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The Hotel Inspectors
| "The Hotel Inspectors" | |
|---|---|
| Fawlty Towers episode | |
| Episode no. | Series 1 Episode 4 |
| Directed by | John Howard Davies |
| Written by | |
| Editing by | Peter Kindred |
| Original air date | 10 October 1975 |
| Running time | 35 minutes |
| Guest appearances | |
| |
"The Hotel Inspectors" is the fourth episode of the BBC sitcom Fawlty Towers.
In the episode, Basil hears of hotel inspectors roaming Torquay incognito and realises with horror that a guest he has been verbally abusing could easily be one of them.
The episode appears to have drawn some inspiration from Nikolai Gogol's similarly themed The Government Inspector.[1]
Plot
Two guests, Mr. Walt and Mr. Hutchinson, arrive separately at reception. Mr. Walt says very little, whereas Mr. Hutchinson speaks in a very drawn-out and pompous, overly affected manner that immediately irritates Basil. Basil becomes increasingly irate as Hutchinson makes many awkward requests and asks for specific directions to a meeting. While Basil draws Hutchinson a map containing an abbreviation of Post Office ("P. Off"), Mr. Walt misinterprets a comment from Basil; Walt thinks he himself is being told to "P-off". Basil also produces picture cards for Manuel to understand what he is saying. After Sybil finishes her telephone conversation, she informs Basil that a friend of Audrey's discovered the presence of three hotel inspectors in town. This information raises Basil's blood pressure several notches; determined to work out who the inspectors are, he realises with horror that any of the guests he has been monstering could be one of them.
While Mr. Hutchinson is requesting to reserve the television to watch a documentary he is interested in, he says something which makes Basil's hair stand on end: "In my professional activities I am in constant contact with hotels." This — combined with Hutchinson's neediness, his suggestions on how the hotel could be improved, and his overinflated style of speaking — convinces Basil that Hutchinson is actually an inspector; he changes his attitude towards Hutchinson, instead treating him like a VIP. He escorts him to the dining room, where lunch is about to be served. Basil ends up overlooking Mr. Walt, who is forced to wait after his bottle of Aloxe-Corton wine[2] proves to be corked (just after Basil is forced to dig out the bad cork so he can serve the wine), even though Hutchinson is taking a phone call. Sybil quietly reveals to Basil that she overhead Mr. Hutchinson's conversation and he is, in fact, a cutlery salesman. Feeling conned, Basil swears revenge on Hutchinson. However, Basil's relief is short-lived when, during a conversation with Basil, Mr. Walt casually mentions that he is in Torquay "on business with two colleagues." This convinces Basil that Walt is actually the inspector. In order to avoid making a bad impression on Walt, Basil tries to pacify Hutchinson, who is annoyed because several instances of table-switching has caused confusion in the kitchen and led to Hutchinson being served several dishes he did not order. To stifle Hutchinson's complaining, Basil gags him and then subtly punches him, rendering him unconscious.
Hutchinson regains consciousness and starts punching Basil at the reception desk, who accepts it without retaliation since they are in Mr. Walt's presence. Hutchinson storms off to gather his things, declaring that he does not expect to receive a bill. Walt is flabbergasted, especially when Basil tries to bribe him against mentioning this recent chain of events when he reviews the hotel. Basil immediately goes into hysterics, realising how much he has just risked the hotel's reputation. Mr. Walt reveals he is actually an outboard motors salesman and consoles Basil. Thinking he is in the clear, Basil thanks Walt and then runs to the kitchen with Manuel, who stops Mr. Hutchinson from leaving just long enough so that Basil can "say adios." Basil then slaps pies on Mr. Hutchinson's face and crotch, while Manuel pours cream into his briefcase. Hutchinson is marched to the door and forcibly ejected from the hotel by a vengeful Basil, who kisses Manuel on the head for his help. Returning to the reception desk, Basil welcomes John, Brian and Chris — three smartly-dressed businessmen who have just witnessed the assault on Hutchinson — to Fawlty Towers. He screams in terror when it becomes clear that they are the hotel inspectors.[3]
Cast
Main
- John Cleese as Basil Fawlty
- Prunella Scales as Sybil Fawlty
- Andrew Sachs as Manuel
- Connie Booth as Polly Sherman
- Ballard Berkeley as Major Gowen
- Gilly Flower as Miss Abitha Tibbs
- Renee Roberts as Miss Ursula Gatsby
