty Towers - The Complete Collection (Remastered) [DVD] [1975]

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Usually, human Basil's frustration is due to his own incompetence, but for once it's actually out of his hands as the whole staff tries to track down the runaway rodent. All twelve episodes of John Cleese and Connie Booth's highly successful comedy series, set in a Torquay hotel. but "sitcom" is short for "situation comedy", and that's ultimately where "Fawlty Towers" derives most of its jokes.

The DVD box set also comes with a small eight-page colour booklet containing photographs and a bit about the background of the show.Cleese and then-wife Connie Booth's setup, about a class-obsessed, rude hotel manager, his acid-tongued wife Sybil (Prunella Scales), their demure waitress Polly (Booth) and eternally confused waiter Manuel (Andrew Sachs) trying to run the title hotel provides a good foundation; in fact, it's versatile enough that you'd think someone would have ripped it off by now. In ‘The Psychiatrist’, Basil begins behaving even more oddly than usual when he learns that a psychiatrist is staying at the hotel. In the second, Basil backs himself into a corner with lies as usual, but this time there's a party guest (Ken Campbell) who sees through each and every one of his excuses and is visibly amused, giving the audience something to laugh at other than Basil's misfortune. In 'Basil the Rat', waiter Manuel (Andrew Sachs)'s Siberian hamster turns out to be a rat, which goes missing just in time for a visit from the hotel inspector. The third disc has all the additional material, the best of which are new interviews with John Cleese, Andrew Sachs and Prunella Scales.

Comedy about a hotel and its owner, a man of infinite rudeness with a rabid dislike of almost all guests.In ‘Waldorf Salad’, some newly-arrived American guests’ request for transatlantic cuisine does not go down well with Basil in the kitchen.

For items that are dispatched using our standard service, we ask that you wait 14 days from the date of dispatch before reporting any items as undelivered. The box set contains three DVD discs: Series One and Two are on a disc each plus a third disc of Special Features.

Whether it is builders, Germans, wedding guests, American tourists, corpses or even rats, there's always someone or something to drive Basil to desperation. The other cast interviews are on the redundant side, especially Cleese's; the best part of the featurette is hearing about the experience from some of the smaller, peripheral roles, which is a change of pace from the rest of the extras. Each disc has one of the famous "alternate hotel sign" title treatments on it, there is a disc breakdown on each of the flaps, and a booklet with an article about the show inside of it.

and these last three episodes are no different, but they introduce additional layers that subtly change the angle of the comedy. The book details each character’s individual traits, comedy highlights and the positions in the Fawlty dynamic. In 'The Anniversary', a secret party planned for Sybil goes awry when the guest of honour storms out of the hotel.In 'Waldorf Salad', some newly-arrived American guests' request for transatlantic cuisine does not go down well with Basil in the kitchen. Interestingly, listening to these chats and hearing what Cleese thinks on an episode-by-episode basis probably improved my opinion of the show as a whole, so I suppose in that respect, it's excellent stuff; viewers should just be prepared for the incredibly laid-back atmosphere, which struck me as different than what might traditionally expected of a good commentary. To mark its 30th anniversary, all 12 episodes of John Cleese and Connie Booth's highly successful comedy series, set in a Torquay hotel, have been remastered. The Kipper and the Corpse' finds Basil and Manuel trying to dispose of a dead body without any of the guests noticing.