Finally, Basil Fawlty can mention the war without fear of offending.
Last night Germany’s ambassador to the UK gave his backing to the controversial Fawlty Towers scene in which John Cleese’s goose-stepping hotelier annoys a German family with constant references to the Nazis.
“Here at the embassy we think the iconic restaurant scene is funny,” said a spokesman for the German embassy in London. “To quote Basil Fawlty, we think it’s ‘very good’.”
The surprise backing comes ahead of a new West End production of the classic 1970s sitcom.
Despite modern sensibilities, Cleese, 84, confirmed the play will include the scene in which a delirious Fawlty, suffering from a head injury, continually mentions the Second World War.
The German ambassador to the United Kingdom last night gave his support to the controversial Fawlty Towers scene in which the hotelier played by John Cleese bothers a German family with constant references to the Nazis.
Fawlty Towers is coming to the West End in May. John Cleese confirmed that the play will include the scene in which a delirious Fawlty, suffering from a head injury, continually mentions the Second World War.
Oblivious to the offense he’s causing, he tells Polly the waitress, played by his co-writer and then-wife Connie Booth: “Don’t mention the war. I mentioned it once, but I think I got away with it.
He refers to the guests’ food orders as “orders that must be followed at all times without a doubt,” and repeats his food order as “some Goebbels prawns, a Hermann Goering, and four Colditz salads.”
When one of them asks Fawlty to stop talking about the war, the hotelier replies: ‘Me? You started!’ “We didn’t start it,” the guest protests, to which Fawlty replies: “Yes, you did, you invaded Poland.”
One of the guests breaks down crying, so Fawlty tries to cheer her up by pretending to be Hitler and goose-stepping around the room.
When that prompts another complaint, he shouts, “I’m trying to cheer her up, you stupid German… You have absolutely no sense of humor, do you?”
The scene is one of the most famous in UK sitcom history and reinforced the stereotype of Germany as a humorless nation.
But a spokesman for Ambassador Miguel Berger said his compatriots loved the spectacle. “Fawlty Towers is widely considered one of the best British comedies and has remained popular with German audiences since its first broadcast,” he said. ‘A German reboot was attempted in the early 2000s, although only one episode aired, perhaps testament to the enduring popularity of the iconic original.
Cleese himself has always found that the German public appreciates his work. He told The Mail on Sunday: “The only people who have never complained about the German episode are the Germans.”
The original cast of Fawlty Towers. A spokesman for German ambassador Miguel Berger said: “Fawlty Towers is widely considered one of the best British comedies and has remained popular with German audiences since its first broadcast.”
“Like many people in the UK, we are looking forward to seeing this landmark comedy translated to the stage.”
The German embassy’s attitude is in stark contrast to humorless British broadcasters who insist on applying trigger warnings to old comedy shows and briefly removed The Germans episode from streaming services in 2020.
Last week it emerged that the platform Britbox had issued a warning on the comedy Terry and June, which aired on the BBC between 1979 and 1987, saying that the program contains “discriminatory language of the time”.
Cleese himself has always found that the German public appreciates his work. He told The Mail on Sunday: ‘The only people who have never complained about the German episode are the Germans. No German has ever complained about this to me, because they are what I call adults. They can take a joke.
“It’s also pretty clear that the people in that episode were just very young children at the time Hitler took power. It’s a totally decent German family. I’ve always been pretty pro-German. If I have to choose between the Germans and the French, I will always choose the Germans.”
The re-enactment of The Germans episode on stage will not include the scene in which The Major’s character, who will be played by EastEnders actor Paul Nicholas in the West End, repeatedly uses the offensive ‘n’ word in a conversation about West Indies cricketers. .
The play, starring Adam Jackson-Smith as Fawlty, will open on Saturday at London’s Apollo Theatre.