The power of Fawlty Towers

The sad news of the death of Andrew Sachs brought much fulsome and deserved tributes to the actor. Sachs as Manuel  was one of the many components that made Fawlty Towers the classic that it is. Manuel with his eager to please approach and happy go lucky attitude to life gave us someone to root for. Ballard Berkly as the Major gave us one of the most delightful  eccentrics in UK sit com history, a buffoon he may be but he was a lovable buffoon. The plots may resemble those of standard British farces but their focus of British attitudes to class. foreigners etc. Prunella Scales as Sybil with her laugh and business sense tying to make the best of the hotel despite Basil's penny pinching. And then of course John Clesse, as co-writer with then wife Connie Booth came up with many memorable situations in which he as Basil showed both verbal comic skills in his dealings with other people like the many poor guest who suffer his ire and physical ones such famous scenes like the one where hits the broken down car with a tree branch while giving it a verbal reproach, Cleese recently revisited it for a commercial for an optician chain. To Andrew Sachs we give many thanks for bringing such joy to us.