Fawlty Towers/Hotel Inspectors

Hotel Inspectors
Season 1, Episode 4
Airdate	October 10, 1975
Production Number	—
Written by	John Cleese & Connie Booth
Directed by	John Howard Davies
← 1x03 The Wedding Party	1x05 → Gourmet Night
Fawlty Towers — Season One

Hotel Inspectors is the fourth episode of the first season of Fawlty Towers, and the fourth episode overall.

Guest Stars: Bernard Cribbins (Mr Hutchinson), James Cossins (Mr Walt), Ballard Berkeley (Major Gowen), Gilly Flower (Miss Tibbs), Renee Roberts (Miss Gatsby), Geoffrey Morris (John), Peter Brett (Brian)

Plot Overview

Sybil is gossiping on the phone with Audrey, which leaves Basil to attend to Mr. Hutchinson, a pretentious, high-maintenance guest. Hutchinson orders a taxi, but he refuses to use the telephone, and he demands Basil draw him a map rather than give him directions. A second guest, Mr. Walt, arrives, and Sybil checks him in.

Basil snaps at Sybil for not helping him with the guests. She says she learned from Audrey there are three hotel inspectors in town, so Basil should be more polite to guests. Basil tries to call Hutchinson a taxi, but Hutchinson interrupts him with a new request for a reserved TV set. Basil at first dismisses him, but when Hutchinson claims to have "wide experience" with hotels, Basil assumes Hutchinson is the hotel inspector. In an instant, his attitude towards Hutchinson switches from rude to overly polite.

At lunch, Hutchinson at first orders a Spanish omelet, but when he learns the peas are frozen, not fresh, he changes his order to a cheese salad. Hutchinson leaves to take a phone call, and Basil leaves to fetch Hutchinson's drink. While they are gone, Walt arrives. Manuel misunderstands his request and seats him at the wrong table, but when he learns which room Walt is in, Manuel moves him to a new table—the one where Hutchinson had been sitting. When Basil returns to find Walt sitting there, he moves Walt again. Walt orders a bottle of wine, but Basil struggles to uncork the bottle. When he believes he has, no wine comes out. He tries again to uncork it, but this time, only a few drops come out. Once again, Basil struggles, and again, only a trickle comes out, until Basil tilts the bottle further, and the wine gushes out onto Walt's table and magazine. Walt says the wine is corked and orders a new bottle to Basil's annoyance.

Sybil pulls Basil aside to say she overheard Hutchinson's phone conversation and has learned he is in the spoon business, not a hotel inspector. Basil is outraged by the perceived deception and ignores Sybil's demands that he be civil. When Polly brings Hutchinson a Spanish omelet, Hutchinson complains until Sybil intervenes. Sybil's second order for Hutchinson, however, is also wrong. Meanwhile, Basil goes back to opening Walt's wine, but he finds the second bottle gone, and Manuel says he took it away. Basil opens a third bottle, only to find the second bottle already opened and sitting on Walt's table. Walt says Manuel opened his wine for him, so Basil stabs Manuel with the corkscrew.

Polly brings a third order to Hutchinson, which is also wrong. Hutchinson loudly complains, and Basil tells him to shut up. When Hutchinson takes umbrage, Basil claims he was talking to Polly although he was looking at Hutchinson. This sets off a farcical exchange in which Polly and Basil look at Hutchinson when they are addressing each other, and each other when they are addressing Hutchinson. After several seconds, Hutchinson is too confused to argue.

Basil tries to discuss wine with Walt but makes a fool of himself. When Walt says he is in town on business with two colleagues, Basil assumes him to be the hotel inspector. When Hutchinson receives a fourth incorrect order, he makes a scene right next to Walt. Basil stifles Hutchinson but pretends nothing is wrong. At last, he smacks Hutchinson on the back of the head hard enough to knock him out, and Hutchinson falls face forward into his lunch. In the lobby, Walt is present when Hutchinson comes to. Hutchinson beats Basil down, decries the shoddy service at Fawlty Towers and declares he is checking out.

