NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

BBC bring the iconic 1975 comedy TV series "Fawlty Towers" to Blu-ray. The episodes are on two dual-layered Blu-rays with supportive bitrates. There are six episodes on each. The first has "A Touch of Class", "The Builders", "The Wedding Party", "Hotel Inspectors", "Gourmet Night" and "The Germans" while the second Blu-ray has "Communication Problems", "The Psychiatrist", "Waldorf Salad", "The Kipper and the Corpse", "The Anniversary", and "Basil the Rat". As we discussed with the Complete Monty Python's Flying Circus Blu-ray set (Reviewed HERE) it is restored from original videotape elements. So mostly being shot on video (studio shots) and 16 mm (location shots) transferred in 1080i being available for the first time - it means that the unconverted quality is not at premium HD levels.... but saying that it does look even better than original broadcast standards. Colors have more depth but the visuals are, predictably waxy and, well, video-like. However, these limitations are severely diminished on my OLED TV. Black levels are deep and it looks quite pleasing overall with the in-motion visuals being the most effected.

The show is presented in 2.0 channel 16-bit DTS-HD Master audio track exporting the opening and closing Fawlty Towers theme written by Dennis Wilson, the dialogue and laugh track adeptly without an abundance of depth. There is a 'Descriptive Audio Track' available as an option. There are optional English (SDH) subtitles on this Region FREE Blu-ray.

Extras are abundant, for each of the 12 episodes in we get audio commentaries by John Cleese who talks about comedy of miscommunication, how Prunella Scales was better than Connie Booth and himself had written her character for the pilot episode, how there is a lot of character humor and not many 'gags', how much he adored Ballard Berkeley (Major Gowen), indirect rudeness being more funny and confrontational expression, the the composition of shots and how lucky they were to have such stellar support with many of the episode-specific characters being people he had worked with before in the industry. Plus much much more involving the specifics of humor. There is also the option on Series 1 (the first Blu-ray) to listen to audio commentaries by producer John Howard Davies who discusses more technical production aspects like continuity, sets etc. On the Series 2 Blu-ray, Cleese continues with commentaries for those six episodes and we get the option of other audio commentaries with director Bob Spiers who supplies other interesting information on the formulation of episodes. There is s third Blu-ray disc of supplements that contain 40-minutes of the 2009 interviews previously available on DVD plus extensive individual interviews with John Cleese for over 50-minutes, Andrew "Manuel' Sachs for 25-minutes and Prunella Scales for less than 8-minutes. We get the dozen-minute Torquay Tourist Office discussing the Gleneagles Hotel where the Python cast stayed that spawned the Fawlty Towers series, a one-minute 'Cheap Tatty Review' 1.5 minutes of Outtakes and the original DVD Easter Egg that show the fire that occurred in the set used for the hotel and how it was bought to build houses although zoned for a 39-room hotel. The package has a an 8-page leaflet with text and photos..

There are iconic TV show comedies; Seinfeld, The Simpsons that my buddies and I constantly quote lines - and many have other favorites. Fawlty Towers is standing the test of time - I can throw it on at any time and literally laugh until I am in tears. I can re-watch "Hotel Inspectors", "Gourmet Night", "The Germans", "The Psychiatrist", "Waldorf Salad" and "The Anniversary" over and over again.  The Blu-ray transfer is not premium but it is the best the series will look for home theater consumption and the package has the added value of the Cleese et all commentaries. Must-own in my opinion and being region FREE makes it even more accessible. Strongly recommended!

Gary Tooze