Fawlty Towers Read online

  Throughout the episode Communication Problems, the old tale of S:t George and the Dragon plays a prominent part. As we all know, one of Basil’s favourite nicknames for his wife is ‘the old dragon,’ so we might infer that he sees himself as a dragon-slayer of sorts.

  The tale of S:t George and the Dragon was first recorded in a collection of medieval anecdotes called Legenda Aurea (The Golden Legend). Silene, so the story goes, was a town set beside a lake in Lydia (today’s western Turkey), which had been besieged by a fire-breathing dragon who lived in the lake. The dragon threatened to destroy the town unless the citizens paid him tribute in the form of young maidens, whom he devoured. There came a day when the king’s daughter was chosen by lot as the next victim. As she waited for the dragon to rise from the water and devour her, a noble knight appeared. He slew the dragon and thus delivered the town from evil. He eventually became a saint through his martyrdom at the hands of the Romans, who accused him of trying to convert the citizens of Silene to the despised Christian faith.

  The reverberations of this piece of hagiography are far-reaching in Fawlty Towers. For instance, the noble mare so close to carrying S:t Basil to glory was called, as we have noted above, Dragonfly ...

  And since we are now grazing the vast field of legendary and literary allusions, what could be better than to offer this famous quote from Hamlet’s soliloquy as presented by Basil Fawlty. Basil: (to the three doctors Abbott in The Psychiatrist) “Fine. Well ... I’ll leave you to it, then. I mean, to go to bed to sleep, perchance to dream ... (“To sleep, perchance to dream — ay, there’s the rub.” Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Act III, Scene I).

  To conclude our examination of these instances of Basil’s erudition, I would like to draw the reader’s attention to two references from the contemporary literary scene. Harold Robbins is avowedly a great favourite of both Sybil and the Hamiltons (Waldorf Salad). Mr. Hamilton: (to Basil) “We both like him.” Basil: “Oh, Harold Robbins, I thought you meant Harold Robinson ...”

  Sybil’s admiration of this same author is expressed with particular eloquence. “His men are all so interesting. Ruthless and sexy and ... powerful.” It seems almost unnecessary to note that Harold Robbins is an enormously successful best-selling writer, whose compellingly banal books, such as The Secret, The Pirate, Never Leave Me and (the evergreen classic featured in Waldorf Salad), Never Love a Stranger, still attract a huge readership and top sales lists all over the world.

  Last, but not least, there is the famous bedroom episode, the horrors of which have already been described, but are so crucial that they bear repetition. Sybil and Basil are shown in their respective beds, Sybil, hair in curlers, shrouded in a purple negligée, reading a comic strip, eating chocolates, taking the cherries out of her mouth and leaving them in the ashtray, smoking a cigarette, laughing as she inhales and talks to Audrey at the same time. Basil, nauseated, tries to cover his ears while concentrating on the copy of Jaws in his lap. The cover shows the gigantic shark with its rows of razor-sharp teeth, ready and eager to attack, and to kill ...

  5

  THE OCCULT FAWLTY TOWERS

  The words ‘Fawlty’ and ‘Towers’ each have 6 letters, making a total of 12. Not only are there 12 episodes of the show, but they are also divided into two series, each containing 6 episodes. The number 12 is symbolically related, among other things, to the 12 zodiacal signs, to the 12 seats around King Arthur’s round table, as well as to the 12 disciples — Jesus himself being represented by the number 13. In symbolic terms therefore the number 12 represents completeness, an event come full circle.

  As the number 13 symbolises Christ himself, we should consequently attach deep symbolical significance to the thirteenth, never televised episode, The Robbers, the text of which has been reproduced in its entirety at the end of this book. In this concluding episode, Basil performs a Kierkegaardian leap of faith. It is the ultimate sacrifice, beyond mere morality and ethics, a counterpart to the scriptural story of Abraham’s obedience to God’s will that he sacrifice his son Isaac. Basil acts in relation to a similar calling from the Unknown, and in this episode, his destiny is at last made manifest. By insisting upon the uniqueness of his action, Basil here assumes the role of the eternal redeemer who sacrifices his soul and conscience in order to be able to live on in another world.

