Fawlty Towers (TV Series)

The Builders (1975)

Prunella Scales: Sybil Fawlty

Photos 

Quotes 

• Sybil Fawlty : Basil! Basil! Where are you going?

  Basil Fawlty : [Walking out of the hotel, carrying the garden gnome]  I'm going to see Mr O'Reilly, dear. Then I think I might go to Canada.

• Sybil Fawlty : [Noticing her garden gnome on the front desk]  Oh, Basil?

  Basil Fawlty : Yes, dear?

  Sybil Fawlty : What is THAT doing here?

  Basil Fawlty : It's your garden gnome, dear. Isn't it nice?

  Sybil Fawlty : Well, don't you think it would be better in the garden?

  Basil Fawlty : Yes, dear. Good idea.

  Sybil Fawlty : Oh, no-no-no, Basil. Put him back. On second thought I think I'll leave him in charge. I'm sure he's cheap and he'll certainly be better at it than you are.

• Sybil Fawlty : Do try and be agreeable this weekend, Basil. Now have I got everything?

  Basil Fawlty : Handbag, knuckle-dusters, flick-knife...

• Sybil Fawlty : [to Basil, about O'Reilly]  He's shoddy, he doesn't care, he's a liar, he's incompetent, he's lazy; he's nothing but a half-witted, thick Irish joke!

  [O'Reilly enters from the bar, having helped himself to a drink] 

  Sybil Fawlty : Ah, Mr. O'Reilly! We were just talking about you!

  Basil Fawlty : [cutting in, so as not to hurt O'Reilly's feelings]  Oh yes, we WERE talking about you... Then we changed the subject, and were talking about *another* Irish builder we used to know; God, *he* was AWFUL!

• Sybil Fawlty : [exasperated]  O'Reilly, I have seen more intelligent creatures than you lying on their backs at the bottom of ponds! I've seen better organized creatures than you running 'round farmyards with their heads cut off! Now collect your things and GET OUT!

  [Strikes O'Riley on his rear with her umbrella, prompting him into crawling away from her] 

  Sybil Fawlty : I never want to see you or any of your men in my hotel again!

• Sybil Fawlty : Good morning, Major.

  Major Gowen : Very well, thank you.

• Sybil Fawlty : And you're going to wear that jacket, are you?

  Basil Fawlty : Yes, I am, thank you, dear, yes.

  Sybil Fawlty : You just haven't a clue, have you?

  Basil Fawlty : You wouldn't understand, dear. It's called style.

• Sybil Fawlty : I am going to make you regret this for the rest of your life, Basil.

  Basil Fawlty : Well, fair enough, I suppose, but I think Stubbs is partly to blame...

  Sybil Fawlty : Basil!

  Basil Fawlty : Yes, dear?

  Sybil Fawlty : Don't you dare! Don't you dare give me any more of those pathetic lies!

  Basil Fawlty : Oh, right.

  Sybil Fawlty : What do you take me for? Did you really think that I would believe that this shambles is the work of professional builders? I mean, people who do it for a living?

  Basil Fawlty : No, no, not really, no.

  Sybil Fawlty : Why did I trust you, Basil? Why did I let you make the arrangements? I could have seen what was going to happen. Why did I do it?

  Basil Fawlty : Well, we all make mistakes, dear.

  [Sybil hits Basil] 

  Sybil Fawlty : I'm sick to death of you! You never learn, do you? You never, ever learn!

  [Sybil throws an object across the room] 

  Sybil Fawlty : 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!

  Basil Fawlty : Well, he's not really a plumber, dear.

  Sybil Fawlty : Well, then why did you hire him? Because he's cheap.

  Basil Fawlty : Oh, I wouldn't call him cheap, Sybil.

  Sybil Fawlty : Well, what would you call him, then?

  Basil Fawlty : Well, cheapish, but I mean...

  Sybil Fawlty : And the reason he's cheapish is he's no bloody good!

  [Sybil kicks Basil] 

  Basil Fawlty : Oh, Sybil, you do exaggerate. He's not brilliant.

  Sybil Fawlty : Not brilliant? He belongs in a zoo!

  [Sybil kicks Basil again] 

• Sybil Fawlty : [smiling]  You think I'm joking, don't you?

  Basil Fawlty : Oh, don't smile.

  Sybil Fawlty : Why are you smiling, Mr. O'Reilly?

  O'Reilly : Well, to be perfectly honest, Mrs. Fawlty, I like a woman with spirit.

  Sybil Fawlty : Oh, do you? Is that what you like?

  O'Reilly : I do. I do.

  Sybil Fawlty : Oh, good.

  [Sybil picks up an umbrella] 

  Basil Fawlty : Now, Sybil, that's enough.

  [Sybil hits Basil with the umbrella] 

  Sybil Fawlty : [while hitting O'Reilly repeatedly with the umbrella]  Come on, then. Give us a smile.