Fawlty Towers is 50 years old – the legendary British sitcom, created by John Cleese and Connie Booth, aired its first episode in September 1975.
Set in Torquay, the series followed the (often chaotic) daily lives of the staff at the titular bed and breakfast hotel, run by Cleese’s protagonist Basil.
In the 50 years since its original broadcast, Fawlty Towers has remained one of our best-loved comedies – proving that good humour lasts a lifetime.
Many iconic lines from the series have endured as part of the UK’s big book of classic jokes, while stars like Andrew Sachs became national treasures for their work on Fawlty Towers alone.
Which means that ranking the episodes is always tough, no matter who tries it – how can you separate ‘Don’t mention the war!’ from ‘You’re a waste of space’?
You might agree, you might disagree – but here are all 12 episodes of Fawlty Towers, ranked from worst to best as we see it.
12. The Builders (season 1, episode 2)
In retrospect, The Builders might have played a little better if it had arrived slightly later in the series – episode two feels too early for either Basil or Sybil Fawlty to be absent for long stretches of the action.
With Basil and Sybil away on holiday, it’s left up to Manuel and Polly to run the hotel. At the same time, renovations are needed in reception, and it’s up to Manuel and Polly to make sure the cheap builders stay on task.
Of course, nobody in Fawlty Towers ever stays on task – Basil is rushed back from his holiday to help mop up the farcical situation (‘the door to the dining room has disappeared’)… and all in the hopes of Sybil never finding out.
The episode has since been criticised for leaning on lazy stereotypes when it came to the group of Irish builders, and for some of the main characters still feeling like they’re undergoing early development.
Still, the episode, of course, has several classic moments, including Basil’s declaration that he’ll insert a large garden gnome into Mr O’Reilly, and then his famous walk out of the hotel with the gnome under his arm.
11. Waldorf Salad (season 2, episode 3)
Waldorf Salad is the episode in which an American couple – the Hamilton family – come to the hotel… just as Terry the chef finishes his shift and goes home.
This leaves Basil needing to keep the kitchen open, under the pretence that Terry is still working – when, in fact, it’s Basil trying and failing to make the episode’s titular salad.
Fans have criticised the episode for not using the ensemble cast enough, with the majority of the action riding entirely on the shoulders of John Cleese.
Other viewers have noted that while many episodes of Fawlty Towers can become stressful, many of them offset the stress with light relief and comedy – Waldorf Salad is considered an unfortunate exception.
Still, Waldorf Salad – like The Builders – has plenty of hilarious moments which are worth the entry fee on their own, including the moment when the Hamiltons realise Basil is shouting at himself behind the kitchen door.
10. The Anniversary (season 2, episode 5)
‘Basil pretends to have forgotten his and Sybil’s wedding anniversary while having to deal with a large number of hotel guests’ sounds like the premise for a classic Fawlty Towers episode.
And, for the most part, The Anniversary is. Hijinks ensue when Sybil storms out of the hotel, thinking that Basil has forgotten their 15th anniversary, just as a large number of guests arrive.
Soon enough, the guests demand to see Sybil, which results in Polly having to pose as Sybil (in bed, pretending to be sick, in a pitch black room) in order to throw everyone off the scent and keep the ruse going.
What can’t be forgotten, either, is the feud between Manuel and Terry, which results in the two of them wrestling in the kitchen as the episode reaches its climax.
However, fans have noted that there are several points in The Anniversary when it would have just been easier for Basil to admit to his surprise party plans and prevent a farce from developing.
9. A Touch of Class (season 1, episode 1)
Where it all began. Basil is delighted when a posh guest – Lord Melbury – makes plans to stay at Fawlty Towers, even reneging on his duties to the other guests to keep Melbury happy.
However, it’s soon revealed that Lord Melbury isn’t a lord at all, and is in fact a confidence trickster – a fact that Polly discovers midway through the episode.
A favourite moment from the episode among Fawlty Towers fans is the moment Basil realises he’s being led on a merry dance by Melbury, with Sybil revealing that Melbury’s briefcase contains nothing but bricks.