  According to Sybil, in A Touch of Class, not the sky, but 22 rooms is the limit. It is almost uncanny that the number 22 corresponds to the number of trump cards in the mystical tarot deck.

  These 22 Major Arcana cards are usually interpreted as archetypes, governing and shaping human perception of the spiritual and psychic worlds. The series of the Major Arcana cards actually ends with card number 21, The Universe, but there is also a number zero called The Fool, and so there are, in spite of their odd numbering, 22 in all. We shall return to the significance of this at the end of this chapter.

  Numerology is the occult science which posits that a combination of specific numbers is at the root of divine creation. This idea has especially pervaded Jewish mysticism, expressed in the Kabbalah, in which the tree of life is represented as an interplay between abstract principles that can also be defined as symbolically significant relationships between numbers. A typical procedure to determine the symbolical meaning of, say, a compound number, would be to break it down into single numbers. Thus, if we add the number of rooms, 22, to the number of episodes, 12, we get 34, and if we break that number down to 3 and 4 and add the terms we get 7, which is the number of the room assigned to the righteous angel in disguise — the cockney police inspector Danny — who arrives at the hotel immediately after Sybil has pronounced her verdict on the limits of their universe, “Number 7 is free, Basil.”

  The numbers 7 and 22 can also be seen to have a significant relation to the menorah of the Hebrews: the seven-armed candle-stick whose form was specified by God to Moses on Mount Sinai. Made of solid gold, to represent the unity of the divine world of emanations, it revolves around its axis of grace, has right and left arms signifying mercy and severity, 10+ 1 sefirotic positions and 22 decorations (10+1=11; 11+11=22). Without going further into the interaction of the primordial spiritual principles summed up in the word Sephirots, we can nevertheless conclude that this coincidence — if indeed there’s such a thing as chance! — of symbolically significant numbers is striking.

  The number of recurring characters in the show is also 7. There are two ways of counting here. Either one counts Miss Tibbs and Miss Gatsby as one, since they always, Gemini-like, appear together (exception made for The Kipper and the Corpse), or one counts them separately as two and leaves chef Terry out. (He doesn’t appear in the first six shows, although he might be suspected of lurking unseen somewhere in the kitchen.) Frequent reference is made to him in the first six shows. For example, Hutchison, in The Hotel Inspectors: “... in a case like this where the order has been changed and the chef’s been informed, it is obviously his responsibility.” I myself prefer this method of counting, and like to assume that Terry was there all the time, though he wasn’t seen by us. To regard the Ladies as one entity seems feasible to me.

  The number 7 may also be seen in correlation to the 7 celestial spheres supporting the planetary bodies visible to the naked eye, which provided the basis for the old geocentric cosmology. In this system a total number of 7 moving heavenly bodies (Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and Sun) were considered as each orbiting its own sphere, and corresponding to specific symbolic qualities. These characteristics were interpreted in dramatic terms; in fact they were seen as interacting agents having human characteristics. Their effect on human life was carefully studied and prognosticated in ‘sciences’ such as astrology, hermeticism, alchemy and tarot. In other words, we have here 7 regular characters — as opposed to the random coming and going of other characters — moving through the 12 episodes as if they were in reality 7 heavenly bodies orbiting the zodiac. The other actors in the Towers episodes may by analogy be regarded as comets, meteorite
s and other unpredictable phenomena capable of disturbing the workings of a ‘perfect’ enclosed planetary system.

  In hermetic systems the 7 planets are also related to 7 metals supposed to correspond to certain character traits. The Sun is gold; the Moon is silver; Mercury quicksilver; Venus copper; Jupiter pewter and Saturn lead. The 7 planets are also considered rulers of the signs of the zodiac. It follows that the majority of these bodies rule more than one zodiacal sign. (It should be mentioned here that the traditional way of interpreting the signs in relation to 7 governing planets has now been superseded by a system in which the new planets discovered by telescope in the scientific era —Neptune, Uranus and Pluto — are each accorded one zodiacal sign.) The Sun and the Moon obviously correspond to the married couple at the centre of the action. The Major, the military man, is Mars. The radiant Polly is Venus. The Ladies are Mercury (related to the astrological sign of Gemini), the jovial Terry is Jupiter, and the devil himself, Manuel, is Saturn.

