The Germans

"The Germans"
Fawlty Towers episode
Basil Fawlty does the "funny walk", offending the German visitors
Episode no.	Series 1 Episode 6
Directed by	John Howard Davies
Written by	John Cleese Connie Booth
Editing by	Bob Rymer
Original air date	24 October 1975 (1975-10-24)
Running time	35 minutes
Guest appearances
Lisa Bergmayr as German Guest Willy Bowman as German Guest Brenda Cowling as Sister Claire Davenport as Miss Wilson Iris Fry as Mrs Sharp Dan Gillan as German Guest Nick Kane as German Guest John Lawrence as Mr Sharp Louis Mahoney as Doctor Finn
Episode chronology
← Previous "Gourmet Night" Next → "Communication Problems"
List of episodes

"The Germans" is the sixth episode of the first series of the British television sitcom Fawlty Towers. Written by John Cleese and Connie Booth and directed by John Howard Davies, it was first broadcast on BBC2 on 24 October 1975.^[1]

The episode revolves around Basil's attempts to successfully run the hotel alone whilst Sybil is in hospital. Whilst attempting to run a fire drill, a real fire begins in the hotel kitchen, resulting in Basil becoming concussed. Discharging himself from hospital, Basil arrives in time to greet a party of German guests, but he is unable to hide his anti-German sentiment towards them.

The episode has been featured on several "best of" episode lists and is regarded as being one of the most popular episodes in the series. Conversely, it has attracted controversy for its themes of anti-German sentiment and use of racial slurs, and was removed from the UKTV streaming platform in 2020, though later reinstated.