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One of the funniest TV shows ever returns to DVD with new, restored transfers. Is the quality worth the double-dip?

What can I say about Fawlty Towers that hasn’t been said before? The show consistently makes fan lists of the best situation or British comedies; it is routinely seen in rotation across (at very least) Europe and North America; and despite the type of non-politically-correct humor that Americans often claim to disdain, here, it may have assured John Cleese’s fame even more than a little thing called Monty Python’s Flying Circus that came first. Fawlty Towers is a powerhouse of a sitcom and absolute proof that a situation doesn’t have to be high-concept or complicated to be entertaining.

All that, and it’s just twelve episodes. Six hours. Three hours each over two years, half a decade apart.

Fawlty Towers is like minted gold for the BBC, and so it’s no surprise that the series became one of the first BBC exports to arrive on Region 1 DVD. It was originally released in 2001 in three four-episode segments, which were later collected into a 2003 digipak. The extras were fine, buoyed mostly by John Cleese’s extensive interview and commentaries with the original directors. One thing, however, was dreadfully apparent: the episodes looked atrocious. This was back when BBC restoration was in its infancy, when only the first few Doctor Who titles had been restored for DVD and almost no other series had even been considered. The BBC, I feel sure, had an attitude of, “Well, it’s just a comedy show.” And that’s a perfectly reasonable attitude to take – except that now, in 2009, we demand quality. We want more and better extras. We want super-duper restorations. We want high-definition, or something that makes us feel like a film or TV series has been made better. With that in mind, it’s not surprising someone at the BBC finally woke up. “Wait a minute!” they may well have cried. “We have one of the best-known comedy series in the world!”

This brings us rather neatly to Fawlty Towers: The Complete Collection Remastered, presented for your viewing edification by 2entertain and BBC Worldwide. Sure, it’s an awkward name, but the entire selling point is right there on the front of the box. I have to say, I’m of two minds about this one; sure, it’ll be great to see Basil, Sybil, Polly and Manuel running around and getting in and out of trouble in transfers that are, one expects, less smeary, more colorful, and entirely more “watchable.” On the other hand, though, I have to say that the old argument is still a good one: it’s just a comedy. Yes, it’s incredibly fun to watch John Cleese pour a pitcher of milk in a snotty spoon salesman’s briefcase. But do I need super-high video quality to make that experience better? Does it make it any more funny? No, of course not. I’ve seen edited versions of Fawlty Towers on Comedy Central, and that’s frankly a far greater crime. Great visuals will never really improve upon the experience of O’Reilly suffering Sybil’s wrath in “The Builders,” Basil beating the car in “Gourmet Night,” or the titular vermin sticking his head out of the biscuit tin in “Basil the Rat.” If anything, at least one of those (the rat puppet) might actually suffer. So is this whole exercise really worth it?

Okay, I’ll break the tension. If you’re interested in the set purely based upon the improved video, I have to say it’s a double-edged sword. That judgment is based not just on the “artistic” reasons listed above, but on the simple fact that studio-bound video-recorded footage is never going to look wonderful. It’s simply the nature of the beast: no matter the crispness, no matter the saturation of the color palette, it still looks like video. Some viewers will always bothered by this. With all of that in mind, however, I have to say the video quality is greatly improved. Most importantly, it’s simply more consistent: gone are the “color tints” that affected certain episodes, such as the green wash of “The Hotel Inspectors” (one of my favorites). Colors, overall, are pleasingly saturated in a way they never were on the old DVDs, and I’m tempted to speculate the series has never seen the strong contrast present on these new discs. I did notice a few “blown out” (overly bright) shots throughout the series 1 disc, but they were relatively rare and did not impugn upon my enjoyment of the program.

More significant, really, is the restoration of the occasional film footage, which by and large relates more to series 1. On the whole, the films are (again) more stable, more colorful and contrasty; you can see clear definition between the sky and the clouds on most of the hotel exterior opening shots. According to some of those individuals who actually worked on the set, certain film sequences were found in their original state, which allowed for greater restoration opportunities. I haven’t been able to obtain any definite list of the recovered films, but to my eyes, “The Builders,” “The Germans” and especially “Basil the Rat” look very, very solid. Take a look at Manuel’s trousers in the filmed sequences of the latter episode: you can clearly see variance in the blacks, whereas the old DVD showed merely one, consistently crushed black tone. Therefore, while I wouldn’t recommend a purchase based solely on video quality, I don’t think anyone is going to be at all disappointed with the improvements of this set.

The episodes themselves are presented only in the original English mono; most of the featurettes are, of course, the more modern stereo. Both episodes and featurettes alike feature optional subtitles in English for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, French, German and Spanish.

Fawlty Towers: The Complete Collection Remastered is presented as a three-disc set: series 1 (the original six 1974 episodes) on disc 1, series 2 (1979) on discs 2, and all of the video-based featurettes on disc 3. This is a far better division of content than the original releases, and I personally enjoy being able to kick back and watch one year of Fawlty Towers all in one go.

