Built Like a Swiss Watch vs Run Like a Party

Watching first Fawlty Towers and then Absolutely Fabulous was fascinating. On the surface, they’re both pretty similar. Bold, farcical situations; big characters; lots of physical comedy; you can feel the performers feeding off the energy of the live studio audience. But the approach couldn’t be more different.

“Farcical situations” is the key here. Yes, episodes of Ab Fab include ludicrous moments where Eddie and Patsy are locked in a panic room, or the entire kitchen catches on fire. But the episodes build up slowly to these moments and then subside. Fawlty Towers is intricately structured. It’s not surprising (especially when you read the scripts) that John Cleese and Connie Booth spent up to two months writing each one, and that most of that time was spent working out what happened, not coming up with one liners.

Jennifer Saunders also worked incredibly hard on the scripts of Absolutely Fabulous, but whereas actors in Fawlty Towers just had to execute the clockwork precision required (those scripts ran to almost double the usual page count), the problem for Saunders’s co-stars was that every rehearsal day brought new revisions to the point where the actors stopped learning the lines, knowing they would all be changed.

And that’s the key to understanding the different engines which make each one tick. Both are rooted in character. That’s key to all good writing. Given a particular problem to solve – Basil, Polly, Sybil and Manuel will all find different approaches and it’s often when those approaches clash that the comic motor of the episode starts to rev up.

That’s also true of Absolutely Fabulous, but whereas Basil and Sybil can spend a minute-and-a-half sniping at each other as we meet this week’s guest star (pun intended), and then we get anxious for the chaos to begin, in Absolutely Fabulous, it’s quite common for seven or eight minutes to tick by while no plot develops, except the friction between the regulars.

That doesn’t mean that Ab Fab characters don’t have desires, want to better themselves, have problems that need solving or get into tight scrapes. It does mean that those characters don’t need to be fighting for survival in order to be interesting. And I’m keen to put it that way round. Because the alternative framing seems more obvious: Fawlty Towers has rich characters, endless zingers and satisfyingly complicated plots; Absolutely Fabulous is the same but with only a third of the plot material.

But the truth is you have to have really deep, meaningful relationships, rooted in something more than the urgent need to hide money, erect a moose head or put on a gourmet night. You need true feeling for character in the writing, delivered by world class comedy performers. I love both shows, but being able to sustain our interest for ten minutes without a plot is a genuine achievement.

To learn more about Absolutely Fabulous, how it came to be, and what an American comedian might make of seeing it for the first time, check out the latest episode of All British Comedy Explained, available wherever you get your podcasts.