10 Most Quotable British TV Shows
3. Fawlty Towers
Fawlty Towers may have only run for two series, but it in just twelve episodes John Cleese and Connie Booth were able to craft a comedy that has stayed popular despite being off air for forty one years now. The show follows Basil Fawlty as he tries to run Fawlty Towers, a small fictional hotel located in Devon. Accompanying him is his wife, Sybil, as well his employees.
For a hotel owner, Basil Fawlty doesn't seem too interested in keeping his guests happy, which leads to some really entertaining back and forth between Fawlty, the guests, and the other hotel workers. The comedy is quick, tight and witty, and John Cleese gives a hilarious performance throughout the show. The show was so popular that it is still re-aired to this day.
Most interesting though is how Cleese and co based the character of Basil Fawlty on an actual hotel owner named Donald Sinclair, who the Monty Python cast once met while staying in Devon. It's even rumoured that some of the famous quotes from the show do actually originate from Sinclair himself. It makes you wonder is such quotes from Basil as "You snobs. You stupid stuck-up, toffee-nosed, half-witted, upper-class piles of pus" and "For someone called Manuel, you're looking terribly ill" are scripted or real?