Fawlty Towers

Fawlty Towers

By Gavin Salkeld

 

For the first in a new series of articles for 2023, we'll be looking at some curious television censorship, examining some controversy surrounding the classic BBC sitcom, Fawlty Towers, which first aired on British television in 1975. It famously ran for only two series, with a four-year gap between the two, and is considered one of the greatest British sitcoms of all time.

Fawlty Towers is a British television staple; its episodes have aired on British television repeatedly over the past 45 years and the series has been released and re-released on home video for over 35 years. However, one episode has ruffled more than a few feathers with broadcasters on at least two occasions.
 

The controversial episode in question is titled The Germans ; the sixth and final episode of the show's first series, and one of its most famous episodes. In one scene, the character of Major Gowen engages in a conversation with Basil Fawlty, the owner of the Fawlty Towers hotel. The Major is an old soldier and a permanent resident of the hotel who has lived there for seven years.

 

Cut Scenes: Batting on a sticky wicket In conversation with the half-listening Basil, with the two men talking at cross purposes, the Major recounts a time he took a girlfriend on a date. We've transcribed the key dialogue spoken between the two men below, which is how it played as originally transmitted on October 24th, 1975: MAJOR: Strange creatures, women. BASIL: Well, can't stand around all day-- MAJOR: I knew one once! Striking-looking girl. Tall, you know. Bald as a badger. BASIL: Really. MAJOR: Don't remember the name of the bank. BASIL: Oh, never mind. MAJOR: I must have been keen on her because I took her to see India! BASIL: India? MAJOR: At the Oval! Fine match, a marvellous finish. Now, Surrey had to get 33 in about a half an hour, and she went off to powder her... powder her hands or something. Women... never came back. BASIL: What a shame. MAJOR: And the strange thing was that throughout the morning, she kept referring to the Indians as 'niggers'. No, no, no, no, no I said. Niggers are the West Indians; these people are Wogs! No, no, no, no, she said, all cricketers are niggers. BASIL: They do get awfully confused, don't they? They're not thinkers, I see it with Sybil every day. MAJOR: I do wish I could remember her name. She's still got my wallet. BASIL: As I was saying, no capacity for logical thought. MAJOR: Who? BASIL: Women. It goes without saying that, to a contemporary audience, the Major's use of racist terms in a popular mainstream television programme may appear quite shocking at face value. However, one must consider the context in which such language is being used in this scene. The Major is a somewhat senile old man with outdated, bigoted attitudes to race. The comedy in the scene works on two levels. First and foremost, we're laughing at the Major's old-fashioned stance on race. We are not laughing with him; a crucial difference. Fawlty Towers treats the Major as someone to be made fun of and pointedly, Basil does not endorse or condone the Major's racist views, nor does the show invite the audience to. Secondly, we laugh because Basil's point of reference (as he half-listens to the Major) is the behavioural traits of women, whilst the Major thinks that Basil's comments are referring to Indian people. It's a clever and well-written scene, and one that is obviously not intended to offend. Regardless, when The Germans was repeated on BBC2 in the UK almost forty years later on Sunday January 20th, 2013 at 7:30pm the episode had been cut by the BBC to remove the Major's racist language. This is how the affected dialogue scene played after cuts, which amounted to just under 20 seconds. The missing dialogue is in red: MAJOR: Strange creatures, women. BASIL: Well, can't stand around all day-- MAJOR: I knew one once! Striking-looking girl. Tall, you know. Bald as a badger. BASIL: Really. MAJOR: Don't remember the name of the bank. BASIL: Oh, never mind. MAJOR: I must have been keen on her because I took her to see India! BASIL: India? MAJOR: At the Oval! Fine match, a marvellous finish. Now, Surrey had to get 33 in about a half an hour, and she went off to powder her... powder her hands or something. Women... never came back. BASIL: What a shame. MAJOR: And the strange thing was that throughout the morning, she kept referring to the Indians as 'niggers'. No, no, no, no, no I said. Niggers are the West Indians; these people are Wogs! No, no, no, no, she said, all cricketers are niggers. BASIL: They do get awfully confused, don't they? They're not thinkers, I see it with Sybil every day. MAJOR: I do wish I could remember her name. She's still got my wallet. BASIL: As I was saying, no capacity for logical thought. MAJOR: Who? BASIL: Women.

 

 

The BBC on the back foot

Following the edited repeat of The Germans, numerous British viewers complained to the BBC for its maltreatment of the episode; an episode which had aired uncut several times in the years beforehand and that had been available on home video for decades. One viewer remarked:

You can't airbrush history away and I doubt if anyone but the terminally thin-skinned could be offended by the major.

Another viewer went further, remarking:

It's about time you grew up BBC, and trusted your audience. We know what is acceptable and what is not and what is funny and why, and the fact it is of a time which is now long past. We understand context, the major doesn't whip up hatred.

In response, a BBC spokesperson offered a rather bland comment to The Daily Mail that said:

We are very proud of Fawlty Towers and its contribution to British television comedy. But public attitudes have changed significantly since it was made, and it was decided to make some minor changes to allow the episode to transmit to a family audience at 7.30pm on BBC2.

