Fawlty Towers (TV Series) The Kipper and the Corpse (1979) User Reviews

''Basil there's a kipper sticking out of your jumper''

[Sleepin_Dragon · 10/10 · 16 May 2017]

If I had to pinpoint a piece of comedy television that I would place at the top of the pile, then The Kipper and The Corpse would have to rank at number one. It's the episode I know every word of, but cannot watch it without howling with laughter. Each episode is genius and magical in its own right, but there's something about the way this one plays out that I can't resist. The dialogue is perfection itself, the level of Basil's irritations and frustrations is a delight to watch, the way he sarcastically offers poor Mr Leeman a choice of Breakfast tray is a joy, but the way in which the Doctor is taken to the body in the bed is one of the funniest things I've ever seen.

Zany, madcap, sarcastic, wildly funny, the list of superlatives you could add to this thirty odd minutes of unadulterated joy is endless. It can be difficult to review something you know so well, but the relentless watches have provided me with constant laughs and for that this episode gets a well deserved 10/10

All About Sausages

[oceanave · 8/10 · 11 May 2006]

Fawlty Towers was notorious for rotten customer service, and this episode is a dissertation on it. It complements "Waldorf Salad" and "Basil the Rat" (the final episode) quite well - this time, dead bodies with a subplot involving ill-prepared kippers (and sausages) are brought into the mix. A group of executives drop off Mr. Leeman at the hotel - he dies during the night, but the hotel staff think it's a result of food poisoning of that morning's breakfast. Painstaking efforts are made by Basil, Manuel, and Polly to hide the body - carting the corpse up and down stairs, eventually depositing it first in one of the closets in a guest room and then in the kitchen. As Andrew Sachs has mentioned, they cast the Leeman character with a small man (Derek Royle) so as to make all the hauling a bit easier. The supporting cast in this one are especially good (Geoffrey Palmer as the snobby sausage-loving Dr. Price, and Mavis Pugh as Mrs. Chase, owner of the sausage-loving shi-tzu dog). Gilly Flower, who plays Ms. Tibbs, got a fairly big part in this episode after many episodes with one and two-liners, and she did it very well.

This is the episode with the well-known 'Basil pokes Manuel in the eye' scene and a bit where Basil walks in on a guest preparing to have his way with an inflatable sex doll. By episode's end, it seems like just about everyone has 'had it' with the lousy hotel - even Manuel belts out a firm, "Meeester Fawlty, I no wan' to work here anymore! I on strike!" But in the end, Basil is the one who gets the respite and once again, leaves Sybil to solve the day's problems. Personally, I think this would've been a good episode to end the series. Although unintentionally, it rounds out the other episodes nicely and pretty much drives home the fact that Fawlty Towers is a hotel that's beyond help.

Audience participation

[mbarker-87466 · 10/10 · 16 July 2020]

I was 15 years old & in the audience for this recording. Didn't realise at the time I was wltnessing one of the greatest sitcoms of all time. I always remember John Cleese popping his head thru the glass doors at the side of the studio waving to the audience before the recording started& pulling his faces.

Don't eat the kippers in Fatty Owls

[ShadeGrenade · 9 February 2010]

Torquay's finest hotel has some interesting new guests - Mrs.Chase ( Mavis Pugh ) and her pampered dog Prince, Dr.Price ( Geoffrey Palmer ) who loves sausages but never seems to get them, and Mr.Leeman ( Derek Royle ). Feeling unwell, the latter retires to his room. The next morning, he is discovered dead in bed. Suspicion immediately falls on the kipper he was given for breakfast. Basil goes frantic trying to conceal it from Price.

He next has to worry about the guests not seeing the body, so he, Manuel, and Polly, lug it from one part of the hotel to another. Leeman's colleagues turn up to take him to a business meeting. How best to explain the situation?

John Cleese took the view during the writing of Season 2 that, being little more than a collection of farces, the show would benefit by being pushed in a slightly more macabre direction. He risked alienating the audience by doing so, but went ahead, and the result is one of the season's undisputed highlights. He got the idea from a hotelier friend, who told him the hardest part of the job was 'getting rid of the stiffs'.

