Welcome, Andrew Sachs.
Now, first of all, could you tell us a bit
about how you were chosen to play the part of Manuel
and what your first impressions were of the part?
I'd been working with John Cleese
in the early '70s on some training films,
for his company, Video Arts.
So we got to know each other. He got to know my work,
and we got on well together,
worked well together,
had the same sort of timing,
and no problems in the technical side.
And during the making of one of those films,
he brought up this--
pilot he'd written for the BBC
and would I like to play the Spanish waiter?
And my first impression was
"Very nice," 'cause I'd never been
a regular contributor to a sitcom series.
I thought, "That's nice."
I'd done guest things in "Rising Damp,"
and "You..." or whatever.
First regular part, I thought,
"What? How wonderful."
Then I thought, "Well, I'll ask him this."
"I love the idea, thank you, John, but...
could you make him a German waiter?
Because I'm not sure I can do a Spanish accent."
And I come from Germany, German's my first language.
So I thought that'd be easy.
And he thought about this for a minute--
bless him--
and he must have thought, "This guy's crazy."
And he thought, "No, I don't think so,
it's good-- nice, but I don't think so."
and... of course, it wouldn't have worked
as a German. Can you imagine?
Telling the guests to do exactly as they're told--
not quite right.
So I buckled down to it, and mugged up the accent
on the way to the studio, as it were.
And we got on with it.
And he was born.
And he was born, yes.
What were your first impressions of the part,
as you start to read for it?
Very nice to be-- what a great script.
Looks good,
but the part is so small.
It was only a small part.
Nevertheless, I thought, "There is a nice character part
that I could tackle very easily."
"Good casting," I thought. And it's the sort of part
that I'd been playing for 20 years beforehand.
So I'd learned my trade a bit.
That's what I thought.
Were you worried about the violence at all?
No.
No, I'd done a lot of physical work.
I was with Brian Rix for a long time,
at the Whitehall Theatre. And had done a lot of farce,
and falling about, and jumping around,
and being hit and hitting back,
and falling off buildings and things.
So that was nothing.
And I didn't know that he was going to poke me in the eye, did I?
At the time.
What were the significant differences
between your conception of Manuel's character
and John and Connie's? For example,
did you have much input in the development of Manuel?
I don't think-- no, I just accepted
what the script said.
And my work, as I see it, as an actor,
is to try and be true to the author's intention.
So I wasn't critical of how the part was written
or anything.
It just looked good.
And I thought, "Yeah, how do I fit in this?
How do I play my part
in that recipe?"
So that was no problem.
Who came up with the moustache?
Oh! I did. I'll tell you why.
I thought--
I'd never been a regular on TV,
and I thought, "Well, if I am, I know what it's like
that people recognize you in the street,
and you get an image,
and that's how you look."
I'd always done disguise things,
'cause I never liked to reveal myself, at that time,
and I thought the idea would be a moustache,
I'll ask the producer if I can have a moustache.
And I thought, "He'll never let me,"
because John was wearing a moustache.
"They won't have two moustaches in the same show."
so I asked, and he said,
this is John Howard-Davies-- he said, "Yeah, all right."
So I thought, "Okay, fine. He said it, okay."
And that's how it came about.
And did it work as a disguise for the general public?
Oh, yes.
And the white jacket. I was very rarely recognized,
even at the height of its popularity.
I remember sitting in the tube one day,
and there were two girls opposite me,
one describing the previous night's episode to the other.
And they looked straight at me,
and didn't know who the hell I was.
So that's very nice.
Did you feel intimidated in any way,
playing alongside John and Connie?
Not because they were co-stars,
but because they were creators of this series?
No, not intimidated-- awed, 'cause I admire good writing.
And this was good writing.
Did you do much research into the part of Manuel?
Was he based on anyone you knew?
I didn't go on a three-year training course in catering,
if that's what you're asking.
The research I did on it
was no more than an actor gives to many of his parts.
I suppose you could say, it's 20 years of research--
of working the trade,
of having a--
an aptitude for comedy.
I seem to do more of that
than the serious stuff,
though not exclusively.
So I have this kind of detached look about life.
I tend to watch people,
rather than be them,
and see the comic potential
in the absurdity of the human condition anyway.
That was good preparation for playing the part.
What was the secret between the relationship
between John and Manuel,
or Fawlty and Manuel?
What was the secret chemistry
that made that such a great comedy duo?
Well, if you get a big man and a small man,
and the big man hits the small man,
the small man is gonna get the sympathy,
so I thought, "That's good."
The other thing is that although people often say--
often think of Manuel as somebody pathetic--
"Oh, poor thing," and "Oh, dear--"
he's actually a very successful man.
He's a happy, successful man.
Because he's found a family in Britain. He loves Britain.
