Fawlty Towers was a British sitcom made by the BBC and first broadcast on BBC2 in 1975. Only twelve episodes were ever produced (two series, with six episodes each), but the programme has had a lasting and powerful legacy.

The setting is in a fictional hotel called Fawlty Towers, located in the seaside town of Torquay, in Devon, on the "English Riviera" (which was where the hotel that provided Cleese with the inspiration for the series was situated).

The show was written by John Cleese and Connie Booth, both of whom played main characters. The first series, in 1975, was produced and directed by John Howard Davies, and the second, in 1979, was produced by Douglas Argent and directed by Bob Spiers.

The writers were married to each other at the time of the first series. By the second, they had been divorced for almost a year, after ten years of union (1968–78).

The series focuses on the exploits and misadventures of short-fused hotelier Basil Fawlty, his wife Sybil and their employees; luggage carrier/waiter Manuel, maid Polly and (in the second series) chef Terry.

The episodes typically revolve around Basil's efforts to succeed in 'raising the tone' of his hotel and his increasing frustration at the numerous complications and mistakes, both his own and those of others, which prevent him from doing so. Much of the humour comes from Basil's overly aggressive manner, engaging in angry but witty arguments with guests, staff and in particular his formidable wife, whom he addresses (in a faux-romantic way) with insults such as "that golfing puff adder", "my little piranha fish", and "my little nest of vipers". Despite this, he frequently feels intimidated, with her able to stop him in his tracks at any time, usually with a short, sharp cry of "Basil!". At the end of some episodes, Basil succeeds in annoying (or at least bemusing) the guests and frequently gets his comeuppance.

The plots are occasionally intricate and always farcical, involving coincidences, misunderstandings, cross-purposes and meetings both missed and accidental. The innuendo of the bedroom farce is sometimes present, (often to the disgust of the politically conservative Basil), but it is his eccentricity, not his lust, that drives the plots.

The events that take place in each episode happen in such a way that they negatively affect Basil's personality, and test what little patience he has to breaking point, sometimes causing his mental state to deteriorate to the point where he's all but suffered a total breakdown by the end of the episode (some cut to the credits as he's on the brink of doing so).

The guests at the hotel are typically comic foils to Basil's anger and outbursts. Each episode's one-shot guest characters provide a different characteristic that he cannot stand (including promiscuity, being working class, or being foreign). Requests both reasonable and impossible test his temper.

Even the disabled seem to annoy him, with the episode "Communication Problems" revolving around the havoc caused by the frequent Abbott and Costello-esque misunderstandings between the staff and the hard-of-hearing Mrs. Richards (not to mention the contributions from dotty guest Major, the show's other regular character).

By the end, Basil faints just at the mention of her name. This episode is typical of the show's careful weaving of humorous situations through comedy cross-talk. The show also uses mild black humour at times, notably when Basil is forced to hide a dead body, and in some of the comments made by Basil both about Sybil ("Did you ever see that film, How to Murder Your Wife? ... Awfully good; I saw it six times") and the guests ("May I suggest that you consider moving to a hotel closer to the sea? Or preferably in it.").

Basil behaves particularly violently towards Manuel (an emotional, but innocent, Spaniard whose almost total lack of English vocabulary has him make some of the most elementary mistakes) including beating the hapless waiter with a frying pan and smacking him on the forehead with a spoon, despite Manuel's piteous pleading, echoing the antics of the Three Stooges.

The violence directed at Manuel has been one of the few reasons for negative criticisms levelled at Fawlty Towers over the years. In this, and in other exaggerated physical mannerisms of Basil, Fawlty Towers employs physical comedy reminiscent of the Marx Brothers' fast-paced slapstick humour.

Basil displays blatant snobbishness in order to climb the social ladder, expressing disdain for the "riff-raff" that he believes currently populate the hotel. His desperation is apparent, as he makes increasingly hopeless manoeuvres and painful faux pas in trying to gain favour with the wealthy, yet finds himself forced to serve and help people he sees as beneath him.

As such, Basil's efforts tend to be counter-productive, with guests leaving the hotel in disgust and his marriage (and sanity) stretching further and further towards breaking point.