A look at a landmark BBC sitcom episode from 1975, after-the-jump ….
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Last weekend made for a happy day in Britain: as the women’s national soccer team of England won the Women’s Euro 2022 championship match against Germany. And while historic for women’s sports in the UK (as the sport was banned for women by its national Football Association at major stadiums until 1971) it was also England’s first victory in a major football tournament since the men’s team won the World Cup in 1966. Since it was in Britain where the modern rules of the sport were first developed, it was felt that the championship was finally ….. “coming home”.
Another key fact: that both the 1966 and 2022 victories took place (in London) against … Germany, which is a story-unto-itself. The television episode in question is a satirical look at old attitudes but first — some background is necessary.
Since that 4-2 World Cup victory in 1966: various English men’s national teams have usually not fared well against Germany (West Germany, before the fall of the Berlin Wall) and often by losing a penalty-kick shootout after the match ended in a draw. The retired English star (and now TV analyst) Gary Lineker has a famous quote, after one of those losses in a shoot-out (at the 1990 World Cup):
Football is a simple game: 22 men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans win.
And in the years after 1966, English fans often sang in unison at stadiums (during matches against Germany) songs born of frustration and hearkening back to World War II. Ten German Bombers (sung to the music of “She’ll be Coming ‘Round the Mountain”) has each chorus ending with the RAF (Royal Air Force) shooting one down … then “Nine German Bombers” (and so on). Another cheer: Two World Wars and One World Cup (sung to the music of Stephen Foster’s “Camptown Races”).
In 1996, when the European championships were last held in England (before just last year) there was an infamous headline in the Daily Mirror, when its editor was none-other than Piers Morgan:
(Germany won the title … eliminating England in another shoot-out, in the quarterfinals).
The temperature seems to have been lowered in recent years: beginning with the 2006 World Cup held in Germany, where it was run so well (and the hosts were so friendly) that many English fans said it led to a change of heart at some level. The aforementioned Football Association threatened to ban any fans who sang Ten German Bombers when England hosted Germany in last year’s Euro men’s tournament in London (where England did win 2-0, although losing in a shoot-out against Italy in the final).
The tennis star Boris Becker said later that he noticed a change as well: when he first won at Wimbledon in 1985 as a seventeen year-old, the tabloids had headlines such as “Boris’s Blitzkrieg” and “1st German Bombing of London in 40 years”. That went away over the years, he was pleased to say (although he is, oddly enough, now in prison in the UK for bankruptcy fraud).
I tried to get a sense of whether any of the UK tabloids raised the specter of WW-II this year, and wasn’t able to gain a consensus amongst friends … yet if any did, it was rather muted (and perhaps being the women’s team made a difference).
Now, on to the farce comedy series Fawlty Towers:
This is a series that had only twelve episodes (six in two seasons) — and the first episode was initially rejected by the BBC— yet lives on in memory, more than forty years after it ended. It stars the Monty Python cast member John Cleese as Basil Fawlty — the snobby, misanthropic owner of a hotel who reckons he’d be a first-rate hotel owner ... “if it weren’t for the #*~% guests”. Shown in this photo are Basil’s wife Sybil, chambermaid Polly (US-born, whom John Cleese was married to for ten years) and the Spanish waiter Manuel (whose English was always iffy) … yet who was actually German-born.
Interestingly, the plot was based upon an actual hotel owner (named Donald Sinclair) who antagonized the Monty Python troupe when they stayed in 1970 at his Gleneagles Hotel in the southwestern seaside resort town of Torquay. Demolished in 2015, the hotel site today has a retirement home named Sachs Lodge — named after the actor who portrayed Manuel.
One of the recurring characters in the show is a somewhat senile old soldier named Major Gowen (who is a permanent resident of Fawlty Towers). And while Basil Fawlty liked the character (as he had the sort of status Basil sought, wearing his striped regimental necktie), John Cleese described him as “an old fossil left over from decades before”, who was to play a key role in ….. “The Germans”.