First off: yes, it’s what you’ve all been waiting for, the brand new John Cleese commentaries for all twelve episodes. I love these. I recently saw an online comment where someone described the Davies and Spiers tracks (see below) as “a six-hour master class in directing a sitcom”; well, John Cleese’s tracks are a six-hour master class in writing a sitcom. These remind me of some of the famous recordings of Rod Serling’s lectures about The Twilight Zone; Cleese is informative, and very conversational, but he mostly sticks to discussion of the writing. He’s fiercely critical of his own material, literally sitting there and dissecting whether certain jokes or gestures or moments do or do not work. There are a few comments about the actors (he clearly has real affection for his co-stars), but most of the “anecdotes” are going to be familiar from his 2001 interview on the old set. If, like me, you’re interested in the writing of a situational comedy, you’ll find these fascinating; others might find them overly technical. Cleese certainly doesn’t leave many gaps in the commentary, and I don’t think anyone could say they’re boring, wandering, or in any way dry.

The much-vaunted 2009 Interviews (38 mins.) were actually filmed for a two-part documentary, Fawlty Towers: Re-Opened, that was shown on digital channel G.O.L.D. in the UK. Here, the interviews have been excised from their original context and separated into comments from each speaker: thus, all of John Cleese’s footage comes first, then Connie Booth, and so on. In fact, the big draw here is Booth, who co-wrote the series and starred as Polly but has refused to speak about the series in the intervening years. While she does come off well enough in her seven minutes of interview, Booth really doesn’t say anything new; in fact – with the possible exception of some of Andrew Sachs’ anecdotes – there isn’t much from any of the four main actors, nor producer John Howard Davies, that will come as a surprise to those who listened to the commentaries or watched the interviews on the old DVD set (which are also replicated here). The obnoxious little CGI backgrounds don’t do anyone any favors, either. The one really nice element, however, is in the comments from several of the more famous guest stars: Bernard Cribbins, Geoffrey Palmer, Sabina Franklyn, Nicky Henson and David Kelly all show up in the last ten minutes to reflect on the show and their roles. Nice.

Cheap Tatty Review (1 min.) – which really should be spelled Cheap Tatty Revue – is a short sketch featuring John Cleese as Basil Fawlty, taking a phone call from the BBC themselves. This was recorded when the series’ final episode, “Basil the Rat,” was postponed due to a strike; the sketch was intended to open Fawlty Towers’ replacement in the schedules, the pilot of Not the Nine O’Clock News. In the end, the pilot went unbroadcast, but the sketch was re-worked into a later episode, and it is that version which is presented here. Shame on the BBC for presenting it without any context, though…

The remainder of the special features has been brought over from the previous 2001 DVDs, although some featurettes have been renamed or slightly reworked in presentation.

The old audio commentaries are still here, with the dry and sometimes tedious comments from producer/director John Howard Davies on series 1, and rather more fascinating contemplations by director Bob Spiers on series 2. Both men start off stronger with their first couple of episodes, and trail off more toward the end, but the Spiers tracks are still well worth a listen. Thankfully, the original production soundtrack has been mixed in better than on the old set, so you can no longer hear every last slurp and gulp of the copious cups of tea or coffee given to Bob Spiers!

The Interviews from the original set are also here, but happily, the three separate sets of John Cleese comments have been combined into the John Cleese Complete Interview (53 mins.). Despite the fact it’s still delineated into three “portions,” this is a lovely interview and far more in-depth than the newer piece.  The Interview with Andrew Sachs (25 mins.) and especially the Interview with Prunella Scales (8 mins.) are rather less exciting, thanks in part to some unusual attention lavished on the unnamed interviewer, but they make for a nice inclusion all the same.

Torquay Tourist Office (11 mins.) – known on the old set as A Visit to Torquay - is a piece taken from an unnamed British magazine program, comparing the sitcom’s fictional setting to genuine Torquay hotels; the same anecdotes about hotelier Donald Sinclair and the Hotel Gleneagles are, once more, trotted out by various locals. (I think it marks the fifth mention of Eric Idle and his “bomb” on the set!) Continuing the hotel theme, Helpful Staff and Guest Registry are simply bios, read aloud by an unnamed narrator.

Out Takes (2 mins.) is a small set of series 2 flub-ups, taken from the BBC’s 1979 edition of the traditional VT Christmas bloopers tame. Most of it is silly, but there are a couple of genuinely funny moments.

Finally, the filmed footage of the dilapidated hotel used for Fawlty Towers, which was presented as a genuine (if unnamed) featurette on the old set, is presented here as an easter egg on disc 3.

Okay, I’m still a little bit of two minds about Fawlty Towers: The Complete Collection Remastered. It’s certainly a great release for new fans or those who’ve never bought the series before; you can get it online for around $35, and I have to say, it’s absolutely fantastic, must-own comedy. For those of us who already own the old set, though, it’s hard to recommend the new one solely on the improved video quality. It’s nice, to be sure, but it’s hardly some amazing revelation along the lines of The Wizard of Oz. No, where the new set really shines is in the six-hour audio commentary “master class” provided by John Cleese. If you’re interested in the production side of Fawlty Towers, you’ll want to hear his commentary and you’ll want to own this set. If not…well, give a disc a rent and see if the video quality is important to you. I’m glad the BBC have restored one of their finest series, and I’m happy to see it hit the shelves, but it doesn’t make the comedy any more funny or the technical limitations any less obvious. Fawlty Towers is Fawlty Towers: absolute genius, no matter how it looks.

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