9.2/1016 votes#1 - Communication Problems
Season 2 Episode 1 - Aired 2/19/1979
A selectively deaf woman named Mrs Richards insists that she has had a large amount of money stolen at the hotel, and against Sybil's wishes Basil puts a fiver on Dragonfly.
Director: Bob Spiers
Writer: Connie Booth
9.2/1017 votes#2 - Basil the Rat
Season 2 Episode 6 - Aired 10/25/1979
The health inspector is coming and Basil tells Manuel to get rid of his pet rat, which he later finds out is named Basil.
Director: Bob Spiers
Writer: Connie Booth
9.1/1017 votes#3 - The Psychiatrist
Season 2 Episode 2 - Aired 2/26/1979
A psychiatrist and his wife come to stay and Basil thinks Sybil is telling them all about his life.
Director: Bob Spiers
Writer: Connie Booth
8.9/1016 votes#4 - The Kipper and the Corpse
Season 2 Episode 4 - Aired 3/12/1979
Unknown to Basil, a guest dies in the night and he tries to serve him breakfast anyway and an obnoxious woman insists on service for her dog.
Director: Bob Spiers
Writer: Connie Booth
8.5/102 votes#5 - The End
Season 3 Episode 6 - Aired 5/11/1995
Edina joins a New Age commune, but she struggles to fit in and quickly becomes bored. Patsy finds herself disillusioned with her new job in New York due to creative differences with her co-workers. Saffron settles into university life and Mother spends her days at the Monsoon house, drinking champagne and ordering items from the shopping channel. After realising that their lives are not the same without each other, Edina and Patsy happily reunite on top of Carnegie Hall Tower before returning to London. Back home, Mother has been arrested for squatting and credit card fraud. A flashforward to 25 years into the future provides a glimpse into the lives of Edina, Patsy, Saffron and Mother.
Director: Bob Spiers
Writer: N/A
8.2/1017 votes#6 - Waldorf Salad
Season 2 Episode 3 - Aired 3/5/1979
An American and his wife get unsatisfactory service at Fawlty Towers when he orders a Waldorf salad, after the kitchen has closed.
Director: Bob Spiers
Writer: Connie Booth
8.0/102 votes#7 - Finger
Season 3 Episode 5 - Aired 2/3/1995
After coming home from a cricket match, Richie learns Eddie has stolen 'Cannonball' Taffy O' Jones car keys and they learn 'Cannonball' Taffy O' Jones is getting married to a woman who looks like Ted Rogers. Richie and Eddie steals the car and end up at a hotel where they pretend to a husband and wife.
Director: Bob Spiers
Writer: Rik Mayall
7.8/1017 votes#8 - The Anniversary
Season 2 Episode 5 - Aired 3/26/1979
Sybil leaves before Basil's surprise anniversary party and Basil spends the evening trying to convince their friends she's ill.
Director: Bob Spiers
Writer: Connie Booth
7.7/103 votes#9 - Terror
Season 3 Episode 2 - Aired 1/13/1995
It is Halloween. After loosing the "Spot the Balls" competition and visited by trick or treaters. Richie and Eddie decides to put on their own Halloween party. Where they go off trick or treating, Richie is dressed up as a devil and Eddie is dressed up as a banana, armed with a electric cattle prod, they go to get some money for beer. When Richie and Eddie invite Spudgun and Hedgehog, Richie decides to raise the Devil, so he can have sex with girls in exchange for his soul. But the Devil arrives in the form of Dave Hedgehog's daughter Doreen.
Director: Bob Spiers
Writer: Rik Mayall
7.5/102 votes#10 - Break
Season 3 Episode 3 - Aired 1/20/1995
Richie and Eddie are going on holiday in Doncaster and they begin to plan what they are going to do and what they are going to take with them.
Director: Bob Spiers
Writer: Rik Mayall
7.5/102 votes#11 - Dough
Season 3 Episode 4 - Aired 1/27/1995
Eddie has been spending a lot of time in his room and Richie finds that he has been printing fake money. Unfortunately local counterfeiter "The Skullcrusher" is not amused and demands money. Luckily the pub quiz night could be their salvation.
