Fawlty Towers , Porridge

[jon1959]

We watched the first series of Yes Minister and Reggie Perrin a few weeks back. Yes Minister has completely stood the test of time - but sadly Reggie hadn't. I wish we hadn't watched it at all - just kept the memories of first time around when it was brilliant.

Fawlty Towers is a bit different as we must have watched all (12?) episodes at least half a dozen times each. Familiarity doesn't breed contempt, but it does take the edge off. Saw a couple of episodes over the weekend and could almost anticipate every line. Genius, but probably need to give them a rest for a decade or so before watching again.

[splott parker]

We watched the first series of Yes Minister and Reggie Perrin a few weeks back. Yes Minister has completely stood the test of time - but sadly Reggie hadn't. I wish we hadn't watched it at all - just kept the memories of first time around when it was brilliant.

Fawlty Towers is a bit different as we must have watched all (12?) episodes at least half a dozen times each. Familiarity doesn't breed contempt, but it does take the edge off. Saw a couple of episodes over the weekend and could almost anticipate every line. Genius, but probably need to give them a rest for a decade or so before watching again.

Fawlty Towers differs from the others with it not just focussing on what’s happening at the forefront of scenes, there’s very often things going on in the background that you only notice on watching a second, third or even fourth time, the major dithering over something or other, Manuel confusingly going about his day, the two old ladies acting inquisitively etc while Basil, Sybil, Polly etc are acting out the main part. Genius really.

[the other bob wilson]

We watched the first series of Yes Minister and Reggie Perrin a few weeks back. Yes Minister has completely stood the test of time - but sadly Reggie hadn't. I wish we hadn't watched it at all - just kept the memories of first time around when it was brilliant.

Fawlty Towers is a bit different as we must have watched all (12?) episodes at least half a dozen times each. Familiarity doesn't breed contempt, but it does take the edge off. Saw a couple of episodes over the weekend and could almost anticipate every line. Genius, but probably need to give them a rest for a decade or so before watching again.

Show me an episode of Fawlty Towers and I can recite every line before it's been said - I don't claim any great credit for this because I think there are plenty more who can as well. I can remember watching Fawlty Towers episodes for the first time with the rest of my family and they'd all go the same way, a few gentle laughs in the first five minutes or so, but from about the fifteen minute mark onwards, uncontrollable laughter. Fawlty Towers is the only comedy show I've ever seen that physically hurt me because I was laughing so much. Yes, it's not lasted well in some respects, but I can still watch and enjoy an episode on something like Netflix if there's nothing else worth watching on.

Same with Yes (Prime) Minister - not as laugh out loud funny, but the original series at least was so sharp and well written and, as you say, seems as relevant now as it was back in the 80s.

A word about On the Buses, I agree with the it's so bad it's good line - as for the films, I watched one fairly recently in wonderment as it ticked the boxes of all of the 70s cliches that you read about these days, I'm genuinely amazed by Eric's comment about one of the films being the biggest grossing British production in 1971 (I was only fifteen then and I knew it was crap!).