The Kipper and the Corpse The Kipper and the Corpse "The Kipper and the Corpse" is the fourth episode of the second series of the British sitcom "Fawlty Towers". It first aired at 9.00pm on 12 March 1979 on BBC2. Distinguishing it from other episodes is its heavy use of black comedy. During the early 1970s, John Cleese met a young hotelier called Andrew Leeman. They went on holiday together to the Aegean with their girlfriends between the first and second series of "Fawlty Towers", a time when Cleese was looking for ideas for plots. During the holiday, Leeman told him how when he was
Kipper ethnographer Walter William Skeat derives the word from the Old English "kippian", to spawn. The word has various possible parallels, such as Icelandic "kippa" which means "to pull, snatch" and the Germanic word "kippen" which means "to tilt, to incline". Similarly, the Middle English "kipe" denotes a basket used to catch fish. Another theory traces the word kipper to the "kip", or small beak, that male salmon develop during the breeding season. As a verb, "kippering" ("to kipper") means to preserve by rubbing with salt or other spices before drying in the open air or in smoke. Originally applied to