Germans can laugh at Fawlty Towers, so why can’t Brits?

Now UKTV (owned by the BBC) has removed the classic ‘Germans’ episode of Fawlty Towers from its playlist, this sorry no-platform saga has tipped over from tragedy into farce. Is there really anyone in British broadcasting who doesn’t understand that this comic meisterwerk actually makes a mockery of xenophobia? Surely everyone can see it’s satirising and lampooning pathetic Little Englanders, personified by John Cleese’s Basil Fawlty? Apparently not.

First broadcast 45 years ago, this episode, more than any other, has become part of British cultural history, spawning the familiar catchphrase, ‘Don’t mention the war.’ In the 30 years I’ve been travelling around Germany, reporting on that complex country, I’ve never met one German who objected to the show, and there’s no reason why they should. The German characters are paragons of virtue. It’s Cleese’s Basil Fawlty who’s pompous, arrogant and deranged.

Fawlty Towers is revered in Germany, as is Monty Python. Cleese is a comic icon there, particularly for Basil Fawlty.