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<blockquote data-quote="Mel O&amp;#039;Drama" data-source="post: 438536" data-attributes="member: 23">Your commitment to the cause is commendable. Not just rewatching but doing so with such focus. Whatever your ultimate verdict of the series, nobody can say you haven&#039;t given it every chance. I&#039;m so glad it paid off for you and made for such an enjoyable experience.Sadly, there&#039;s no shortage of examples of such casual racism in British sitcoms of the era. It&#039;s a reflection not just of what was acceptable on TV but also in society, where such comments were largely unchallenged and were more prevalent as a result. It probably won&#039;t surprise you if I say this isn&#039;t the only such example in this series (with one episode in particular proving particularly problematic when it came to making the series available to stream).Epithet aside, I think that scene of Manuel attempting to take charge of reception is such a&nbsp; moment for the character. The imitation of Basil; the inevitable communication problems with the &quot;orally&quot; men and Basil on the phone;&nbsp; Basil successfully getting&nbsp; Manuel physically assaulted when he is not there to do it himself. The line &quot;Which one is man with beard?&quot; never fails to make me laugh out loud, and the proud smile on Manuel&#039;s face after he calls the builder &quot;a hideous orangutan&quot; (clearly having no idea what he&#039;s just said) sells the payoff perfectly .The character could have been such a cheap, ugly stereotype in the wrong hands, but Andrew Sachs - in addition to nailing the Spanish accent with attention to detail -&nbsp;&nbsp; brings a childlike kind of innocence and likability that does wonders with Manuel and elevates him from simply being&nbsp; &quot;the one who can&#039;t&nbsp; understand English&quot;.It&#039;s made my morning to read this. Really.It&#039;s so refreshing to read your reason for this.Whenever I&#039;ve rewatched the series in recent decades, I&#039;ve increasingly found myself appreciating Prunella Scales&#039;s performance as Sybil*.From what I&#039;ve seen, Prunella was a lovely, humble actress. Sybil is undoubtedly the role for which she is best known by most, but she has done some nice dramatic work as well. She died last October, having been diagnosed with vascular dementia a dozen years earlier. According to her sons, she was watching Fawlty Towers the day before she died, and on the day her death was announced, the BBC showed the episode you&#039;ve just watched (The Builders) as a tribute to her.* The same applies to Andrew Sachs and Connie Booth as Manuel and Polly. John Cleese justly gets a lot of attention for his tour de force performance as Basil, but it&#039;s an ensemble and the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Without being so impeccably cast across the board, none of it would work.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Mel O'Drama, post: 438536, member: 23"] Your commitment to the cause is commendable. Not just rewatching but doing so with such focus. Whatever your ultimate verdict of the series, nobody can say you haven't given it every chance. I'm so glad it paid off for you and made for such an enjoyable experience. Sadly, there's no shortage of examples of such casual racism in British sitcoms of the era. It's a reflection not just of what was acceptable on TV but also in society, where such comments were largely unchallenged and were more prevalent as a result. It probably won't surprise you if I say this isn't the only such example in this series (with one episode in particular proving particularly problematic when it came to making the series available to stream). Epithet aside, I think that scene of Manuel attempting to take charge of reception is such a moment for the character. The imitation of Basil; the inevitable communication problems with the "orally" men and Basil on the phone; Basil successfully getting Manuel physically assaulted when he is not there to do it himself. The line "Which one is man with beard?" never fails to make me laugh out loud, and the proud smile on Manuel's face after he calls the builder "a hideous orangutan" (clearly having no idea what he's just said) sells the payoff perfectly . The character could have been such a cheap, ugly stereotype in the wrong hands, but Andrew Sachs - in addition to nailing the Spanish accent with attention to detail - brings a childlike kind of innocence and likability that does wonders with Manuel and elevates him from simply being "the one who can't understand English". It's made my morning to read this. Really. It's so refreshing to read your reason for this. Whenever I've rewatched the series in recent decades, I've increasingly found myself appreciating Prunella Scales's performance as Sybil*. From what I've seen, Prunella was a lovely, humble actress. Sybil is undoubtedly the role for which she is best known by most, but she has done some nice dramatic work as well. She died last October, having been diagnosed with vascular dementia a dozen years earlier. According to her sons, she was watching [I]Fawlty Towers [/I]the day before she died, and on the day her death was announced, the BBC showed the episode you've just watched ([I]The Builders)[/I] as a tribute to her. * [I]The same applies to Andrew Sachs and Connie Booth as Manuel and Polly. John Cleese justly gets a lot of attention for his tour de force performance as Basil, but it's an ensemble and the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Without being so impeccably cast across the board, none of it would work.[/I] [/QUOTE]

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