19 September: Fawlty Towers

The sitcom Fawlty Towers was first broadcast on TV on this date in 1975. Here are 10 things you might not know about the show:

1. It was based on the real owners of a real hotel in Torquay. The hotel in question was the Gleneagles Hotel, owned by one Donald Sinclair and his wife, Beatrice. The Monty Python team stayed there once while filming. Cleese described Sinclair as "the rudest man I’ve ever come across in my life," but was nevertheless inspired by his eccentricities. These included: throwing Eric Idle’s briefcase into the street as soon as the team arrived, claiming it could be a bomb; getting furious if a teapot meant for four was placed on a table for two; knocking on Michael Palin’s door to ask whether he meant to put up his “Do Not Disturb” sign; and if he saw a guest leaving the hotel late at night would demand ‘And where do you think you’re going?’ Sadly, fans of the show making pilgrimages there didn’t save the hotel from going bust, and it was demolished in 2016. In one episode of Fawlty Towers there is a nod to the original: in The Builders, the dining room at Fawlty Towers is closed and guests are advised to go to Gleneagles to eat instead.

2. Although set in Torquay, none of the location filming took place in the South West at all. Most of it was shot in Harrow and Wembley. The building used for the hotel exterior was actually a golf club, Wooburn Grange Country Club, in Buckinghamshire. Sadly, this building, too, no longer exists. It was a listed building and served for a short time as a nightclub named "Basil's", but was destroyed by a fire in 1991.

3. The famous scene where Basil gives his car a 'damn good thrashing' was filmed at the T-junction of Lapstone Gardens and Mentmore Close in Harrow (co-ordinates 51.5811°N 0.3091°W).

4. The theme music was composed by Dennis Wilson and recorded by the highly respected Aeolian Quartet. They were asked by director John Davis to perform the piece badly, but they refused to do that.

5. At the start of each episode there is a shot of the hotel sign with the letters rearranged into a comical anagram, such as “Farty Towels,” “Fatty Owls” and “Watery Fowls”. Production assistant and crossword fan Iain McLean came up with these. The premise was that a disgruntled newspaper delivery boy had messed with the sign.

6. Only 12 episodes, two series of six, were ever recorded, although there are persistent rumours that a lost thirteenth episode exists. A Swedish author, Lars Holger Holm, claimed he had seen the episode and even reproduced the script in his book Fawlty Towers: A Worshipper's Companion. However, the cast and production team deny that any more episodes exist. It’s thought the myth might have arisen when an episode was postponed one time because of industrial action.

7. The show has been dubbed into other languages from time to time, including Spanish and German. Of course, the jokes about Manuel’s struggles with English wouldn’t make any sense in Spanish, so they changed his character to an Italian from Naples. In the Catalan and French versions, he was changed to a Mexican. Andrew Sachs, who played Manuel, is actually German by birth, so he was asked to be the voice of Manuel in the German language version. His biggest problem as a native German speaker, was learning to speak German with a Spanish accent.

8. Talking of Andrew Sachs, there were a couple of times when he genuinely suffered for his art. In the season one finale The Germans, as Basil tries to organise a fire drill, Manuel starts an actual Fire in the kitchen. Sachs is wearing a jacket drenched in smoke producing chemicals which actually burned his arms. He got paid £700 in damages. On another occasion, Cleese accidentally hit Sachs too hard with a frying pan and almost knocked him out. “I don’t know why we didn’t get a rubber saucepan,” Cleese commented.

9. The address of the hotel is given as 16 Elwood Avenue, Torquay.

10. Famous fans of the show include Martin Scorsese and John Lennon, who once said he would love to appear in an episode.

Character birthday

Phazer, a member of the Sinister Squad. Little is known about his origins, although it has been speculated that he was an early subject of Obsidian’s experiments in producing powers in non-variants. He makes no secret of his resentment towards Ebony, a later subject of these experiments, who was formally adopted by Obsidian. His powers include flight, energy bolts and psionics.

Phazer is extremely arrogant with a highly inflated opinion of himself. He believes himself to be irresistible to women. He can be seductive in order to meet his own ends but has never fallen in love as far as anyone knows.