A surrogate family, because he's used to his mother,
his father, his five brothers, and six sisters in Barcelona,
so he's very much a family man.
He loves and he acknowledges
that no matter what violence
is meted out to him, by anybody else,
it means he's noticed,
which in a big family in Barcelona,
the only way you're noticed is to do something naughty,
and get a slap around the ear from your mother, you see?
It means, "Ah, she cares for me."
And in the same way, I think he's a child...
with his parents--
with his family around him.
Intensely loyal, I should think;
generous to a fault;
would make a wonderful husband and father.
If he has any drawbacks,
it's perhaps a lack of intelligence.
But there are worse things
than not being intelligent in life.
So, he's a very successful man.
And it's that combination of...
joy in life that he has,
with being a bit downtrodden.
Apparently it's a good combination.
Yeah, he's kind of full of joy,
and Basil is full of "Aarghh!"
if I can put it like that.
And it's that conflict I sometimes--
I mean he's reminds me a bit of a labrador,
Manuel, sometimes, in the way
that he'd come back,
despite being maltreated.
Yeah, a pet dog. That's not a bad analogy.
And you mentioned conflict.
That's the heart of all drama,
be it comedy or tragedy, isn't it?
And there's plenty of that in the series.
Yeah. Did you get any feedback
about your interpretation of the part
from genuine waiters around the country?
I did, quite a lot.
But I couldn't understand it,
because their English was so bad, I think.
No, not really!
No.
Now, how did the role of Manuel
and the series, "Fawlty Towers,"
affect your subsequent acting career,
whether it be playing those comic roles,
or playing the more serious stuff
that you've done subsequently?
Yeah, that's an interesting question.
It's often puzzled me. I don't know,
because unless I'd lived a second life
without having experienced "Fawlty Towers,"
I wouldn't have anything to compare with.
I think it opened a lot of doors.
But, I dare say, it shut some as well.
And there were, shortly afterwards--
after "Fawlty Towers," there were lots of offers
of something really imaginative--
like "Would you play an Italian hotel manager?"
I thought, "That's one step up
on a Spanish hotel waiter."
So there were efforts to...
have me virtually as Manuel,
but not-- "Oh, that's not Manuel.
We want you to wear a moustache and a white jacket,
but it's not Manuel. No, no, no, nothing to do--"
Well, it is, you know?
So I tried to fight shy of Spanish parts.
Still do, although-- yeah, still do.
'Cause other people can tackle those without...
references of Manuel in the background.
But on the whole, it's done me a lot of good.
Although I've never been able to capitalize
on the success of it.
Because I played
the leading parts
in three other sitcoms, subsequently,
none of which made a second series.
Not just because I was in them--
or maybe because I was in them, I don't know--
but because the writing wasn't anywhere near as good.
And how can you top something as good as "Fawlty Towers"? Very difficult.
Has it impinged on your personal life,
in any way?
Impinged? Well, very nicely, really.
Very happy to have had that success.
And...
I never take umbrage at people talking to me about it--
it's a bit boring when you hear the same question--
"What's it like working with John Cleese?"
"What's he really like?"
And you answer that question as though
it's the first time you've heard it.
So, there's a bit of the actor that comes into you.
But you know, it's well meaning,
so it's a small price to pay.
Yeah, I mean, it's--
as you say, it's opened many doors,
and maybe shut some,
but of the doors that opened,
the ones that were opened for you,
which one were you most happy about?
And which one were you least happy about?
Which one was I most happy?
Well, things came out of it,
perhaps, because I was...
I was working at the BBC
in the television ambience,
and I was in the series,
that producers and so on were more interested in me
than had I not been in the show.
Your character was the butt
of much physical violence from Basil.
Did you mind putting yourself through all that physical danger
for the sake of a sitcom?
It's not really dangerous.
If you rehearse a thing properly,
and we did, and he's a master of timing,
and I can react very well to it--
I'm fairly agile.
So it looks violent,
but it isn't...
On the whole.
No, it isn't, really.
Did you have any on-set accidents though?
As a result of bad timing?
Yes, there were some.
In the sequence where there's a fire in the kitchen--
which was beautifully handled,
with all these firemen with hoses of anti-fire foam,
covered in asb--
anti-fire gel and things.
But the scene immediately following that,
which we recorded separately,
was me coming out of the kitchen
with my jacket smoking, collapsing at his feet,
and saying, "Ah, please! Help, help, fire."
And that was made
with the reaction of two chemicals.
It went wrong.
Instead of just smoking-- which it did--
it also soaked through the jacket,
during dress rehearsal in the afternoon, I remember.
It got hotter and hotter.
I had to stop.
Why? What-- "Because something's wrong."
I took the jacket off,
and my skin was kind of plum coloured.
However, not much pain.
