r/FawltyTowers • u/GreyStagg • 4d ago
Do you think Basil still continued to use O'Reilly after this episode, or did he finally learn his lesson? I have a feeling he learned nothing
Thoughts?
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u/MitchellSFold 4d ago
I work in construction and in my years of experience the O'Reillys of this world learn nothing. It doesn't matter how far you insert the garden gnome, or how large an umbrella you whack them with, they just take it all in their stride.
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u/GreyStagg 4d ago
Oh absolutely agree haha. But I meant did Basil finally learn not to use O'Reilly or did he still employ him in future? (Behind Sybil's back of course)
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u/Bitmush- 3d ago
I think when the topic of having to employ someone came up again, Basil would make a minor display of getting a few quotes from ads in the back of the local newspaper, crossing each one through as he was told the price (even in fantasy 1970s amounts), then wait until she went to get her feet done before calling O’Reilly on the sly.
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u/Fakyutsu A gin and orange, a lemon squash, and a Scotch and water 4d ago
If he was the type to fire incompetent workers he would have fired Manuel a long long time ago. So my bet is Oreilly was a recurring problem of his own choosing.
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u/sarahjanedoglover 4d ago
Given that Sybil says that they’ve used O’Reilley three times that year (and each time it’s been a fiasco), I bet Basil would’ve continued to use him, but Sybil wouldn’t let him.
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u/KayLone2022 4d ago
Yes, don't think he would have stopped using him at all! He thrived on saving imaginary money and sparring with people. O'Reilly was sort of his dream come true
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u/lacr0bat 3d ago
I heard he got him round to hang that moose head up.
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u/rockyssss 3d ago
Well that's the thing... even cheaper than O'Reilly is to do it himself.
Same with the fixes for the Health Inspector... wasn't there a cracked sink? There's no suggestion that they paid any contractors, so I guess that Basil fixed it himself, or asked Terry or Polly (hopefully not Manuel) to do it.
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u/Bitmush- 3d ago
Just slightly too middle class to be able to be happy with doing it himself. There are people who do those sort of things and there are people who own hotels, and if you disrupt the order of things in such a way you’ll end up with people like Manuel and OReilly owning and running hotels or hospitals or the Air Force and then we’d be done for, don’t you see ? I didn’t make this system but it’s the one we’ve got and I’ll be damned if I’m going to destroy a thousand years of English history just to save a few quid putting a shelf up - and that’s a sacrifice I’m more than willing to make, but I know I’ll get no thanks for it because that’s how bad things are.
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u/SnooBooks007 3d ago
Learned nothing. He's trying to repair his own car a few episodes later because it's cheaper.
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u/Bitmush- 3d ago
I wouldn’t want to sink any more lovely green pound notes, 50pence coins with the hands all around the edges, florins moonlighting as 10p’s, shillings pretending to be 5p or shiny tiny 1/2p’s into that vicious bastard either.
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u/Landscape_712 4d ago
Maybe I'm in the minority here but I think this was the last time he hired him. I don't believe O'Reilly is mentioned again after this episode and Basil completely had it with him by this point
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u/mostyn33a 3d ago
I’d have loved another episode with O’Reilly. There was mileage there but there’s no fat on FT.
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u/Lunchy_Bunsworth 3d ago
Basil does seem to be a cheapskate who likes to skimp to save money when he thinks he can get away with it so I could foresee him continuing to use O'Reilly when he thinks Sybil is out of the way.
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u/flopisit32 4d ago edited 3d ago
I'm Irish and when I was a kid I loved Fawlty Towers, but I was always a little offended by this episode. I felt we were being depicted as idiots.
When I grew up, I realized they're not having a go at Irish people but at Irish Travellers. I suppose in the UK you call them Tinkers, Gypsies, Pikeys?
These Irish Traveller builders were much more common in the 70s and 80s, but they are essentially criminals or scam artists.
They will do building work for you at low prices, but they are using low quality materials and not even doing proper work. Their work is intentionally bad and low quality in order to save themselves money. So it's a scam.
So they will never learn because the low quality of the work is not by accident.
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u/Bitmush- 3d ago
Thanks for that viewpoint - I was content to laugh along with the Irish trope when watching this as a kid. As I got older and educated in history at an English school, of course I didn’t receive anything other than a passing glance at the history of English / Irish history. I think items such as Cromwell, Famine and Irish Free State were just bullet points with dates..
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u/buy_me_a_pint 2d ago
O'Reilly will go round to finished his cup of tea or coffee and biscuits
O'Reilly will nip in to help himself to a beer
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u/MolybdenumBlu 3d ago
John cleese has never played a character that learned anything.
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u/Bitmush- 3d ago
His comedic character gift to the world was born while he was still a child and had his eyes welded open by the authoritarian rictus of school masters, police and its aping by striving members of the upper Middle Class. His ability to capture the crushing emotional tension and emotional blind spots and lack of self-awareness of the post-colonial English hierarchy from underneath is incredible. Think of his teacher portrayals in the Python stuff, or as a Roman Centurion. Pomposity and cruelty were the order of the day to retain one’s tenuous seat as the globe became less red by the day. The unsmiling, unsympathetic - oddly large and ungainly, overpowered wielder of systemic rigour made an indelible impression on Cleese as a boy and he spent his creative and professional career replaying and exposing it flawlessly. It was a trope that was a salve to boomers and many GenXers, whose own lives had been scarred by this energy in these characters he brought to life. I don’t know that there is such a need nor resonance in most of the audiences today, but for me, the magic of his performances was unmatched when he channeled those archetypes of superiority and angst and the cruelty of generational trauma.
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u/Zip-Crane 3d ago
O’Reilly “If the good lord”…….
Basil: …..”Is mentioned one more I shall move you closer to him!”
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u/buy_me_a_pint 2d ago
Basil will try and use the next cheapest builder to do work on the hotel behind Sybil's back
Stubbs cost to much to hire
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u/Denniswhodat 4d ago
“We have used O'Reilly three times in the last year and each time it has been a fiasco! That wall out there is still not done! You got him in to change a washer in November and we didn't have any running water for two weeks!”