Director: Bob Spiers
Writer: Rik Mayall
7.5/102 votes#12 - Carnival
Season 3 Episode 6 - Aired 2/10/1995
It is the annual Hammersmith carnival where the local residents take part in riots and Richie and Eddie find watching the Carnival from their flat window is the best seats to watch the riots. After going looting, Eddie learns Richie has stolen a BBC camera and they decide to record a prime-time current affairs discussion program and hilarious accidents so they can make money Unaware the video tape is a dirty video of Prime Mininster Tony Blair.
Director: Bob Spiers
Writer: Rik Mayall
7.5/104 votes#13 - Sex
Season 3 Episode 3 - Aired 4/20/1995
Patsy convinces Edina to hire two male prostitutes (through Edina's hairdresser Christopher) for an orgy on the night of Saffron's university presentation. However, Edina is unable to loosen up, and the prostitutes are not particularly enthused, either. Patsy attempts to enliven the mood by playing a video of an orgy she and Edina attended in their youth, only to find that it has been accidentally switched with a tape of Saffron's school project. Fearing the worst, Edina and Patsy accompanied by Mother, Christopher and his drag-queen boyfriend rush over to the university, though not soon enough to prevent a mortified Saffron and her classmates from watching the orgy tape, which shows couples having sex while Edina is asleep.
Director: Bob Spiers
Writer: N/A
7.3/103 votes#14 - Parralox
Season 4 Episode 1 - Aired 8/31/2001
Edina, who now runs a television production company, is slated to make a guest appearance with client Twiggy on Richard and Judy's morning television show. Patsy has been injecting her face with Parralox, a Botox-like substance, in order to freeze her wrinkles. Edina is persuaded by Patsy to try Parralox as well, but she awakens the next morning with a paralysed face. In addition to costing Saffron a government job, Edina is replaced by Katy Grin, her new business partner and Bubble's cousin, for the television appearance.
Director: Bob Spiers
Writer: N/A
7.3/103 votes#15 - Paris
Season 4 Episode 3 - Aired 9/14/2001
Patsy is excited to be joining young supermodel Erin O'Connor for a magazine photo shoot in Paris. Edina and a reluctant Saffron come along for a mother–daughter fashion spread. After learning that other models from her generation will also appear in the shoot, Patsy becomes competitive and constantly ignores the photographer's directions, much to his annoyance. Meanwhile, Edina and Saffron spend an unusually pleasant day together in Paris, going shopping and dining at upscale restaurants. Edina later encourages Saffron to flash her breasts from the top of the Eiffel Tower. However, Edina's ulterior motive is revealed when a photographer appears unexpectedly and takes a topless picture of Saffron for a magazine.
Director: Bob Spiers
Writer: N/A
7.0/102 votes#16 - Hole
Season 3 Episode 1 - Aired 1/6/1995
Richie and Eddie are stranded on the big wheel at the fairground. It gets worse - the wheel is due to be demolished the next day!
Director: Bob Spiers
Writer: Rik Mayall
7.0/102 votes#17 - Magazine
Season 1 Episode 6 - Aired 12/17/1992
Patsy, who is temporarily staying with the Monsoons, becomes jealous when Edina reconnects with an old boyfriend. During one of her sporadic appearances at work, Patsy is assigned to host a fashion makeover segment on a morning television show. After clashing with the models, Patsy attempts to persuade Saffron and Mother to appear on the show in their place, telling a tale of her emotionally distant mother. Saffron agrees, on the condition that Patsy moves out of the house and does not interfere with Edina's relationship. Patsy's television appearance turns disastrous as she suddenly becomes nervous. After Patsy convinces Edina to break up with her boyfriend, Saffron lashes out at Patsy for not upholding her end of the deal.
