News 12 Mar 2021

Fawlty Towers: For The Record – 6LP white vinyl box signed by John Cleese

All 12 episodes • 6LP white vinyl box set • Includes print signed by John Cleese • Limited edition of 1500

By Paul Sinclair

Fawlty Towers / For The Record 6LP white vinyl signed by John Cleese

Fawlty Towers: For The Record is a new 6LP coloured vinyl box set that features all 12 TV episodes of the classic British comedy series. This limited edition set comes with a art print of harassed hotelier Basil Fawlty SIGNED by co-creator John Cleese.

This new set is made up from the four original BBC vinyl albums – Fawlty Towers, Second Sitting, At Your Service and A La Carte – and two newly created collections, Plat du Jour and Enjoy Your Stay. Together they form a box of all 12 episodes which have a special linking narration – supplied by hapless waiter Manuel (Andrew Sachs) – which is unique to the vinyl versions and hasn’t been available since their original pressings.

The episodes are presented in their original vinyl LP edits and are as follows: Communications Problems (aka ‘Mrs Richards’), The Hotel Inspectors, Basil the Rat (aka ‘The Rat’), The Builders, The Kipper and the Corpse (aka ‘Death’), The Germans (aka ‘Fire Drill’), Waldorf Salad (aka ‘The Americans’), Gourmet Night, A Touch of Class, The Wedding Party, The Psychiatrist and The Anniversary.

Fawlty Towers: For The Record 6LP white vinyl with signed print (click image to enlarge)

Fawlty Towers remains the ‘situation comedy’ series by which all others are judged. There were of course only ever 12 episodes, all painstakingly written by John Cleese and Connie Booth. The show stars Cleese as Basil Fawlty, with Prunella Scales as Sybil, Connie Booth as Polly and Andrew Sachs as Manuel. Among the guest cast were Bernard Cribbins, Joan Sanderson, Geoffrey Palmer, Ballard Berkeley, Nicky Henson, Ken Campbell and Una Stubbs.

The six 140g LPs are pressed on white vinyl and are presented with all-new artwork, although a nice touch is that inside each is a facsimile of the original BBC Records & Cassettes cover (plus ‘faux’ period covers for Plat du Jour and Enjoy Your Stay).

This set comes with a booklet detailing the development of the show, plus a history of the original LP releases, by Tim Worthington, author of Top of the Box – a guide to every single released by BBC Records And Tapes.

The icing on the cake is the print of a grinning Basil Fawlty signed by comedy legend John Cleese. All 1500 of this limited edition come with the print.

Fawlty Towers:For The Record will be released on 28 May 2021 (US fans: fear not, this signed edition will be coming to Amazon USA, soon).

Fawlty Towers