The BEST Episodes of Fawlty Towers
Every episode ever - ranked by fan votes!
Last Updated: May 31, 2020
Network: BBC Two
Hotel owner Basil Fawlty's incompetence, short fuse, and arrogance form a combination that ensures accidents and trouble are never far away.
#1 - Basil the Rat
Season 2 - Episode 6 - Aired Oct 25, 1979
The health inspector is coming and Basil tells Manuel to get rid of his pet rat, which he later finds out is named Basil.
8.31 
#2 - The Hotel Inspectors
Season 1 - Episode 4 - Aired Oct 10, 1975
Some inspectors are in town and Basil gets paranoid, so he alternately fawns over and offends his guests.
8.22 
#3 - Gourmet Night
Season 1 - Episode 5 - Aired Oct 17, 1975
To bring the right type of crowd into the hotel Basil establishes a Gourmet Night.
8.11 
#4 - The Germans
Season 1 - Episode 6 - Aired Oct 24, 1975
Sybil goes into the hospital for toe surgery, leaving Basil to cope with a fire drill single-handed. After a couple of blows on the head, Basil tells some German guests where Germany went wrong in WWII.
8.09 
#5 - The Psychiatrist
Season 2 - Episode 2 - Aired Feb 26, 1979
A psychiatrist and his wife come to stay and Basil thinks Sybil is telling them all about his life.
7.97 
#6 - The Kipper and the Corpse
Season 2 - Episode 4 - Aired Mar 12, 1979
Unknown to Basil, a guest dies in the night and he tries to serve him breakfast anyway and an obnoxious woman insists on service for her dog.
7.95 
#7 - Waldorf Salad
Season 2 - Episode 3 - Aired Mar 5, 1979
An American and his wife get unsatisfactory service at Fawlty Towers when he orders a Waldorf salad, after the kitchen has closed.
7.92 
#8 - Communication Problems
Season 2 - Episode 1 - Aired Feb 19, 1979
A selectively deaf woman named Mrs Richards insists that she has had a large amount of money stolen at the hotel, and against Sybil's wishes Basil puts a fiver on Dragonfly.
7.88 
#9 - The Builders
Season 1 - Episode 2 - Aired Sep 26, 1975
The Fawltys take a holiday and leave Polly and Manuel to run the place just as O'Reilly's builders come to redo the lobby.
7.88 
#10 - A Touch of Class
Season 1 - Episode 1 - Aired Sep 19, 1975
A confidence trickster comes to stay at the hotel, just after Basil has taken an ad in a posh magazine to upgrade the clientele.
7.79 
#11 - The Wedding Party
Season 1 - Episode 3 - Aired Oct 3, 1975
Basil wants 'none of that' going on in his rooms and suspects some guests and Polly of carrying on.
7.74 
#12 - The Anniversary
Season 2 - Episode 5 - Aired Mar 26, 1979
Sybil leaves before Basil's surprise anniversary party and Basil spends the evening trying to convince their friends she's ill.
7.53