The BEST episodes directed by John Howard Davies
#1 - The Hotel Inspectors
Fawlty Towers - Season 1 - Episode 4
Basil Fawlty goes on the alert when he hears there are hotel inspectors in the area.
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
#2 - The Germans
Fawlty Towers - Season 1 - Episode 6
A moose head to be hung, a fire drill to be conducted, and German guests are all a bit much for Basil to handle while Sybil's in hospital.
Watch Now:Amazon
#3 - Gourmet Night
Fawlty Towers - Season 1 - Episode 5
The Fawltys are very pleased with their new chef, Kurt. He was recommended to them by their friend André who runs a nice restaurant in town. All in all, he's working out quite well and they decide to have a gourmet evening on Thursdays to try and promote, in Basil's eye at any rate, a better class of clientèle. Kurt gets along well with everyone and seems to have a particular interest in Manuel. When the big day finally arrives, they find themselves with only four guests booked for the dining room - which Sybil puts down to Basil's advert in the local paper saying 'no riff-raff' - and there seems to be something about Kurt that André forgot to mention. It's pandemonium as a manic Basil tries to make up for their collective lapses.
Watch Now:Amazon
#5 - Zero Tolerance
The Bill - Season 16 - Episode 7
Insp. Monroe has trouble dealing with a gang of boy-racers who are harassing and intimidating an elderly couple. When the old man dies after an altercation with the gang, Monroe is urged by Brownlow to show 'zero tolerance' to the youths. PC Smith gets close to a nurse at the St Hughs Nurses Home while investigating reports of a stalker in the area.
#6 - Protect and Survive
The Bill - Season 16 - Episode 25
New DC Mickey Webb rankles Sgt. Ackland with his attitude towards the case of violent prison escapee Craig Ronson. As the injuries pile up in an already short-staffed uniform relief, Ronson is finally captured on the Jasmine Allen estate, and Webb realises he's been playing them from the start.
#7 - Some Like It Hot
The Bill - Season 16 - Episode 59
DC Lennox is stung by comments about his physical fitness and determines to beat Ch. Supt. Brownlow at squash, as soon as he has arrested a villain from his past. PC Page reaches out to PC Quinnan after her stalking experience, but he rebuffs her.
#8 - Faultline
The Bill - Season 17 - Episode 15
Dave Quinnan just stands and watches as a shopkeeper and a young woman are attacked by a gang of thugs at his local corner shop. When he finally turns up at the station, he identifies the leader of the gang as Robbie Gaitskill. Polly Page turns up in tears, and she and the rest of the relief are concerned as Dave seems to be cracking up. The crackheads arrested the previous night identify Quinnan as the policeman who attacked them. As Hagen and Page try to find him, Quinnan goes AWOL and tracks down the woman from the shop, Tricia Martin, and demands she tell him Gaitskill's address. Half the relief turn up on Gaitskill's doorstep, only to find Quinnan sitting in a car outside. Gaitskill is arrested, and Quinnan is told by Supt. Chandler to take his sick leave and seek professional counselling.
#9 - Higher Power
The Bill - Season 17 - Episode 18
PC Jim Carver attends to a drug dealer found badly beaten on the Larkmead Estate, but finds himself in a dilemma when a friend Ossie from his AA group confesses to the crime. DS McAllister follows Carver when he tries to convince his friend to turn himself in, and to his horror, Ossie is arrested shortly after. Carver realises that Ossie had suffered an alcoholic blackout at the time, and that the real beating was committed by a rival drug dealer on the Larkmead. Meanwhile, Uniform contend with the BIC gang, a group of youths harassing local shopkeepers.
#10 - Redemption
The Bill - Season 17 - Episode 50
Clarke unsuccessfully applies for a police loan. Taviner buys her a pushbike and suggests she sell her scooter, but she is far from impressed. Meanwhile, Carver and Rickman find a young boy, Gavin Billson, overdosed on drugs, and Glaze and Webb investigate some of the local dealers. When it turns out Gavin overdosed on diamorphine, and after several dead ends, suspicion falls on Dr Stuart Bremner, a doctor at St Hugh's, who is also the boyfriend of Clarke's friend Ruth. A review of the hospital's CCTV footage reveals Ruth herself sneaking into a storeroom, and Clarke is forced to arrest her best friend. When Ruth refuses to grass up her lover, Clarke finds herself in a very difficult position.
#11 - Eye of the Lens
The Bill - Season 17 - Episode 54
Chandler assigns Spears to a project involving CCTV cameras in the area. When a number of cameras are damaged, two youths who have threatened one of the operators, Pat Spencer, are suspected, but the culprit turns out to be Robert Slade, whom the youths call "weird". Spears discovers that Robert lives in community care, and in interview, he reveals that he thinks the cameras are specifically spying on him. Hollis finds a picture that Slade has taken of a shopping centre security guard, Tony Malone, being given an envelope by known robber Roger Franklin, who has just finished doing time. Cullen assigns both Singh and Spears to find out how all these disparate players are involved in the operation.