And, of course, who could forget the pilot episode’s iconic closing moment: ‘A gin and orange, lemon squash, and a scotch and water… Please!’
Over the years, viewers have marked this episode down for similar reasons to The Builders, in that the main characters don’t feel like they’ve reached their best and final forms just yet.
8. The Wedding Party (season 1, episode 3)
A synopsis for The Wedding Party tells us: ‘Basil gets annoyed when a young, flirtatious couple start “hanky-pankying” under his nose.’
At the same time, Basil ‘tries to avoid the advances of a wealthy French antique dealer, while misfortune conspires to put him in compromising situations whenever the couple are around’.
This episode – much like A Touch of Class – exposes the uptight and prudish side of Basil’s character as he attempts to prevent the unmarried couple from sharing a bedroom.
Naturally, Basil’s plans fall apart and lead to some of the most incredible moments of the series (‘I’m so sorry, my wife has made a mistake!’), while Manuel provides some iconic moments as he recovers from a heavy night of drinking.
The episode has also been noted for John Cleese’s unbelievable physical comedy as he spends large portions of the episode running up and down the stairs.
7. The Kipper and the Corpse (season 2, episode 4)
I suppose, after watching the first nine episodes of Fawlty Towers, you wouldn’t be surprised if a guest literally died in the hotel at some point.
That’s where The Kipper and the Corpse picks up, as a guest passes away overnight, with Basil temporarily believing he’s accidentally poisoned the deceased gentleman.
This episode puts Basil to the test almost like no other, as he attempts to hide the corpse from the other guests – until, of course, all hell breaks loose.
Called ‘the most ridiculous episode ever’ by some, it takes the word ‘farce’ to its absolute extreme – in one scene, Polly slaps unfortunate guest Mrs Tibbs across the face as she accuses Basil of ‘Murder!’
The episode ends with Basil choosing to have himself driven away in a laundry basket rather than face the consequences of his guests finding out that there’s been a dead man in the hotel this entire time.
6. Gourmet Night (season 1, episode 5)
Another episode that reveals Basil’s snobbish side is Gourmet Night, and Gourmet Night might well be the best episode at exposing Basil’s futile efforts to turn Fawlty Towers into a high-class hotel.
For once, however, the chaos isn’t caused by Basil himself: Andre, the new chef, gets horribly drunk after Manuel rejects his affections, leaving the rest of the hotel staff to make gourmet night a classy affair.
That results in Basil driving to a nearby restaurant in order to take the food back to the hotel, only for the situation to implode rapidly when his car finally breaks down for good.
Yep, it’s the ‘Damn good thrashing!’ episode that sees Basil attack his car with a giant tree branch and brings out the best in Manuel and Polly as they perform musical numbers to keep the guests distracted.
What Fawlty Towers mastered in its best episodes was constant escalation, turning a series of individual jokes into a high-octane symphony of comedy, and Gourmet Night is one of the strongest examples.
5. The Psychiatrist (season 2, episode 2)
Another episode that sees Basil trying to catch an unmarried young couple in the act in order to justify his own prejudices, The Psychiatrist repeats several beats from The Wedding Party but improves on each of them.
By this point in the show, writing those perpetually escalating comedic farces Fawlty Towers is known for was second nature to the writing due of Cleese and Booth.
Coinciding with Basil’s anger with the loudmouth Mr Johnson is the arrival of another guest, Dr Abbot, the psychiatrist, which leads to Basil attempting to rein in his worst impulses and most off-putting behaviours.
This episode is perhaps most famous for the moment when Basil blindly tries to search for a bathroom light switch, only to accidentally ‘grope’ a young girl standing in front of it.
Or the moment when it finally gets too much for Basil, causing him to wrap his suit jacket around his head and hop about like a frog, only for the psychiatrist to witness the whole ordeal.
4. The Hotel Inspector (season 1, episode 4)
Basil gets put on high alert when he finds out that hotel inspectors are in town, worried that they may drop in on Fawlty Towers at any moment.
Bernard Cribbins stars as Mr Hutchinson, a demanding and difficult guest whom Basil comes to believe might be one of the hotel inspectors that has descended on Torquay.