First aired in October, 1975 (only thirty years after the end of World War II, it should be emphasized) this episode is the most renowned of the series. After a lot of madcap adventures (including a mounted moose head that falls on Basil’s head more than once) he instructs his staff to await a group of guests from Germany, admonishing them “Don’t mention the war!” And you don't need two guesses to know …. how Basil addresses his guests (suffering from his head trauma).
Examples: while taking their meal order, one asks for “pickled herring” … and Basil jots it down, saying “Yes, a plate of Hermann Göring” and when another asks for “prawns”, Basil says “Yes, some Eva Prawns”. Naturally, these Germans (in reality, UK actors) become quite upset and the next panel lists dialogue (with Basil wearing a head bandage, due to many knocks on the brain):
Then Basil tops-it-off … with goose-stepping (mocking a Hitler mustache).
In the end, more madcap pratfalls take place … leaving the German guests to ask in the final scene ... “How did they ever win the war?!?” Below is the entire episode, a short version of the highlights is at this link.
Not everyone who watches understands the satire involved — Cleese himself has said it was "to make fun of English Basil Fawltys who are buried in the past" and "to make fun of the obsession with the Second World War". When the episode was shown in Germany (after reunification) in 1993, it found an audience who understood that well. John Cleese was engaged to promote the aforementioned 2006 World Cup held in Germany, assuming the character of Basil Fawlty for the first time in years.
In recent years, though, the episode has come under fire … in particular, due to the racially-bigoted remarks that Major Gowen utters towards the beginning of the episode (particularly after the Black Lives Matter protests), with a BBC-owned streaming service removing the episode in June, 2020. Soon after, there was a change-of-heart, reinstating the episode: adding warnings highlighting “potentially offensive content and language”. John Cleese added, “We were not supporting his views ... we were making fun of them”.
The show’s legacy is set, despite John Cleese declining to authorize a third season, indicating he had said everything about the hotel already. In 2001, Britain’s Channel 4 voted Basil Fawlty as #2 in its 100 Greatest TV Characters (topped only by Homer Simpson). On the same Channel 4, The Germans episode was ranked as #11 in its 100 Greatest TV Moments and even here in the US: TV Guide ranked it as #12 in its 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time.
Let’s close with ….. the aforementioned humorous effort by John Cleese to help prepare for a successful 2006 World Cup held in Germany. The UK band The First Eleven recorded it (with Basil Fawlty spoken snippets) intended to dissuade supporters of the England national football team from referring to the Second World War while in Germany for the tournament.
Now, on to Top Comments:
From Gaelsdottir:
In the diary by Nightflyer about about the diverging lives of a young man in middle school and another young man who bullied him - but it's about so much more than that (and fantastically well written) — I nominate this comment by The Marti, endorsing and expanding on the message.
From inkstainedwretch:
In the front-page story on Anti-Abortion BS — this comment made by steep rain. Repugnants are who they said they were. Vote 'em out!!! -
And from Ed Tracey, your faithful correspondent this evening ........
In the front-page story about patrons of the Cracker Barrel restaurant chain distraught over their offering a vegan sausage patty (in addition to their regular pork sausage patties) — amongst the spirited repartee with numerous restaurant chain recommendations (or lack thereof) — is our own Top Comments host zenbassoon, who noted that in all the negative feedback received by the chain: someone chimed in on a seafood item.
Next - enjoy jotter's wonderful (and now eternal) *PictureQuilt™* below. Just click on the picture and it will magically take you to the comment featuring that photo.
TOP PHOTOSAugust 3rd, 2022
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And lastly: yesterday's Top Mojo - mega-mojo to the intrepid mik ...... who rescued this feature from oblivion:
3) It looks like the dog caught the car. by tomephil +20715) Please proceed. by mardam422 +10618) That’s one of the comments — … by sirgeek +9721) A couple of things: … by Rue Vervain +9225) more by Denise Oliver Velez +86