#12 - The Value of Nothing
The Bill - Season 17 - Episode 80
Whilst on a week's secondment to Scotland Yard's Art and Antiques Squad, Lennox is tasked with investigating a young woman, Tessa Gannon, who tried to sell a forged painting to a gallery. Lennox soon finds a receipt from a gallery owned by an art dealer named Ivor Gregory, who has form for deception. Lennox befriends an artist named Richard Townes, who charges into Gregory's gallery as Lennox peruses the paintings. In the hope of getting a closer look at one of the paintings, Lennox arranges for his wife Shona to buy one of them. He gets it verified, and is disappointed when it is an original. When the painting is returned for re-framing, Lennox realises Gregory has swapped it for a fake.
#13 - Money Man
The Bill - Season 17 - Episode 81
Meadows is determined to bring one of his nemeses, Andy Burton, to justice for a safety deposit box robbery he committed in the 80's, for which there was little evidence to prove his involvement. In order to gather evidence on Burton, who is serving twenty years in Shadwell for armed robbery, he sends Glaze undercover into the prison. Glaze soon befriends a nonce, Ricky Sefton, who provides him with information on Burton's dealings, and when the pair become acquainted, Glaze finds himself in the middle of a delicate situation - breaking out of prison whilst holding a guard at gunpoint. However, unbeknown to him, Burton has already discovered he's a cop, and has already plotted his downfall.
#14 - Mr. Bean
Mr. Bean - Season 1 - Episode 1
Story 1: Mr Bean sits an exam and is blissfully happy until, too late, he realizes that he has studied the wrong maths equations. Story 2: Mr Bean tries to change into his swimming trunks at the beach without anyone seeing his bits. Story 3: Mr Bean tries to stifle a sneeze in church.
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
#15 - The Builders
Fawlty Towers - Season 1 - Episode 2
Over his wife's objections, Basil hires his usual firm of incompetents (O'Reilly's) to do some carpentry work in the hotel lobby. With both Basil and Sybil out for the afternoon, they leave Polly in charge. She decides to have a nap, leaving the English-challenged Manuel in charge. When Basil returns, he finds a solid wall where once stood doors to the dining room and still no door to the kitchen per his work order. Sybil takes an I-told-you-so attitude and insists he hire a qualified builder to fix the mess, but Basil decides to get O'Reilly back to right the wrong, but he still makes a mess of it as well.
Watch Now:Amazon
#16 - A Touch of Class
Fawlty Towers - Season 1 - Episode 1
Basil is delighted when a member of the aristocracy chooses to stay at the Fawlty Towers, snubbing the normal guests who frequent the hotel. What Basil does not know, however, is that the man is not a Lord but a confidence trickster who attempts to steal his collection of rare coins. As Basil's desperation to keep such an 'upstanding' guest increases, he becomes increasingly tolerant towards the man's behavior, only to have the guest arrested in a police raid on the hotel.
Watch Now:Amazon
#17 - The Wedding Party
Fawlty Towers - Season 1 - Episode 3
Basil Fawlty's puritanical streak comes out when a young couple he suspects of not being married tries to book a double room. He's ready to give them rooms on separate floors until Sybil steps in. It turns out that the couple know Polly but when he sees her coming out of their room - she was trying on a dress her friend had brought her for the wedding they would be attending - Basil begins to think everyone has gone mad. All that's left is for another guest, Mrs. Peignoir, to get tipsy and make a pass at him. For Manuel, it's his birthday and a night of celebrating takes its toll.
Watch Now:Amazon
#18 - Sex and Violence
Monty Python's Flying Circus - Season 1 - Episode 2
Hermit struggles to camera; opening credits with flowers; Part 2, Sheep farmer explains about Harold `that most dangerous of animals' a clever sheep; Frenchmen explain commercial possibilities of flying sheep; women on Frenchmen; animation- The Thinker; and now for something completely different- a man with three buttocks `Oh! Me bum!', a man with two noses; Arthur Ewing and his musical mice; marriage counselor sketch `Arthur Pewty today you're a man!'; coal miner visits his playwright father; a Scotsman on a horse; animation- flying sheep; The Epilogue: a question of belief to be decided by two out of three falls; animation- a train and other twisted things from the mind of Terry Gilliam, a baby carriage that eats people, the kiss; Of Mice and Men: an investigative report on mouse clubs; Hermit; end credits.
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
#19 - Whither Canada?