Director: Bob Spiers
Writer: N/A
7.0/101 votes#18 - Death
Season 2 Episode 2 - Aired 2/3/1994
When Edina's father dies, a grief-stricken Saffron is horrified by her mother's apathy. However, once she realises her own mortality, Edina decides to buy expensive artwork, which she plans to leave behind when she dies. Marshall stops by with his new grief-counsellor girlfriend, Sondra, who panics upon discovering that the corpse is to be placed in Edina's living room for the wake. Despite being banned by Saffron from attending the funeral, Edina shows up anyway, taking Patsy along. At the cemetery, Edina stumbles drunkenly into her father's grave and Patsy falls into another open grave nearby. No one offers to help as the two struggle to climb out.
Director: Bob Spiers
Writer: N/A
7.0/103 votes#19 - Door Handle
Season 3 Episode 1 - Aired 3/30/1995
Saffron grows impatient with Edina's unwillingness to have their kitchen remodelled after Patsy accidentally burnt it down. Edina's obsession with finding a particular door handle for the kitchen leads her and Patsy to New York City. After a shopping spree, Patsy persuades Edina to have her navel pierced. Edina finally finds and photographs the door handle at the Four Seasons Hotel. Upon returning home, Edina not only fails to notice that Saffron has had the kitchen refurbished in her absence, but learns that she has forgotten her daughter's birthday.
Director: Bob Spiers
Writer: N/A
7.0/104 votes#20 - Happy New Year
Season 3 Episode 2 - Aired 4/6/1995
As Edina and Patsy prepare to attend an underground rave on New Year's Eve, they receive an unexpected visit from Patsy's long-lost older sister Jackie. Patsy insists on taking Jackie along to the party, much to Edina's dismay. However, Patsy is disappointed to learn that Jackie is no longer the jet-setting, drug-addled party animal she used to be. Now homeless, Jackie asks Patsy if she could stay with Edina until she can raise money to open a shelter for stray cats and dogs. After helping Jackie loot Edina's bedroom for valuables she can sell to raise money, Patsy throws her out of the house, but it is too late to go the party a frustrated Edina has fallen asleep in the sitting room, surrounded by her family as the clock strikes midnight.
Director: Bob Spiers
Writer: N/A
7.0/102 votes#21 - All We Gotta Do
Season 4 Episode 1 - Aired 2/12/1995
Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie welcome John Bird and Jane Booker to their sketch show. Featuring Hugh's protest song 'All We Gotta Do'.
Director: Bob Spiers
Writer: Stephen Fry
- 7.0/102 votes
#22 - Barman
Season 4 Episode 3 - Aired 2/26/1995
A man confides in a barman about the state of his marriage, while contestants try to keep it clean on game show parody 'Don't Be Dirty'.
Director: Bob Spiers
Writer: N/A
- 7.0/101 votes
#23 - Soccer School
Season 4 Episode 4 - Aired 3/5/1995
Stephen and Hugh rap, and wash their hair.
Director: Bob Spiers
Writer: N/A
- 7.0/102 votes
#24 - Tribunal
Season 4 Episode 5 - Aired 3/19/1995
A dilemma with a wasp’s nest and a parody of the Oprah Winfrey show that resounds with pointless applause.
Director: Bob Spiers
Writer: Stephen Fry
6.7/103 votes#25 - Jealous
Season 3 Episode 4 - Aired 4/27/1995
Edina becomes frustrated when she loses a prestigious PR award to rival Claudia Bing, despite having bribed the judges. Worried about her dwindling career, Edina works on a campaign in hopes of upstaging Claudia. Meanwhile, Saffron becomes romantically involved with Gerard, her psychology lecturer, until she discovers that he is married with children. In a rare occurrence, Edina comes to Saffron's aid by punching Gerard in the face. At an industry luncheon, Edina's speech is stolen, prompting a drunken rant against the bastardisation of the PR industry, which proves a success. When Edina and Patsy attempt to retrieve the speech, the duo awaken the next morning on a trash barge headed for Ostend.
Director: Bob Spiers
Writer: N/A
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Bob Spiers Ratings Summary
"Communication Problems" is the best rated episode directed by Bob Spiers. It scored 9.2/10 based on 16 votes. It was written by Connie Booth. It aired on 2/19/1979 and is rated 0.0 points higher than their second-best episode, "Basil the Rat".