Well, 2nd-best imo...I always busted up when he told O'Reilly over the phone that "if you're not over here in 20 minutes with my door, I shall come over there and insert a large garden gnome in you, good day..."
The frying pan whack-on-the-head at 0:52 was genuine; no "pulled punches" in that shot. Andrew Sachs actually got clobbered by John and went down, ears ringing. He thought, "Thank god this is the last scene of the episode to shoot, because I don't think I can get up."
The Kipper and the Corpse is the best Fawlty Towers episode, hands down. Basically everything from Polly knocking out Miss Gatsby/Tibbs and everything with the two guests whose room Basil tried to stash the body in (Manuel's dance, Basil smashing the imaginary bug) is sheer brilliance. I wouldn't hesitate to call it one of the greatest comedic sequences ever put to television.
As the great cineaste David Thompson wrote in 'The Biographical Dictionary of Film, "This [Cleese] is one of film's genuine madmen." Funniest comedy ever imo..
John Cleese said he though he and Connie Booth couldn't write another series as funny as the two they had done and they felt it was best left as it was.He did say there was talk that if they did write another episode they was thinking of having a holiday where Manuel got mistaken for a terrorist.The series almost didn't get done at all as when filming was due to start there was a strike on at the BBC.
He really did. He (John Cleese) grap a real pan. Not the one that was hanging in the kitchen, with softer material. Andrew Sachs had a headache for a few days....
I love vintage comedy like Falty Towers, Blackadder, Porrage, Fools and Horses and the Carry Ons. There just so.... not tacky and unbearable. Lee Nelson springs to mind *throws up*
The near-constant smacking is the reason why I ship Basil/Manuel. But I also happen to ship Manuel/Polly...and Basil/Polly come to think of it (for obvious reasons :P). So...I forgot where I was going with this. :/
