Miss Tibbs and Miss Gatsby

Miss Abitha Tibbs and Miss Ursula Gatsby are fictional characters, played by Gilly Flower and Renee Roberts respectively, in the BBC television sitcom Fawlty Towers.

Miss Tibbs and Miss Gatsby are two mostly inseparable and slightly scatty elderly spinsters who are permanent residents of Fawlty Towers (the only other long-term guest being Major Gowen). Basil Fawlty switches from being overly kind to being utterly rude during his various conversations with them, although they rarely understand his sarcasm. They are depicted as being "on the edge of their eighties".^[1]

The two ladies appear in every episode of the series, though are uncredited in "A Touch of Class" (the pilot). They seldom have main roles in the plot, usually being background characters adding to the atmosphere. Miss Tibbs plays a larger role in the episode "The Kipper and the Corpse", the only time she is seen away from Miss Gatsby, where she is repeatedly startled by a guest's corpse, which Basil, Manuel and Polly are desperately trying to keep hidden from guests until the undertaker arrives. Her unfortunate encounters with the deceased include being knocked unconscious by Polly, being locked in a cupboard with Leeman and fainting in horror after stumbling across the body in the hotel office. In that episode it is revealed that Tibbs is 79.

External links

• Towers/ BBC web site

References

1. McCann, p. 161.

• Bayha, Marlies (2009). Extras und Co- Die Faszination der Groteske: Eine Untersuchung der komödiantischen Sch(m)erzgrenze in der britischen Fernsehserie. GRIN Verlag. p. 20. ISBN 3-640-43074-3.
• Foster, Paul (19 September 1975). "The war of the channel chuckles". Evening Times. p. 8.
• McCann, Graham (2007). Fawlty Towers: The Story of the Sitcom. London: Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 0-340-89811-9.
• Ross, Robert (1999). Monty Python encyclopedia. TV Books. pp. 63, 70. ISBN 1-57500-036-9.
• Slide, Anthony (1996). Some Joe you don't know: an American biographical guide to 100 British television personalities. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 21. ISBN 0-313-29550-6.
• Terrace, Vincent (1985). Encyclopedia of Television Series, Pilots and Specials: 1974-1984. VNR AG. p. 141. ISBN 0-918432-61-8.
• Grewe, Alexander. "I'm sick to death with you..." or External Character Conflicts in Fawlty Towers. grin.com. doi:10.3239/9783638428859. ISBN 978-3-638-42885-9.