Fawlty Towers – Mummy To Twins Plus One

Alexander is obsessed.

Actually obsessed is putting it mildly.

What is another word that would mean highly obsessed?

I am not sure there is one… but if there was, it would be perfect for my little boy’s insane love for the Minions.

The Minions are Alexander's favourite film and characters at the moment. — The Minions are Alexander’s favourite film and characters at the moment.

He is extremely obsessed with the Minions! More like to an insane level.

One day Alexander wanted to see the Minions movie. I got the movie and put it on for my boy. He couldn’t stop grinning and he was so happy.

Now it is the film we all must watch. A film that is on constant repeat.

He grabs the remote otherwise known as the Mot and says, “Minions Mumma, sit down Mumma!” I have now lost count of how many times I have seen this film.

A screenshot of the Minions being silly.

Due to seeing the Minions film for what feels like a million and one times, I have decided to introduce the other Despicable Me films.

Alexander was not a fan at first. The minions took too long to show up in the Despicable Me film. Mummy had to fast forward to the bits where the minions were as my little boy was screaming “Minions Mumma!”

On a recent trip to the shops, I saw all these Minions Party decorations. Thank goodness Alexander was at childcare at the time. I do think we need to organise a Minions party for him next year, well that is if he is still so obsessed!

The twins are so over the minion fascination and really don’t want to watch the film at all. This, of course, means one little boy gets so upset and has tantrums to ensure he can watch his favourite film.

Alexander is loving his little Minions figurine.

Do your kids have a film or show that they watch 100% of the time? If they don’t watch it will it cause a meltdown?

Have you tried to get your super obsessed child to watch something else? Did it end well?

Or did you end up watching your child’s favourite show due to the complaining?

The girls were super obsessed with Yo Gabba Gabba. They were fans of Muno and Foofa. So as you can imagine this show was also on constant repeat too!

To make things a little easier for me I tried to introduce some other shows to the kids.

I had Fawlty Towers available and put an episode or two. The twins loved it and kept on asking me to put on the angry man that jumps up and down. OH good, finally something else other than a kid show and cartoons.

When the twins, hubby and I went away to the Gold Coast in 2013 we were at a winery. There was a play area with an old phone. One kid was pretending to be Sybil Fawlty and the other was Basil Fawlty.

One was on the phone just saying, Oh I know. Oh, I know….. then she said… Basil! Basil!

An older lady came up to me and asked if the kids were fans of Fawlty Towers. I explained that I got sick of watching kid shows and put it on to break up the viewing and annoyance I was facing due to seeing the same shows all the time.

Fawlty Towers doesn’t have bad words, no one swears, there is just a lot of slapstick and fun. There is some innuendo but if you don’t get it, and are too young it is not that bad.

Maybe Alexander would love Fawlty Towers too? I did start the twins at an older age, so I think it might have to wait.

What show or shows are you watching on repeat currently?

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Timeless Basil Fawlty

I’m sure I am not alone, getting sick of watching the same kids programs over and over again. Not other SpongeBob Square Pants, Octonauts or Peppa Pig! Please can we watch something different? Movies are stuck on the same one currently, “The Little Mermaid” Ohhhhhhhh it is hard to keep up the enthusiasm for the same show that you have seen a million and one times! Trust me it feels like this is the amount I have sat there. Insert fake smile to child here! Of course I would love to watch Peppa Pig again, Yes after that we can have a SpongeBob Square Pants.

So I decided to see if there was an old show that I like, that would be kid appropriate. I decided on Fawlty Towers. Not sure if the kids would think it funny, but I loved it as a kid as John Cleese, Connie Booth, Prunella Scales and Andrew Sachs made the characters fun, made me laugh and love them.

Fawlty Towers for those that don’t know is about a couple that run a hotel in Torquay, England. Basil and Sybil Fawlty own and run the hotel with help from Polly and Manuel. Sybil manages to find ways to avoid work while ordering Basil around. He is a rude man that gets annoyed, angry and yells at customers of the hotel. Mr Fawlty also ends up running around in a flap trying to please the Mrs with jobs that he is supposed to have done but never gets around to, or ignores, or runs out of time due to issues with customers or the hotel.

There are many episodes where Basil loses his cool and has a temper tantrum. However it is never bad to watch, more slap stick in origin and hard to watch without laughing yourself silly and bringing tears to your eyes. Hubby and I have been in a fit of giggles that were uncontrollable and just could not stop! The show although obviously shot in the 1970’s has not lost the edge it had then, the episodes still hold up in 2013 and are just as hysterical now as they were then. Well that is my opinion.

Now you might think that this show might not be entertaining for four year olds (this was the age that I started them watching it), and now five year olds, but you are very wrong! They love it and ask repeatedly for us to put one of the episodes on, their favourite “The Wedding Party”.

While we were away we had episodes copied to our laptop for the girls to watch before bed, they giggled their heads off and so did we. Also when we were at a winery they were playing with a toy phone, and asking for Mr Fawlty. I overheard this and could not stop laughing. This has happened the local doctors, both kids were pretending they were the Fawlty’s, one was Basil and the other was Sybil. Interesting.

Now the kids ask to watch “the angry man who jumps up and down in the office” this is how they refer to Basil Fawlty. Weird how they have taken to it and glad that it now breaks up their shows with something that mummy and daddy love to watch also.

How many times do you think you have watched some of your kids shows? Is it a trillion or more? Let me know. What show from your childhood have you introduced and they love also? The girls also love “The Muppet Show” so that is great. Send in your comments.