I had it dressed and did the show in the evening.
That got a bit painful.
So if you ever see the show again,
just have a little--
tear of sorrow for me, there.
This is where it really hurt,
because at the same time I was doing--
I was playing the lead
in "No Sex, Please. We're British",
at the Strand Theatre in London, every night,
in 1975.
We recorded on a Sunday.
And that was a very physical show.
And for the next three weeks,
I had to have my arms and things dressed every day.
But to have, as part of the business in the show,
to have these encyclopaedias thrown at me,
like this, as a gag,
into there, I've never known such pain.
That's not nice.
But, you know, you survive. It's all right.
And as for the violence--
that John is supposed to have handed down to me,
he never did...
he told me to say.
How much fun was it,
working with the cast on "Fawlty Towers"?
It was great fun.
With hindsight, you romanticize things,
but I remember really enjoying it,
and having such a good time,
with John as a superb head of the team,
and John Howard-Davies and Bob Spiers, later.
Contributions were encouraged from everybody, everybody,
even the smallest bit part.
And the people who came in just for one week,
were made welcome.
I know what it's like coming as a new boy
into an established series,
you feel, "I'd rather go home now."
But no. John, particularly,
would get everybody in.
You're here for just one week, two lines, doesn't matter.
You're part of the team.
That was enormously helpful for everybody.
It did wonders for the atmosphere.
My memories of it
are totally great.
Good ingredients
for a good recipe,
and a good...
dish that's offered.
Talking of guest stars,
who were your favourites of the people that came in?
Quite a number.
Joan Sanderson comes to mind-- Mrs. Richards, the deaf lady.
Qué?
What?
Qué?
- Qué? - sí.
Sí?
K.C.?
K.C.? What're you trying to say?
No, no, no. Qué, what.
"K" what?
Sí. Qué, what.
C.K. Watt?
Yes!
Who is C.K. Watt?
Qué?
Is he the manager, Mr. Watt?
- Oh, manager! - He is?
Ah, Mr. Fawlty.
- What? - Fawlty.
What are you talking about, you silly little man?
Wonderful actress, wonderful.
Formidable, but wonderful. So, I knew her.
Geoffrey Palmer.
One of my fav-- my very favourite scene I think,
is when...
he's discovered this dead body, upstairs,
and he's seen to that,
and he comes down to have breakfast,
and it's too late.
Leave it.
- No, no, I take it. - Leave it.
No, no. Is not time, please.
No, no, no. Please.
I'm sitting here.
Is no lunch till--
I'm still having breakfast.
Is finish. All gone. Breakfast kaputt.
I'm having sausages.
Is not allowed.
Then my very favourite line of the whole series
is when he, in that straight face he's got,
that hangdog look, he says,
Look, I'm a doctor. I'm a doctor and I want my sausages.
I tell you is finished.
Bye-bye, please. Bye-bye.
Now, look!
Is finish.
Give those to me.
Come on, come on.
No, is no possible.
Is everything all right?
That's one of my very favourite bits.
Oh! I'll tell you another bit.
Mrs. Richards-- and we nearly cut this
in rehearsal, I remember!
It was my one contribution, as far as I remember it,
I'll tell you what it was,
John shouts into her deaf aid
and she goes like that,
and knocks her head, you see?
And he goes to the floor and he says,
is this part of your brain?
And we were doing this at rehearsal,
and suddenly that line wasn't there.
And I said to him afterwards,
"What did you cut that for?"
and he said, "We decided it wasn't very good."
I said, "You can't do that! It's brilliant.
Do it, put it back."
So for once he actually listened to one of my suggestions.
What?
Basil.
Don't.
Wait, wait, wait.
I haven't got it turned up enough.
Basil!
I said!
My head, my head.
Has it come away?
Did you bang your head?
Yes, yes!
Oh, dear. Let me have a look.
You'd better go and lie down before something else happens.
Shut up, Basil.
Why don't you call the police?
We will, the moment we've searched the rooms.
My money's been taken.
Yes, I know. Try not to speak.
Is this a piece of your brain?
That's my contribution to the writing
of "Fawlty Towers."
what about Bernard Cribbins?
Oh, Bernie.
He's amazing. I'd worked with him before.
And I've known him for many years.
If fact, subsequently I did pantomime with him
at Portsmouth.
I played Dame, I think. I can't remember.
I admire him because...
he seems to be fazed by nothing.
If the set fell down
around him--
this is the impression I get--
that it wouldn't worry him.
He'd just cope and do it.
It's always nice
if you have an actor with a sense of humour,
playing a character who hasn't got one.
That's a great combination.
And he played that superbly.
Please, señor, Mr. Fawlty want to say "adios. "
He wants to what?
Noo! Oooh!
The cream?
Papers arrive yet, Fawlty?