This episode best displays just how hard the cast worked to get as much as they can into as few takes as possible, with the incredible ‘Talking to you’ sequence involving Basil, Polly, and Mr Hutchinson a major highlight.
Everything comes to a head in the outrageous final scene when Basil, his patience finally snapped after being punched repeatedly by Mr Hutchinson, throws two custard pies at him and fills his briefcase with milk.
Of course, just beforehand, the actual hotel inspectors had walked into Fawlty Towers and witnessed the incident, leaving Basil screaming in fear as the episode hilariously cuts to black.
3. Basil the Rat (season 2, episode 6)
It’s here where you really have to start splitting hairs to decide which of the next three episodes is the best of them – truthfully, any of these top three could have been number one.
You wouldn’t have to do much googling to find another ranking of every Fawlty Towers episode that picks series finale Basil the Rat the very, very best.
With the public health department coming to Fawlty Towers for a visit, things are already looking bad – and then Manuel’s rat Basil gets loose.
Fawlty Towers is faced with the threat of closure if things aren’t turned around fast, but that matter is at the back of Manuel’s mind as his beloved pet goes missing.
The escalation in this episode, as one problem barrels into the next, is among the finest comedy writing ever to grace British TV – and the entire episode builds to the moment that Basil the Rat is revealed to the health inspector inside a box of biscuits.
A word also has to go to the incredibly posh couple who move about almost in the background of the episode until the husband turns to Basil and threatens him, calling him a ‘grotty little man’ and offering to beat him with ‘a bunch of fives’.
2. The Germans (season 1, episode 6)
It was virtually impossible to choose between The Germans and the actual winning episode, such is the esteem they’re held in – not just in the Fawlty Towers fandom but in my own personal life too.
My parents owned the full Fawlty Towers VHS boxset and I spent my time as a child (born in 1994) obsessively flicking between this episode and the ultimate winner of our rankings.
With Sybil in hospital thanks to an ingrowing toenail, Basil is left to run the hotel on his own – the first half of the episode focuses on the outstanding fire drill routine that lands Basil in hospital with a head injury.
Then, after Basil escapes from the hospital despite still being concussed and delirious, German guests arrive in Torquay to stay at the hotel, setting off another round of unbelievable hijinks.
Basil, of the generation who survived the Blitz 30 years earlier, is caught between his prejudice against Germans and his desire to please any guest in his hotel.
While The Germans contains about as many stereotypes as The Builders, Basil constantly being the butt of the joke is what makes the episodework so well.
He begins this segment determined not to ‘mention the war’ and finishes it doing comedic impressions of Adolf Hitler, in what is surely among the greatest 10 minutes of comedy ever broadcast on British TV.
1. Communication Problems (season 2, episode 1)
As wonderful as the regular cast were on Fawlty Towers, did anyone produce a better acting performance than Joan Sanderson across the entire series?
Sanderson, who died in 1992, played the unforgettable, unbearable, half-deaf Mrs Alice Richards – the most infamous hotel guest in Fawlty Towers’ history.
The episode has one joke – Mrs Richards is a cantankerous woman who has trouble hearing – and yet they somehow manage to stretch it over half an hour, only raising the hilarity and stakes as it goes on.
The sub-plot of Communication Problems involves Basil gambling on a racehorse that ultimately wins him £95 (equivalent to £750 in 2025) but has to be kept secret from Sybil.
Mrs Richards, who dominates the episode in the best way, is so convincing as a character that I grew up believing an actress hadn’t actually played her – they’d just pulled her off the streets of Torquay and told her to behave exactly the same as she did in real life.
And, of course, we can’t mention Mrs Richards without giving a moment to the best comeback Basil Fawlty ever came up with: ‘May I ask what you were expecting to see out of a Torquay hotel bedroom window?
‘Sydney Opera House, perhaps? The Hanging Gardens of Babylon? Herds of wildebeasts sweeping majestically? … You can see the sea, it’s over there between the land and the sky.’
The truth is, any of Communication Problems, The Germans, and Basil the Rat could have won this ranking, but Mrs Richards – and Basil Fawlty’s reactions to her – put this at the very top.
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