 

 

UKTV hit for six

A few years later, The Germans episode was again singled out for its content when it was pulled entirely from the BBC-owned streaming service UKTV in June 2020 following worldwide protests surrounding the death of George Floyd (an African American) on May 25th at the hands of police in the United States. A spokesperson for the UKTV service remarked that the episode was under review for containing racial slurs, remarking:

We regularly review our programmes, and make edits, add warnings and make schedule changes where necessary to ensure that our channels meet the expectations of our audience.

John Cleese made several comments at the time of the episode's removal that criticized the decision to remove the episode, including:

One of the things I've learned... is that people have very different senses of humour. Some of them understand that if you put nonsense words into the mouth of someone you want to make fun of, you're not broadcasting their views, you're making fun of them. The Major was an old fossil left over from decades before. We were not supporting his views; we were making fun of them. If people are too stupid to see that, what can one say?

However, within a day or so the news broke that UKTV was reinstating The Germans on its streaming platform, commenting at the time that:

We already offer guidance to viewers across some of our classic comedy titles, but we recognise that more contextual information can be required on our archive comedy, so we will be adding extra guidance and warnings to the front of programmes to highlight potentially offensive content and language. We will reinstate Fawlty Towers once that extra guidance has been added, which we expect will be in the coming days.

 

Another miserable performance from the BBC

More recently, a repeat of The Germans in March 2021 as part of the BBC's Festival of Funny series of programmes also featured a censored version of the episode.

 

 

A couple of slip chances, but otherwise a good innings

In comparison, it's interesting to see how Fawlty Towers has been classified by the BBFC for its home video releases over the years in the UK.

 

VHS	Remastered VHS

Initial videotape releases of the show appeared on both Betamax and VHS, which each tape running for about 90 minutes and featuring a mixture of three half-hour episodes on one cassette. These tapes were initially released in 1984 sporting PG ratings, but at the time this article was compiled the BBFC's recently overhauled website did not indicate a formal classification of any episodes of Fawlty Towers before 1986. According to the BBFC, the Board first passed a tape containing the episodes The Germans , The Hotel Inspectors and A Touch of Class uncut with a PG rating on April 22nd, 1986. This same tape was released in a digitally remastered form in 1994 and again in 1998. The Germans was later passed PG uncut as a solo work on November 7th, 2001 for its initial DVD release and would appear to remain at PG today. Additionally, an audio commentary for the same episode was passed PG on June 23rd, 2009, again with a PG rating.

 

DVDs

For many years, all 12 episodes of Fawlty Towers were rated PG, including an episode entitled The Anniversary , which opens with an on-screen (but unspoken) use of the word 'twat'. This is a term that the BBFC consider moderate in strength, and under contemporary BBFC guidelines is the kind of language that would be passed at the 12 category and above. When Fawlty Towers was first released on DVD, Series 1 and Series 2 were released individually in the UK on October 8th, 2001, and a three-disc box set was later released on November 19th, which contained an extra disc featuring a selection of bonus features. This set was also released with a PG rating, inline with previous home video releases, and was later re-released in new packaging in October 2005.

However, early editions of this set included a selection of outtakes that included two muffled (but subtitled) uses of the word 'fuck', a term which is not permitted at PG by the BBFC. Curiously, the outtakes had been passed uncut with a PG rating by the BBFC on July 10th, 2001, so presumably the distributor had bleeped them prior to submission to the BBFC to attain a PG rating in line with the episodes themselves. The logical assumption would be that the UK distributors accidentally included the uncensored version of the outtakes when the three-disc set came onto the British market. Once the BBFC were alerted to the fact, the three-disc PG rated box set was recalled from British stores.

Fawlty Towers was re-released on DVD in October 2009 in a remastered collection, again containing three discs, but with additional extras not found on the previous box sets. This set contained a bleeped version of the outtakes on Disc 3, but curiously the set now sported a 12 rating. The reasons for this? An audio commentary for the episode The Anniversary (with its infamous Flowery Twats sign) had been resubmitted to the BBFC and upgraded to a 12 rating on June 23rd, 2009. Under contemporary BBFC guidelines, not only was the word 'twat' considered to be more appropriately placed at 12 rather than PG but a spoken use of the discriminatory term 'wog' by the character of Manuel was also a factor in the decision. The Anniversary episode was later reclassified 12 with its original soundtrack as a solo work on February 15th, 2011.

 

Blu-ray

 

Fawlty Towers was later released on Blu-ray in the UK on November 18th, 2019 with a 12 rating. As is the case with all previous home video releases, none of the episodes suffer any BBFC or distributor cuts, with the BBFC Ratings Info noting on the cover that the work:

Contains a single use of bleeped strong language and racist language.

Fans of the show around the world can pick up the UK Blu-ray set to enjoy the best image- and audio quality, as the set is not region locked. However, fans in NTSC territories are advised to check whether both their Blu-ray players and television sets support the 50hz playback format that the UK Blu-ray set utilizes.

 

Cutting Edge Video, Season 6, Episode 62: Fawlty Towers