What’s the most oft-told tale of a Fawlty Towers recording session going a little wrong?
The answer is surely the famous anecdote concerning “The Builders”.1 John Cleese has told the tale many times, with varying levels of insults directed at Icelanders. Let’s go for the version in the interview on the original 2001 DVD release:
“The second show that we did, which was about the builders, was performed almost entirely to complete silence, and it was not a very comfortable experience. Afterwards, I was a bit disturbed, and people said “No no, it was a funny show.” Actually, I think it’s the least good of the twelve shows, but they said “No, it was fine, it was funny”. I said “What about the audience?”, and they said “We don’t know…”
We found out later that a large number of people from the Icelandic Broadcasting Corporation had visited the BBC that day, and the BBC were always helpful to shows like mine. And they thought wouldn’t it be nice if they put all 70 of them in the front row. And they sat there being very pleasant and charming and Icelandic, and not laughing at all. Just this faint whiff of cod coming from the front row… which had we recognised, might have given us the explanation. And I’ve got to say it was a pretty tough recording, and it needed quite a lot of editing to tighten it up.”
The audience reaction to “The Builders” isn’t quite as bad as Cleese paints above, but it is fairly muted. As this was the first episode recorded after the pilot a few months previously, it’s understandable that Cleese would be particularly worried by the audience reaction here. He must have been wondering whether the show as a whole actually worked or not.
Regardless of all that, the above is a nice, safe tale to tell. The only people who come across badly are the BBC tickets unit, a safe target who can’t really answer back. And who cares if you’re mildly racist about the Icelandic? None of it is as dangerous as, say, slagging off one of your fellow actors.
John Cleese knows this. Because when he did such a thing, many years ago, he deliberately omitted the name of the person he was slagging off. Take a look at this interview in the Sunday Sun, on the 13th May 1979, about a month and a half after Series 2 of Fawlty Towers had come to a premature halt.2 While discussing the process of making the show:
The tension can affect everybody: one actor, says John, suddenly changed his performance at the filming stage. “I was tired and started fluffing… and, oh, the whole show was less good than it should have been.”
Sadly, Cleese gives no more details. I’m also not aware of him ever mentioning this again; not even on his absurdly detailed DVD commentaries from 2009. Who was it who screwed Cleese over by changing their performance during a recording?
I have no idea. Anyone?
5 comments
barkingstars on 10 September 2024 @ 10am
This is a bit of a guess, but it could be Ken Campbell. I really like Campbell’s performance, he torments Basil brilliantly. But he was a last minute replacement and I get the impression he didn’t make himself very popular. I vaguely recall Cleese saying his performance was not quite right. Given that Campbell was a bit of a prankster I wouldn’t put it past him to change his performance (I mean, it could be worse: I luckily missed a talk where he invited a young lady on stage who proceeded to spray shit from her arse all over the front row)
David Brunt on 10 September 2024 @ 1pm
Ken Campbell would be my guess too.
‘Never knowingly the same performance’ was probably coined for his acting jobs.
John J. Hoare on 10 September 2024 @ 1pm
Somebody else away from here also guessed Ken Campbell. I think he’s definitely a candidate for all the reasons you’ve mentioned, but one thing which stops me thinking it was him was that Cleese has repeatedly says The Anniversary is one of his favourite episodes, and that doesn’t quite square with what he says here.
I seem to recall his least favourites are The Builders, Gourmet Night, and The Germans. Interesting that all three of those are from Series 1!
Rob Keeley on 11 September 2024 @ 6am
No idea about the performer, I’m afraid. I always thought the audience story about The Builders was odd though, because a huge chunk of that episode is physical slapstick comedy and you could pretty much understand the plot, and certainly get plenty of laughs, without the words.
John J. Hoare on 11 September 2024 @ 8am
Yeah, I have to be honest, I’m a little suspicious of any story which has been repeated as many time as that one has, I must admit, especially as it’s coagulated into an anecdote using the same repeated language.