When the Major says this Basil wonders (I assume) if he meant the country, but then the Major adds, “…at the Oval!” which I assume is a theatre? So is India a film? I checked Wikipedia and couldn’t find any. What ‘India’ was the Major referring to?
Cricket match. The Oval is a cricket pitch.
Shoulda checked Wikipedia for The Oval. 
Well, the greatest sitcom episode of any show ever just got better for me…
Thanks for asking that. I’ve heard the line countless times and always wondered as well.
Soooooo just to clarify he meant he took the lady to see, what, the Indian national cricket team play there? Referring to them as just ‘India’ like that just sounds odd. Of course here in America aside from the occasional Olympics (and Canadian) we never see any foreign sports teams…
It’s how we always refer to foreign sports teams. Football, cricket, rugby, whatever. Never occurred to me anyone would think it sounded odd, but hey ho.
So, if you see a headline like “England collapses before tea”, it probably doesn’t refer to the national economy, but to the English batsmen being all out before the afternoon tea break at an international test cricket match.
In related news, Australia just beat New Zealand at the Gabba.
Agreed. I can’t watch that without becoming a quivering tear streaked mess.
I bought the DVD and played that episode at Christmas a few years ago and my relatives were all in hysterics.
That’s all well and good, but whatever you do…
Don’t mention the war
In one way it is a shame that this is such a funny episode because it features the most puerile plot device Cleese ever used. Without the moose head falling on Fawlty much of what follows is impossibly out of character.
I don’t know. These days, the collapse of the entire UK economy before about 4pm does seem quite plausible.
All of which is just my excuse for getting into this thread so that I can assert once again that “The Germans” is not in fact the best episode of Fawlty Towers. The best episode is “Communication Problems”, the one with the scene about what the old lady expected to see out of a Torquay hotel bedroom window.
It’s better than referring to them as Wogs…
Sorry?
“She kept calling them n******. I told her that the West Indians are n******. These are Wogs.”
That is a damn good line. “Well may I ask what you expected to see out of a Torquay hotel bedroom window? Sydney Opera House perhaps? The Hanging Gardens of Babylon? Herds of wildebeest sweeping majestically across the plain?”
Not quite “Yes you did - you invaded Poland!” but it’s close.
Both great eps, IMO. The scene when the old lady is trying to find out Fawlty’s name from Manuel is classic “Who’s on first?” material.
Reason I asked is because my PBS station happened to show that episode last night, and I was glad that they didn’t give in to political correctness bullshit and left the above lines unedited…
The ground in questionis in South London. It traditionally hosts the last International Match of the season, and getting tickets for that is quite difficult.
The scene where Basil and (inadvertently) Sybil are miming a conversation to make Mrs. Richards think her hearing aid isn’t working–and then shouting into it–is possibly the funniest single bit in the series, but “The Germans” is still the funniest whole episode, IMO.