Almanac Comedy: My Favourite Comedies #3-#2

 

 

 

 

#3 – Fawlty Towers (1975-1979)

 

When the Monty Python crew stayed at the Gleneagles Hotel in Torquay for three weeks in 1970 to work, they were confronted by the owner Donald Sinclair who John Cleese described as the rudest man he had ever met.

 

Sinclair a former WW2 navy officer, terrorised the Pythons to the point that all of them left after a week except Cleese and his wife Connie Booth. What became a research project for them both, materialised as Fawlty Towers five years later and arguably the greatest British sitcom ever made.

 

Basil Fawlty (Cleese) is a misanthropic wannabee upper class snob who is terrified of his wife Sybil (Prunella Scales) who despite her small frame, packs a verbal and physical punch that can clear a room with a flick of her tongue. It’s a tour de force performance in every episode from Prunella Scales and an inspired choice by Cleese and Booth.

 

Spanish waiter Manuel (Andrew Sachs) is almost Charlie Chaplin-like and always hilarious as he drives the terminally agitated Basil around the bend. Connie Booth plays Polly, the ever reliable waiter and housekeeper.

 

Interestingly Fawlty Towers was produced over a 2 x six episode series, with Cleese and Booth getting divorced before the second series. Perhaps this explains the performance of Cleese which is utterly manic and  almost free-form in its delivery.

 

There are great supporting performances such as the Major and the two elderly women Mrs Tibbs and Miss Gatsby and there are episodes that have been folklore in many of our collective lives, having lines from them constantly reprised over the years!

 

How can you beat the Mrs Richards episode for a sitcom perfection? “What do you expect to see out of a Torquay hotel bedroom window? Sydney Opera House perhaps? The Hanging Gardens of Babylon? Herds of wilder beasts sweeping majestically across the plains?….”  or Basil the Rat episode, “That’s not a hamster Manuel, it’s a rat. Hamsters are cute and cuddly. Cuddle that and you’ll never play the guitar again.”

 

I think Basil came at a good time for Britain and the world for that matter. Things were pretty staid and conservative and Fawlty Towers was just the tonic to give us all permission to lose the plot occasionally! “Satisfied customer. We should have him stuffed.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

#2 – The Office (2001)

 

Filmed ‘mockumentary style’, The original UK The Office arrived by stealth and word of mouth on the ABC. Ricky Gervais and his co-writer Stephen Merchant had backgrounds in radio together although Gervais had been in a pretentious new wave band in the 80’s named Seona Dancing.

 

Gervais is without doubt the star of The Office with his character David Brent, the manager of a paper company based in the featureless industrial area of Slough. Brent spends most of his time attempting to be popular with his employees and is constantly in denial as to his real popularity.

 

His efforts to gain respect and attention are some of the cringiest ever seen on screen, and for someone like me who worked in a corporate environment for 30 years, Gervais’s performances were utterly heroic.

 

Gervais was ably supported by Lucy Davis as Dawn, Martin Freeman as Tim and Mackenzie Crook as Gareth. Both Freeman and Crook have gone on to have very successful film careers. Ewan Bishop as Keith probably doesn’t get the recognition he deserved but he was outstanding as the sluggish, emotionless accounts man.

 

The Office kick-started a monumental career for Gervais as a writer, stand up, actor and controversial host of the Emmys. All his follow up sitcoms have been very successful, including his most recent effort, Afterlife.

 

After The Office was finished and he and Stephen Merchant started on Extras, they popped into a tiny room in London and recorded what was at the time, the world’s first podcast called The Ricky Gervais Show. The first two series of this is fantastic and introduced unemployed radio producer, Karl Pilkington who Gervais also made a star with his own travel show.

 

There is literally an embarrassment of riches when it comes to the gaffes and inappropriate moments in The Office, it’s hard to choose a few. The Xmas Special was one of the best finales to a series I’ve seen and it brought the curtain down on what is the perfect sitcom.

 

Personally, I just couldn’t get into the US The Office. I appreciate it’s been successful for a reason but I don’t think I’ve made it through an episode. On the other hand the UK The Office sits comfortably in the best sitcoms ever produced and if you’ve ever worked in an office before and hated it, the Office provides great therapy!

 

Here Brent agrees to deliver a motivational speech to a paying audience of workers after hours:

 

 

 

 

Determined not be outdone by his boss on Red Nose Day, Brent decides to do his own interpretive dance:

 

 

 

 

The wonderful Keith extracting all he can from his appraisal:

 

 

 

 

The office hires a consultant to deliver a customer care workshop and Brent is asked to do a role play:

 

 

 

 

Brent railroads the consultant, and somehow manages to segue his music into the workshop:

 

 

 

 

Perhaps the cringiest inaugural speech to a group of new employees ever made. Brent, desperate to be accepted by a new team members from the Swindon branch, thinks his references from a previous appalling speech with shit jokes will make an impression:

 

 

 

 

Post the speech, Brent just can’t leave things be and decides to tell an inappropriate joke. He then spends the next hour trying to avoid getting sacked:

 

 

 

 

 

Part 1: #27 – #20 can be read HERE

 

Part 2: #15 – #19 can be read HERE

 

Part 3: #12 – #14 can be read HERE

 

Part 4: #11 can be read HERE

 

Part 5: #9 – #10 can be read HERE

 

Part 6: #8 can be read  HERE

 

Part 7: #6 – #7 can be read HERE

 

Part 8: #4 – #5 can be read HERE

 

 

Read more from Ian Wilson HERE

 

 

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