Fawlty Towers (Seasons 1–2)

Fawlty Towers (1975) is the BBC sitcom you can watch online on iFILM. It is set in a small, badly run seaside hotel in Torquay, owned by a man who seems to despise the very guests paying his bills.

Basil Fawlty is played by Monty Python's John Cleese, all flailing limbs and barely contained rage. He grovels to anyone he thinks is upper class, snaps at everyone else, and lies constantly to his sharp-tongued wife Sybil. Helping him survive each disaster are level-headed maid Polly and Manuel, a Spanish waiter who understands almost no English. One episode hides a corpse, another smuggles in a fire drill, and the most famous warns everyone not to mention the war.

There are only twelve episodes across two seasons, co-written by Cleese and Connie Booth, yet the BFI later ranked it the greatest British TV show ever made. Every scene is timed to the second, and Basil remains the model for a comic hero you love and pity at once. Stream Fawlty Towers (1975) online on iFILM.