  Symbolically significant in this respect is that Andrew Sachs, the actor who plays Manuel, is of Jewish descent. Hermetic tradition based on the Gnostic interpretation of Yahweh (the letters ‘y,’ ‘a’ and ‘w’ are actually part of the word Fawlty!) as the evil principle, the so-called demiurge of the universe — maintains that the primordial god Saturn, begetter of the golden age associated with the myth of the sunken Atlantis and paradise on earth among the ancient Greeks, is the dark principle of this world, opposed to the father of light. It is consequential that Andrew Sachs, as Manuel, should have to endure suffering and humiliation in this world, both because he is a Jew and because he is the offspring of the dark and fearsome Saturn (Yahweh). That Manuel is necessarily the scapegoat, not to say the sacrificial lamb, of the series, reveals itself in his very name. Manuel is Spanish for Immanuel, another name for Jesus Christ himself.

  The names Basil and Sybil have far-reaching connotations too. In ancient Greek, basileus was the word for king and a sybil was an oracle who induced trances used either to prophesy to the people and their leaders, or incite them to action.18

  Symbolically then, the fight between Basil and Sybil is the fight between the temporal power of the king and the nemesis divina (divine revenge) embodied in the sybilline oracle. Manuel is the sacrificial victim, and it should come as no surprise to us that Manuel and Sybil hardly ever interact during the entire 12 episodes — she is willing to accept any sacrifice made to her.

  In the previous chapter we have demonstrated that an essential attribute of Fawlty Towers is verbal misunderstanding leading to a breakdown of communication. Now, what myth does that remind us of? But, of course, the Tower of Babel! The Tower is already present in the hotel’s name, and the myth perfectly corresponds to the everyday reality of its denizens.

  In the first episode Basil hubristically exclaims, “The sky’s the limit.” (Indeed, the reason for building the Babylonian edifice was to reach all the way to heaven.) The sybil, Basil’s Sybil, warns him of his human limitations, but he must continue to pursue his goal. At this point the supreme being, Yahweh, brings about the confusion of tongues. Communication between the builders (see the episode of the same name) thereafter ceases, and the blame for it all is put on the Jews, personified here by Manuel.

  The confusion of tongues leads to a communication problem which proves that the Tower is in truth Fawlty. The hotel sign in this key episode (Communication Problems) specifically shows that there is but one tower here (Fawlty Tower), not a plurality, which again brings to mind the symbolism of the Major Arcana in the tarot. The Tower is trump-card number 16 — and 16, Elmwood Avenue, is the address of the hotel (see Polly’s conversation with the deliveryman, Kerr, in The Builders) presaging imminent destruction, or, in internalised psychological terms: the shattering of the ego. And if this were not already striking enough, the ominous Mrs. Richards has been given room 22, which, as we already know, represents ‘the sky’, ‘the limit’. Number 22 is also the tarot trump corresponding to trump number zero, The Fool, since it follows the nominal last card, number 21, The Universe, in the Major Arcana.

  So, if we accept the idea proposed earlier that the Basilean universe coincides with a Gnostic conception of the world, it follows that The Universe in question is the artefact of a demiurge, in other words, of a creative but far-from-perfect agent who has fashioned the world according to his own lights. The Gnostic idea of the work of the demiurge — significantly derived from the Greek word démios, meaning ‘of the people’ — was this, that an imperfect God must by definition be unable to create a perfect world. This would have been fair enough if God hadn’t, by way of the Scriptures, proclaimed that he was not only the one true God, but also an arbitrarily intolerant, jealous, and punitive tyrant!

  The Gnostics eventually turned their backs on this presumptuous divinity ‘for the people,’ an act for which they were ruthlessly persecuted by the Roman Catholic Church. Nevertheless, they insisted that it is possible to achieve freedom of the mind, and that the godhead resides within us in the form of a divine spark, making the illumined individual perfect, no matter what his actions seem to be, or to mean, to the world around him.

