O’Reilly’s

If the good lord meant us to worry, he would’a given us things to worry about.

It’s very rare that a programme that can make me laugh and have me on the verge of a panic attack at the same time. The eternal question: why are they still together when they clearly hate each other so much?!

I was born (in West Germany, no less. I mentioned it once, but I think I got away with it) inbetween the first and second series of Fawlty Towers, so obviously missed it first time round. What is inescapable is how it still stands up today. What’s slightly more inescapable for me personally is how much my dad looked like Basil Fawlty when I was a kid. The moustache. The cravat. Please God, no. That’s probably the 1970ses fault. What a pointless decade. Except for this. And possibly ‘A Clockwork Orange’.

The ol’ stereotype of the useless Irish builder. Again, synonymous with the 1970s. And actually significantly beyond the 1970s. Not good, was it? Ah well.

With that in mind, the visuals are sterotypically Irish with the green and font and what have you. It’s not a leprechaun, by the way. It’s a gnome. As that features heavily in the episode. I urge you to watch it.