A Quote by Clive James

The repeat run of Fawlty Towers (BBC2) drew bigger audiences than ever and deservedly so. Statistical surveys reveal that only the television critic of the Spectator is incapable of seeing the joke, which is that Basil Fawlty has the wrong temperament to be a hotel proprietor, just as some other people have the wrong temperament to be television critics.

Clive James

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Audiences Basil Bigger Critic Critics Drew Ever Fawlty Towers Hotel Incapable Joke Just Only Other People Repeat Reveal Run Seeing Some Spectator Statistical Surveys Television Temperament Than Towers Which Wrong

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Clive James
Australian - Writer
Born: October 7, 1939

As a kid I watched television 24 hours a day and loved every minute of it. The two shows that always make me laugh and are therefore my favorites are The Dick Van Dyke Show and Fawlty Towers.

Colin Mochrie

As a kid I watched television 24 hours a day and loved every minute of it. The two shows that always make me laugh and are therefore my favourites are The Dick Van Dyke Show and Fawlty Towers.

Colin Mochrie

I hardly ever watch TV and when I do it's sports. I'll occasionally stick on some old episode of 'Fawlty Towers' or something.

Mats Wilander

I can never do better than 'Fawlty Towers,' whatever I do. Now I very much want to teach young talent some rules of the game.

John Cleese

I can never do better than Fawlty Towers whatever I do. Now I very much want to teach young talent some rules of the game.

John Cleese

Carla Lane's 'Butterflies' seemed to be on in our house at all times when I was a kid, as did 'The Good Life.' But it was 'Fawlty Towers that made me really sit up for the first time. Basil's incandescent rage made me howl.

Greg Davies

Illy [Ray Illingworth] had the man-management skills of Basil Fawlty

Darren Gough

Basil Fawlty was an easy character for me. For some reason, portraying a mean, uptight, incompetent bully comes naturally to me.

John Cleese

There's something amazing about 'Fawlty Towers' and 'The Office' only being two series. I think, when you really nail it, you don't need to do more than two or three.

Johnny Flynn

I miss the comedy of the '70s and '80s, like 'Only Fools And Horses' and 'Fawlty Towers,' so I'm glad I'm put in that category.

Brendan O'Carroll

You find very few critics who approach their job with a combination of information and enthusiasm and humility that makes for a good critic. But there is nothing wrong with critics as long as people don't pay any attention to them. I mean, nobody wants to put them out of a job and a good critic is not necessarily a dead critic. It's just that people take what a critic says as a fact rather than an opinion, and you have to know whether the opinion of the critic is informed or uninformed, intelligent of stupid -- but most people don't take the trouble.

Edward Albee

I do have a regard for the musicality of language that came from BBC sitcoms like 'Fawlty Towers.'

Russell Brand

When you watch some old sitcoms, however charming they are, they have often lost speed over the years. The speed of 'Fawlty Towers' has lasted the distance.

Prunella Scales

Temperament is the primary requisite for the critic - a temperament exquisitely susceptible to beauty, and to the various impressions that beauty gives us.

Oscar Wilde

I have one of the great temperaments. I have a winning temperament. Hillary Clinton has a bad temperament. She's weak. We need a strong temperament.

Donald Trump

When you watch one person on stage trying to surmount their fate only in that very action to embody it, it's called a tragedy. When you see a lot of people doing it on stage, it's called 'Fawlty Towers.'

Timothy Morton

A Quote by Clive James

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