  Seen in this light, Basil’s attempt to defeat Mrs. Richards represents, on the one hand, his struggle against the demiurge (his wife, other women, all imaginable guests, his station in life and a host of other circumstances keeping him shackled and tied to earth) and, on the other, against the shattering of his ego. This paves the way for the leap of faith that only The Fool, number zero, the innocent human being, can make.

  Thus, the mythical ramifications of the series are as undeniable as are its inherent mysticism and Kabbalistic play on words. Of special interest in the numerological aspect are the names of the undertakers in The Kipper and the Corpse: Mr. Xerxes, Miss Young and Mr. Zebedee. The letters X, Y and Z, on which their names have been based, are common in mathematics where they denote unknown or unspecified factors. I shall leave these to the readers’ imagination, and hint only that the alphabetical symbols are obviously connected with death and the mysterious encounter with an unknown Boss ...

  In the matter of Jewish mysticism, there is also the extraordinary symbolism hidden in the emblem on the covers of the menus on the infamous Gourmet Night. For some reason, a long, drawn-out argument (if ‘yes, she can,’ ‘no, she can’t,’ ‘yes, she can,’ ‘no, she can’t,’ may be considered as such) is carried on between Basil and Sybil in regard to Polly's ability to design the menu. Since Sybil on this occasion supports Polly, she naturally gets her own way, and the menu cards are eventually drawn by Polly. Polly even asks Basil it he likes them, and he curtly says, “No.”

  Well, that’s the end of that, but the viewer has a few seconds to see how she actually designed the card, and what she drew on the front cover, namely an abstract picture of two towers, one black and the other white. In Jewish and Masonic symbolism the black and white pillars/towers are known by the names of Boas and Yachin, originally two copper pillars in Solomon’s temple in Jerusalem. In Jewish mysticism they are interpreted as being the pillars of Mercy and Severity (Love and Law). Like the concepts of yin and yang they are by extension symbolically linked to other dual phenomena such as day and night, dry and moist, male and female.

  Although the representation of the two towers is, as I have said, rather in the abstract, there can be no doubt that the designer must have had the eternal antagonism of the black and white pieces of the chess-board in mind. In A. E. Waite’s tarot deck the white pillar with the black initial ‘J’ and the black pillar with the white initial ‘B’ are depicted in the Major Arcana card number 2, The High Priestess. The two towers represent the antagonists, wholly unreconcileable forces — in this case, man and woman.

  Masonic symbolism played a prominent role in some of the Monty Python sketches written by John Cleese and Graham ( hapman. Quite remarkable is the one in which an architect (Cleese) has been invited to present, before an audience of distinguished gentlemen, a prospective model of
a block of flats. He goes on to explain how the tenants themselves are carried along conveyor belts only to be slaughtered by rotating knives protruding from the walls ... Cleese pretends to be very much surprised when this device, in his view genial, does not turn out to be exactly what the customer had in mind. He soon changes his attitude to one of absolute servility, claiming that the only thing that really matters to him is to be allowed membership in the same golf club as the distinguished members of the commission. When politely rejected for the tenth time, he begins spitting venom over them, suggesting they stick their golf clubs up certain places and ridiculing their special Masonic handshakes. At the end of the sketch, Cleese has finally been driven out of the room, and the gentlemen in their dinner jackets are actually seen performing some elaborate ceremony of departure, involving mysterious handshakes and other secret signs.

  It is well known that Masonic symbolism not only draws on the mystical circumstances surrounding the legendary construction of Solomons temple in Jerusalem, but also on the medieval tradition of allowing master masons to travel from one cathedral building site to another without having to provide for their own subsistence. The handshakes were part of an identification system by which an unknown mason could introduce himself to another master mason, and in this way prove that he belonged to the same guild and fraternity as the latter. Considering how often the erection of twin towers came to meet a master builders idea of architectural balance, it is not surprising to see how the Fawlty Twin Towers, unconsciously as it were, aspire to a similar mysterious perfection and — as recent events on lower Manhattan have shown — to a similarly apocalyptic end as well.