Revealing: When the Major first meets Basil, the same shot is used twice of the Major twitching.
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Basil: This is typical. Absolutely typical...of the kind of...ARSE I have to put up with from you people. You ponce in here expecting to be waited on hand and foot, while I'm trying to run a hotel here. Have you any idea of how much there is to do? Do you ever think of that? Of course not, you're all too busy sticking your noses into every corner, poking around for things to complain about, aren't you? Well let me tell you something - this is exactly how Nazi Germany started. A lot of layabouts with nothing better to do than to cause trouble. Well I've had fifteen years of pandering to the likes of you, and I've had enough. I've had it. Come on, pack your bags and get out.
Trivia
For one episode, the props guy spent ages building up the bottom of a frying pan with cotton wool and padding, then painting it black to look right. It was placed on a shelf just inside the kitchen door. Unfortunately, on the night, John Cleese reached around the door frame without looking and picked up the wrong frying pan. He then hit Andrew Sachs very hard over the head with it, almost knocking the poor man out. See more...
Fawlty Towers (1975) - 14 major mistakes
Directed by John Howard Davies, starring Andrew Sachs, Connie Booth, John Cleese, Prunella Scales (add more)
Gourmet Night (a.k.a. Gourmet's Paradise) (season 1, episode 5)
Audio problem: In the first scene when Basil is trying to repair his car, when he tries to start the engine, the engine sounds are totally out of sync with Basil turning the ignition key.
A Touch of Class (season 1, episode 1)
Continuity: When Basil brings in Lord Melbury's cases, they swap hands between the exterior and interior shots.
Visible crew/equipment: At the end of the end of the episode where everyone is cleaning up, there is a shadow of the boom mic on the wall.
The Germans (season 1, episode 6)
Revealing: When Basil is turning the fire alarm on and off, he puts the key next to the red box and turns it. However, there isn't a slot for the key to actually go in; he's just holding it close and turning it.
The Builders (season 1, episode 2)
Deliberate "mistake": When Basil is arguing with Polly and eventually decides to call O'Reilly, he trips over the gnome. However when we see Basil come out from behind the desk, he takes the gnome out of a side gap in the desk, perfectly out of reach of Basil tripping over it.
Gourmet Night (a.k.a. Gourmet's Paradise) (season 1, episode 5)
Continuity: When Basil goes to fetch the branch to give the car a thrashing after it breaks down, the car manages to move onto the pavement all by itself.
Across whole show
Deliberate "mistake": In nearly all the episodes that the front door of the hotel is open we see a painted board that is meant to be bushes or something outside. Yet whenever we see scenes from the outside of the hotel there is no sign of any trees or bushes.
The Kipper and the Corpse (a.k.a. Death) (season 2, episode 4)
Continuity: The short elderly gentleman and the tall redhead bimbo are leaving the bar. After 15-20 seconds Basil is shown leaving the bar too. But Basil comes through the lobby before them.
The Germans (season 1, episode 6)
Revealing: When Basil goes from clapping his hands in the hotel reception area (just after the first hospital scene), he goes from standing completely still showing a clear 'action' cue.
The Psychiatrist (season 2, episode 2)
Revealing: When Basil is climbing up the ladder to view the inside of Mr Johnson's room, he accidently peers inside Dr Abbott's room. When he starts doing his "checking" routine on the window before he falls backwards, the pane flexes, indicating that it's made of clear perspex.
Waldorf Salad (season 2, episode 3)
Continuity: When Basil is talking to Mr. Hamilton in the dining room there is smoke coming from the kitchen. The next moment he goes into the kitchen and all the smoke is gone.
The Builders (season 1, episode 2)
Continuity: Towards the end of the episode, a couple of scenes before Mr Stubbs arrives, we see Basil start up the tape player prior to hiding in the kitchen. The garden gnome on the desk is right next to the tape player at this point. When Sybil turns the tape off the player has rotated 45 degrees or so (despite nobody else having come into reception in the intervening time) and the gnome is now further along the desk towards the camera as we look on the wide shot. The gnome in the next shot is seen beside the checking-in book when Basil wanders out of and back into the office a couple of scenes later, yet when Mr Stubbs is asking about the lintel for the new door shortly after that and we see Sybil writing in the book, the gnome has moved out of shot altogether.
The Kipper and the Corpse (a.k.a. Death) (season 2, episode 4)
Continuity: When Basil, Polly and Manuel are trying to hide the body in the cupboard in the guests' bedroom, the door behind them leading to the bathroom mysteriously opens and closes between shots throughout the scene.
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