Finally, Basil Fawlty can mention the war without fear of causing offence.
Germany’s ambassador to the UK last night gave his endorsement to the controversial Fawlty Towers scene in which John Cleese’s goose-stepping hotelier upsets a German family with constant references to the Nazis.
“We here at the embassy think the iconic restaurant scene is funny,” said a spokesman at the German embassy in London.
“To quote Basil Fawlty, we think it’s ‘veally good’.” The surprise backing comes ahead of a new West End production of the classic 1970s sitcom.
Despite modern sensibilities, Cleese, 84, confirmed the play will include the scene in which a delusional Fawlty, suffering from a head injury, continually brings up the Second World War.
Oblivious to the offence he is causing, he tells Polly the waitress, played by his co-writer and then-wife Connie Booth: “Don’t mention the war.
If you’d like to view this content, please adjust your .
To find out more about how we use cookies, please see our Cookie Guide.
“I mentioned it once but I think I got away with it all right.” He refers to the guests’ food order as “orders which must be obeyed at all times without question”, and repeats their meal request as a “prawn Goebbels, a Hermann Goering and four Colditz salads”.
When one of them asks Fawlty to stop talking about the war, the hotelier replies: “Me? You started it!”
“We did not start it,” the guest protests, to which Fawlty replies: “Yes, you did, you invaded Poland.” One of the female guests bursts into tears, so Fawlty tries to cheer her up by impersonating Hitler and goose-stepping around the room.
When that elicits another complaint, he yells: “I am trying to cheer her up, you stupid Kraut… You have absolutely no sense of humour do you?”
The scene is one of the most famous in UK sitcom history, and reinforced the stereotype of Germany as a humourless nation.
But a spokesman for ambassador Miguel Berger said his countrymen loved the show.
“Fawlty Towers is widely considered one of Britain’s finest comedies and has remained popular with German audiences since it was first broadcast,” he said.
“A German reboot was attempted in the early Noughties, although only one episode was broadcast, which is perhaps testament to the enduring popularity of the iconic original.
“Like many people in the UK, we’re looking forward to seeing how this landmark comedy translates to the stage.” The attitude of the Germany embassy is in stark contrast to humourless British broadcasters who insist on applying woke trigger warnings to vintage comedy programmes, and briefly withdrew The Germans episode from streaming services in 2020.
Last week it emerged that the Britbox platform had slapped a warning on the sitcom Terry and June, which ran on the BBC between 1979 and 1987, saying that the show contains “discriminatory language from the period”.
Cleese himself has always found the German public to be appreciative of his work.
He told The Mail on Sunday: “The only people who have never ever complained about the German episode are the Germans. No German has ever complained to me about that because they are what I call grown-ups. They can take a joke.
“It’s also quite clear that the people in that episode were only very young children at the time that Hitler took power. It’s a totally decent German family. I have always been rather pro-German. If I have a choice between the Germans and the French, I will always choose the Germans.”
The recreation of The Germans episode on stage will not include the scene in which the character of The Major – to be played by EastEnders actor Paul Nicholas in the West End – repeatedly uses the offensive “n-word” in a conversation about West Indian cricketers.
The play, which stars Adam Jackson-Smith as Fawlty, has its first performance at the Apollo Theatre in London on Saturday.