Mavis Pugh went on to play the batty 'Lady Lavender' in the underrated Jimmy Perry & David Croft sitcom 'You Rang M'lord', while Geoffrey Palmer is a national comic treasure through his roles in 'The Fall & Rise Of Reginald Perrin', 'Butterflies', and 'As Time Goes By'. Derek Royle was 'Dr.Hogg' in the popular children's show 'Hogg's Back' on I.T.V. in the '70's, and later replaced ( briefly as it turned out, he died after only 8 episodes ) Jack Haig as 'Monsieur Leclerc' in 'Allo, Allo'. Robert McBain, who played 'Mr.Xerxes', was also in a children's comedy show - the Freddie & The Dreamers' sketch show 'Little Big Time' - in which he played a variety of pompous Englishmen. Richard Davies, who plays 'Mr.White' was teacher 'Mr.Price' in 'Please, Sir!'.

Funniest moment - Miss Tibbs, hysterical on seeing the late Leeman, is slapped hard by Polly. So hard in fact that she loses consciousness. "Spiffing!", exclaims Basil, "Two guests dead, twenty-five to go!".

Second funniest moment - Manuel is trying to stop Dr.Price from having breakfast. Basil intervenes. "Let me explain!", he says, and then pokes the Spanish waiter in the left eye.

Strong episode with jet black humour

[snoozejonc · 8/10 · 2 November 2020]

Basil struggles to deal with guest who dies and the demands of the live ones.

This is another great episode blending a very funny situation with Basil's outrageous behaviour.

The humour couldn't be much darker in its theme with death at the heart of the story, but it is treated as farcically as any other situation in which I have seen Basil Fawlty involved.

Basil has some excellent lines and John Cleese delivers them as brilliantly as always, my favourite being his reaction to one guest who is rendered unconscious following her encounter with the dead body. Also funny is his rant regarding the breakfast tray.

As Plato Said " Only The Dead Have Seen The End Of Such Rotten Service "

[Theo Robertson · 9/10 · 14 July 2013]

A Mr Leeman comes to stay at Fawlty Towers . Complaining of feeling unwell he retires to his room . The next morning he is found dead which sets up all kinds of problems for Basil

Everyone will have their favourite episode from the show and this one is one of the most popular . It's black comedy at its most black and comedy at its funniest - someone dying has never been so much fun

What the episode does very well is show Basil at his most sarcastic as in " Teak , oak , mahogany . What you want the tray made out of ? " and being sadistic towards Manuel the Spanish waiter . " Manuel let me explain " then stabs him in the eye

Highly regarded reviewer Bob The Moo laments this season slightly in that slightly sexual humour has crept in to the show . I can see his point to a degree where a guest is caught blowing up a rubber doll and where a Welsh couple jump to the conclusion Basil and Manuel might be using their room as a place for a homosexual tryst but this enhances an episode that is blackly farcical and comes very close to being the funniest thing I've watched on television

Comic genius

[barnsleylad4949 · 10/10 · 13 April 2022]

This is by far the best episode of the series. In fact I'd go as far as to say it's the funniest episode of any TV series ever. The farce, the lines, the acting are all pure comedy gold. John Cleese is at his finest as is Andrew Sachs.

Dead

[bevo-13678 · 10/10 · 9 April 2020]

I like the bit where he had a kipper sticking out of his jacket

Episode 204

[bobcobb301 · 6/10 · 8 May 2023]

This is probably one of those episodes that seemed better when they were planning it out, but the execution did not quite work. I get that it is the 70's, but I feel like there is so much more to the idea of someone dying beyond keeping other hotel guests happy. We would not see behavior like this no matter the circumstances they were facing.

A few funny moments, but just not the kind of episode it could have been. It also seemed like the humor regarding hiding the body was a little too childish for my liking. Would have preferred something a bit more clever than what we got here regarding that.

Possibly my least favourite episode so far.

[BA_Harrison · 9 December 2017]

A Fawlty Towers guest dies in his sleep and hotelier Basil and his staff try to hide the body until the coroner comes to collect it.

Why they decide to move the corpse, as opposed to leaving it where it is until the authorities arrive, is a mystery to me, but without it there wouldn't be so much frantic farcical chaos. Consequently, the whole episode feels extremely forced, the laughs not flowing as naturally as they should.

Yes, there are plenty of wonderfully barbed quips from Basil, but when the basic plot is so flawed, I simply cannot hold this episode in such high regard as the genuine classics (most of which are from series 1).