Recap / Fawlty Towers S1E1 "A Touch of Class"

We've got to try and attract a better class of person, and turn away some of the riff-raff.

— Basil Fawlty

"A Touch of Class" is the first episode of the first season of Fawlty Towers.

As Basil tries to raise the tone of the hotel, the aristocratic Lord Melbury comes to stay at the hotel. Basil fawns over him at every opportunity, causing himself to neglect or annoy other guests, until Polly discovers Melbury is actually a confidence trickster. Meanwhile, Sybil orders Basil to hang a picture.

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Tropes that appear in this episode:

• Affluent Ascetic: Although Lord Melbury looks and sounds posh, his suitcases are very scruffy. This is one of the first signs that he is not who he says he is. Basil does not care, and applies Insane Troll Logic to justify this.
  Sybil: I've never seen such tatty cases.
  Basil: Of course you haven't! It's only the true upper class that would have tat like that, it's the whole point! Oh, you don't know what I'm talking about, do you?
  Sybil: No I don't.
• Bilingual Bonus: When Lord Melberry orders a dry sherry, the ever-pretentious Basil gushes that his Lordship has "Oh, I don't know what". The Major helpfully prompts with "Je ne sais quoi?" to which Basil agrees, missing that what the Major said was exactly the same but in French.
• Brick Joke: Basil keeps ignoring a guest's drink order because he is too busy sucking up to a noble. Over the course of the episode much chaos ensues as the noble turns out to be a con man, and the episode ends with his former customer waltzing angrily into the lobby and shouting his order one last time.
• Con Man: Lord Melbury turns out to be one.
• Early Instalment Weirdness: There are a few differences in the hotel's layout compared to later episodes — in particular the dining room is a little larger, and there's a drawing room by the main reception, albeit the latter's being closed off is a plot point in the next episode — Sybil's more of an Only Sane Woman (a role shifted mostly to Polly in latter episodes), and the Major is less of a Cloud Cuckoolander.
• Fake Aristocrat: Lord Melbury persuades Basil that he is a member of the nobility, and charms him into a personal loan, leaving a briefcase full of "valuable jewels" as surety for repayment. Basil is conned and fawning... until the case is opened and shown to contain only bricks.
• Foreshadowing: Basil takes a phone call from a Mr O'Reilly about a wall O'Reilly was supposed to build. The very next episode revolves around O'Reilly's incompetent and lazy brand of construction work.
• Funny Background Event: While Basil is pleading with Sir Richard and Lady Morris to stay, the "Fawlty Towers" sign is in the background, just above Basil's desperate face.
• Hurricane of Euphemisms:
  • Basil's words after Sir Richard and Lady Morris have left.
    Basil: You snobs! You stupid, stuck-up, toffee-nosed, half-witted, upper-class piles of pus!
  • When Polly finally gets Basil's attention so she can tell him something really important, he bombards her with a flurry of words to show his impatience:
    Basil: Yes, yes, all right, yes, right, yes, well, yes, yes, what is it???
• Hypocritical Humour: Sir Richard Morris and his wife are so shocked and disgusted at Basil's antics that they decide to leave Fawlty Towers only moments after arriving. Basil angrily shouts and yells at them for being stuck-up snobs, despite constantly ranting about the riff-raff and lower classes at the hotel for pretty much the entire episode.
• Mistaken for Special Guest: Played With, in that the "Special Guest" is a con-man deliberately pretending to be a Lord to get preferential treatment.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: It's clear that Mr. Brown is doing this, as while he acts like a jack the lad and can't appear to read well, he can speak Spanish fluently. He turns out to be an undercover police officer.
• Pet the Dog: Basil saying "Well done, Manuel", soon after Manuel pushed a chair into Lord Melbury.
• Revenge Before Reason: All Basil had to do was let Lord Melbury leave the hotel. He'd be quietly arrested, Basil would get his money back, and Sir Richard and Lady Morris would be none the wiser. Instead, he decides to toy with the con man before letting slip that he's onto him. The police swarm the hotel, Melbury takes a chair to the crotch, Basil gives him a good kick and then pulls his money right out of his pocket - and the aristocrats he had hoped would raise his reputation leave in disgust.
• Ridiculous Procrastinator: Basil procrastinates hanging the picture, typing the menu, and serving drinks to Mr Wareing; because he would rather relax in the office, chat to the Major, or fawn over Lord Melbury. When he does try to do one of these tasks, he is interrupted by a guest, the telephone, or Sybil nagging him to do something else.
• Running Gag:
  • Mr Wareing repeating his order:
    Mr. Wareing: "A gin and orange, a lemon squash and a scotch and water PLEASE!"
  • Basil constantly being interrupted whenever he tries to relax, or when he tries to hang the picture, or when he is fawning over Lord Melbury.
• This Is My Chair: Basil does this on behalf of Lord Melbury. When Lord Melbury arrives at the hotel, Basil orders the Wareing family to move to another table in the middle of their meal, saying that Lord Melbury always sits there. When Lord Melbury sits, Basil accidentally pulls his chair away, causing him to fall and knock the table over, to the delight of the Wareing family. Later, when the family enter the bar, Mr Wareing asks jovially "is there any part of the room you'd like us to keep away from?".

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