Top 5 best Fawlty Towers episodes ranked - No.1 may surprise you

Viewers sitting down to watch BBC Two on September 19, 1975, had no idea they were watching history in the making as the first episode of Fawlty Towers aired. It was John Cleese's first post-Monty Python project, and many tuned in out of curiosity more than anything else, little realising the show would go on to become one of the most beloved comedies in British TV history.

It only ran for a total of 12 episodes over two series broadcast in 1975 and 1979, and although critics were not initially enamoured of it, the show went on to win the Best Scripted Comedy BAFTA in 1976 and 1980. Written by John and his then wife Connie Booth, the simple premise centred on Basil Fawlty (Cleese,) the rude and put-upon owner of a dysfunctional fictional hotel in the English seaside town of Torquay in Devon,his bossy wife Sybil (Prunella Scales), the sensible chambermaid Polly (Booth), and the hapless and English-challenged Spanish waiter Manuel (Andrew Sachs). As it celebrates its 50th birthday here, in reverse order are its five greatest episodes ranked from worst to best on he basis of hilarity.