Monty Python's Flying Circus - Season 1 - Episode 1
Hermit comes out of sea; credits; pig killed; It's W.A. Mozart, famous deaths with Genghis Khan and others; pig killed; Italian language classes; pig killed; animation- pig swallowed by man; Whizzo butter and a dead crab comparison; It's the Arts- Sir Eddie-Baby Ross interviewed, Arthur `Two Sheds' Jackson interviewed, and live coverage of Picasso doing an abstract on a bicycle; animation- sit up! and other stuff; Ernest Scribbler writes the funniest joke in the world: Ian McNaughton The Killer Joke `Wenn ist das Nunstuck git und Slotermeyer? Ja!... Beiherhund das Oder die Flipperwaldt gersput!'; Hermit; credits.
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
#20 - Lamb to the Slaughter
Tales of the Unexpected - Season 1 - Episode 4
An enraged detective's wife kills her husband by smashing in his skull with a heavy blunt instrument - but no murder weapon can be found, and the police are baffled. The answer to the riddle lies under the detectives' noses - or, rather, it did...
Watch Now:Amazon
#21 - Hippopotamus
The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin - Season 1 - Episode 1
Reggie's life as a sales executive at Sunshine Desserts is getting too much for him and the strain is starting to show.
Watch Now:Amazon
#22 - How to Recognise Different Types of Trees from Quite a Long Way Away
Monty Python's Flying Circus - Season 1 - Episode 3
Hermit comes out of trees; credits; Episode 12b: How to Recognize Different Types of Trees From Quite a Long Ways Away: No. 1: the Larch; Mr. Larch on trial for parking offense with Mrs. Fiona Lewis, the late Arthur Aldridge and Cardinal Richelieu as character witnesses, Dim of the Yard! in pursuit of a notorious Cardinal Richelieu impersonator, song- If I Were Not in the C.I.D., knight with rubber chicken; No. 1: the Larch; `Bicycle repairman, but how?!'; announcer goes crazy on commies, chicken knight; storytime about Rumpletweezer, Old Nick the Sea Captain and Rikki the Magic Pixie; animation- hippo and rabbits, vicar pounds man into ground; an announcer at the beach introduces: the Restaurant Sketch, announcer and chicken knight; animation- advertisement purchase a past; disappearing Milkman; BBC news announcer kidnapped while on air; No. 1 the Larch; schoolboys recognize trees, `Eric's written a sketch', `Say no more! Nudge! Nudge!'; Hermit; credits.
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
#23 - Owl-Stretching Time
Monty Python's Flying Circus - Season 1 - Episode 4
Hermit thrown off cliff; credits; Episode Arthur Part 7 Teeth, live from Cardiffs Room Libya; Art Gallery sketch- `fancy a Turner?'; an art critic- `but it's my only line!'; back to Cardiff Rooms- `It's a Man's Life in the Cardiff Rooms Libya'; Colonel objects to stolen slogan; viking `this is my only line'; gentleman trying to change into swimsuit, striptease `It's a Man's Life Taking Your Clothes Off in Public'; Colonel objects again; How to defend yourself against a foe laden with Fresh Fruit `and pointed sticks. SHUT UP!'; animation- my last operation; aristocrat at beach; back at Cardiff Rooms;`'It's a Man's Life in England's Mountain Green'; Colonel is furious; The Bookshop Sketch featuring `Lemming, Arthur Lemming special investigator British Dental Association' and `The Big Cheese!' song- Lemming of the B.D.A.; Colonel shuts show down; Hermit; credits.
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
#24 - The Macra Terror (2)
Doctor Who - Season 4 - Episode 28
The Doctor is unable to convince the colonists that the Macra exist and an attempt to brainwash his companions results in Ben betraying his friends.
#25 - The Macra Terror (3)
Doctor Who - Season 4 - Episode 29
The Doctor, Polly and Jamie are sentenced to work in the pits and an escape attempt sees Ben's loyalties called into question again.
#26 - The Macra Terror (4)
Doctor Who - Season 4 - Episode 30
The Doctor and Polly manage to save Jamie from the Macra, but can they convince the Pilot on who is really in charge of the colony?
#27 - The Macra Terror (1)
Doctor Who - Season 4 - Episode 27
The TARDIS arrives at a holiday camp company with the crew worried by a prediction of giant crabs and the Doctor becomes interested in the apparent madman Medok's stories of creatures that roam the colony at night.
#28 - Caught Short
The Bill - Season 16 - Episode 46
DC Lennox has to decide where his loyaltes lie when he sees his wife visit a suspect's home.
#29 - Too Close to the Wind
The Bill - Season 18 - Episode 36
Tony steps in to defend Lee Dwyer for accusations of vandalism, when he returns to school and trashes a classroom after being picked on by other members of his class. Des receives a series of text messages threatening to expose his lie, and decides to confront Jeff Simpson over his involvement.
#30 - Playing Runaway
The Bill - Season 18 - Episode 37
Des's blackmailer starts to put the squeeze on. So after parting with his first installment of cash, he decides the only way out is intimidation or confession. Neither looks particularly good for enhancing his career in the Police Force.