Guest
- Bernard Cribbins as Mr Hutchinson
- James Cossins as Mr Walt
- Peter Brett as Brian, the hotel inspector
- Geoffrey Morris as John, the hotel inspector
- Alexander Lewis as Chris, the hotel inspector (uncredited)
Production
Interior scenes for this episode were recorded on 27 August 1975, in Studio TC8 of the BBC Television Centre, before a live audience.[4]
Co-writer John Cleese claimed that, in this episode, the viewer "really see[s] what an awful man Basil is".[5] Cleese explained: "[This is] because he has no interest at all in other human beings as human beings."[5] In being "painfully aware" that he must have a successful hotel recommendation, yet not knowing who the hotel inspector may be, this "really created an opportunity for the character to switch from one way of addressing a guest to another and back again without any kind of consistency".[5]
Home media releases
In 1979, an LP record containing the episodes "Communication Problems" (retitled "Mrs Richards" on the release) and "The Hotel Inspectors" was released by BBC Records. Titled Fawlty Towers, the LP was the first record released by the BBC. Producer and director John Howard Davies had spent six months persuading the BBC to release audio versions of the series. At first, the BBC believed that it was a "very bad idea" and that the record would not sell. Eventually, the BBC decided to produce the record, hiring John Lloyd as the record's producer. Davies wrote the sleeve notes and Andrew Sachs wrote and performed linking narration for the episodes, in character as Manuel. Upon release, the record earned a profit of £100,000 and, according to authors Morris Bright and Robert Ross, "remains something of a collector's item".[6][7]
in 1981, We Are Most Amused, a compilation LP record containing classic comedy moments, was released to raise money for the Prince's Trust. The record featured a brief scene from "The Hotel Inspectors".[6]
Trivia
- "Bill Morton", whose friend overheard the hotel inspectors in a bar, was named after the vision mixer for the series; he is the only member of the crew mentioned in the series.
- Mr. Hutchinson asks if the hotel has a table tennis table, to which Basil replies, “Indeed we do. It is not ... in absolutely mint condition. But it certainly could be used in an emergency”. John Cleese has stated this is among his favourite lines in the entire series.
- The scene in which the wine is 'corked' involved improvisation on the actors' parts. John Cleese and James Cossins were unaware of which way the wine would go, if at all. Loosely scripted dialogue was therefore at hand.
- A merger between the plot of this episode and the plot of "Gourmet Night" was the basis for the pilot episode of Payne, a 1999 American remake of Fawlty Towers.
- This episode, along with "The Germans" and "Communication Problems", was adapted into a stage play by John Cleese and director Caroline Jay Ranger.[8] Titled Fawlty Towers Live, the stage play went on tour in Australia in 2016.[8] The three episodes's plot were merged into one storyline.[8] In 2024, the play, retitled Fawlty Towers: The Play, made its debut in the West End.[9]
Reception
Bernard Cribbins's performance as Mr Hutchinson has been praised as being one of the greatest guest performances in the series.[10] Morris Bright and Robert Ross praised Cribbins's performance, writing that "his insistence on every imaginable extra, his yearning for a particular 'televisual feast' and his complaints about shoddy treatment in the dining room, provide some of the best moments in the series".[11] Bright and Ross believe that Cribbins's performance as Mr Hutchinson is the actor's "best remembered small-screen character".[12]
External links
References
- ^ wimbornedrama.co.uk
- ^ Gilberti, Ben (26 June 2002). "Waiter, There's Cork in My Wine". The Washington Post.
- ^ Bright & Ross 2001, p. 150–153.
- ^ Kempton, Martin. "An unreliable and wholly unofficial history of BBC Television Centre..." An incomplete history of London's television studios. Retrieved 17 December 2014.
- ^ a b c Bright & Ross 2001, p. 150.
- ^ a b Bright & Ross 2001, p. 44.
- ^ Bright & Ross 2001, p. 192.
- ^ a b c Tongue, Cassie (21 August 2016). "Fawlty Towers Live review – a fun but pointless adaptation from screen to stage". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 16 July 2024. Retrieved 29 August 2024.
- ^ McIntosh, Steven (2 February 2024). "Fawlty Towers stage show heads to London's West End". BBC. Archived from the original on 17 July 2024. Retrieved 29 August 2024.
- ^ "Fawlty Towers". BBC. 28 October 2014. Archived from the original on 15 January 2024. Retrieved 20 July 2024.
- ^ Bright & Ross 2001, p. 113–114.
- ^ Bright & Ross 2001, p. 113.