Not yet, Major. No, sorry.
What about Brian Hall as Terry?
It was lovely.
He only came in the second series,
because it was felt-- John and Connie felt
that this is a hotel that's only run by three people.
We must get some more staff.
And we don't have a cook, so we had him.
Brian's lovely just how he is,
it struck me, happy, cockney,
great sort, you know.
And he was lovely, and he had a tragic end.
He died very early.
And that was really sad, 'cause we all liked him.
And I think he liked us.
What's all this about rat poison on the veal?
He's put rat poison on one.
They've got mixed up,
and nobody knows which is which now.
What happened to the one the cat ate?
The cat?
That's no good. That might have poison on it, too.
Well, where is it?
- What? - Where's the cat's slice?
Up there.
Right. Now, how's the cat?
How's the c-- how's the cat?
We're about to take the life of a public health inspector,
and you want to know how's the cat?
It's gone to London to see the queen!
What are we going to do?
- He's all right. - Great.
Hurray! Hurray! The cat lives!
The cat lives, long live the cat!
What are we going to do?
Mr. Fawlty, if the cat is all right,
that means that slice is all right.
How long would it take to work?
That stuff? Two minutes.
He had this 10 minutes ago, at least.
It's a bit chewed there.
I'll give it a trim.
My favourite episode would be-- has to be the one with the rat.
Sorry! Hamster.
Not a rat.
Filigree Siberian hamster.
Because...
I had the biggest part
that I'd had in any of the other episodes.
It was quite a big role.
And we had an extra luxury--
it was the last show we did of the whole series,
the whole two series,
and there was some kind of strike or something,
and we were ready to go in the studio and record it
with an audience, and we had to cancel it,
and remount it some weeks later.
So we got extra rehearsal, a few days' extra rehearsal
to remind ourselves what we were doing.
And we got an extra half day
of recording time in the studio.
Total luxury,
'cause normally you do the whole episode
in one day. Turn up in the morning,
do all the camera rehearsals, dress rehearsals,
this, that, notes and all that,
by the time you get to the show and the audience is wheeled in,
you're a bit gaga.
Wrong time to do a recording, so we had that luxury.
But you see, I am a bit stupid sometimes.
Because I remember John had to point something out to me
that is so obvious,
in that, when this hamster
goes lost, gets lost, runs away,
I go into the garden shed or something,
and I call him, call his name,
which was Basil.
And I remember during rehearsals,
I just said, "Basil, Basil." You see?
And John took me over to one side and he said,
"You know, very good, but...
just remember that Basil
is also the part I play,
so that you have named your hamster after me.
So give it a bit more, let them know this."
So simple.
Obvious.
So, in fact,
we did it:
Basil?
How would you say
that the show fits in with sitcom history?
Was it one of those sitcoms that pushed the boundaries?
Or was it more in the traditional mold
of the sitcom?
It's certainly in the traditional mold of comedy.
It goes right back to French farce, doesn't it?
In that it's very tightly plotted,
very complex stories,
some of them, you really have to pay attention
to know what's going to happen.
In the same way you do with a Feydeau farce.
So there's that long tradition behind it.
What made it...
in a sense...
broke the bounds-- what did you say?
Pushed the boundaries.
Pushed the boundaries of comedy,
is that...
like very few other programs at that time,
there was much more movement,
action,
comedy that depended less on words,
and more on behaviour and so on.
Body language.
There were others like-- some others do have them, for instance,
which is all kind of movement.
So it certainly had that quality.
And there were many more shots,
it moved along much faster
than other-- even great-- sitcoms...
that tended to be based and centred on dialogue,
people talking to each other,
having a cup of tea and getting up from the sofa,
which is now exemplified by "The Royal Family,"
which does nothing, Where the biggest action
is somebody getting up to make a cup of tea,
but brilliantly done.
So we certainly had that, which was less usual
at the time.
What appears to be a very simple plot,
is actually densely complicated,
when you start to follow it.
That's why I always felt,
about watching "Fawlty Towers,"
was you'd start off quite relaxed
but halfway through you'd be like-- like that.
Yes.
Because already so many things have--
could go wrong. And would go wrong.
In that episode with the dead body,
played in a lively way by Derek Royle,
we wanted a small man, 'cause...
we had to carry him up and down stairs and things,
all week of rehearsals.
And I said to John, "It's all right for you,
but, you know, I'm only a little guy.
Let's get somebody small. I got the very man, Derek Royle."
Got him. And he was an acrobat.
So if we did drop him on the stairs,
it didn't matter. He could just get up.
Okay.
He's very, very heavy.
Did you get to keep the white jacket?
Yes, yes.
I got to keep the white jacket.
I have it hanging in my wardrobe.
Andrew Sachs, thank you very much.
Pleasure.