Basil tries to laugh off the exchange with Hutchinson to Walt, but when Walt turns down Basil's offer of a free dinner, Basil tries to bribe him not to "put this in the book." The confused Walt tells the panicking Basil he sells outboard motors and is not a hotel inspector. Realizing he is off the hook, Basil leaves to get revenge on Hutchinson. As three new guests enter the lobby, Manuel catches Hutchinson on his way out the front door. Basil and Manuel send Hutchinson off with a pie in the face, another in the crotch and cream in his briefcase. Basil starts to attend to the new guests, but he screams in terror when he realizes the significance of there being three of them.

Notes

The Sign

"FAW TY TO ER," and the Y is drooping.

Timeline

• Basil is trying to draw a map for Mr. Hutchinson, but he cannot find a pen. Sybil says she put them in a drawer. Basil complains, "Well, I'm sorry I didn't guess that you'd suddenly done that after twelve years, dear. Later, when Basil assumes Mr. Walt is a hotel inspector and begs him not to write up Basil's fight with Mr. Hutchinson, Basil says, "It's taken us twelve years to build this place up." These two comments give us a timeline for how long Basil and Sybil have owned Fawlty Towers. Comments in later episodes (2x03 - Waldorf Salad and 2x05 - The Anniversary) will suggest Basil married Sybil at roughly the same time. This is the only reference in the first season as to how long after these events Season One takes place, and also the only indication as to how much time will have passed between the first season and the second.

Arc Advancement

Referbacks

• 1x01 - A Touch of Class: Manuel and Basil force Mr. Walt to change tables twice between them. The motif of moving guests from table to table during mealtime first appeared in that episode.

• 1x02 - The Builders: Sybil is gossiping on the phone with Audrey, who is frequently referenced in the series, but was first mentioned by name in that episode. She is only seen once, in 2x05 - The Anniversary. That episode also marked the first time Basil used his hurt leg as an excuse. In this episode, angered by his treatment, Mr. Hutchinson starts a fistfight with Basil at the front desk. Afterwards, he orders that Basil "stand up like a man," but Basil refuses, blaming a "bit of trouble with the old leg."

Trivia

The Show

• Polly's Last Name: Basil introduces Mr. Hutchinson to his maid, "Polly Sherman." This is the first use of Polly's last name in the series.

• Fawlty Cat: When Mr. Walt says he talked to Manuel, Basil responds Manuel is "hopeless," and Walt "might as well ask the cat." This is the first reference to the Fawltys owning a cat. They do, in fact, and it will play a pivotal role in 2x06 - Basil the Rat.

• "I'm So Sorry, He's from Barcelona": At lunch, Basil attempts to explain Manuel's nervous behavior to Mr. Walt with this line. This is the first time Basil uses this explanation, but it will become so common throughout the course of the series as to be a catchphrase for Basil.

Behind the Scenes

• Donald Sinclair: Early in the episode, Mr. Hutchinson tells Basil he "shall require your aid in getting for me some sort of transport, some hired vehicle, that is, to get me to my first port of call," which Basil surmises is a request for a taxi. When Hutchinson confirms this, Basil makes a snarky remark. Later, Hutchinson's first lunch order is a Spanish omelet. In their stay at the Gleneagles which gave John Cleese and Connie Booth the inspiration for the series, Donald Sinclair, the real-life Basil Fawlty, argued with Cleese when he requested that Sinclair hire a taxi. (See also: 1x06 - The Germans.) Also, when Graham Chapman ordered an omelet with three eggs, Sinclair sent him a regular omelet with three fried eggs on top. (See also: At a Glance.)

Allusions and References

• BBC Two: One of several channels the government-run British Broadcasting Corporation owns. It is also the channel on which Fawlty Towers originally aired.

Mr. Hutchinson: Now, listen. There is a documentary on BBC Two this evening...

• The Blackfoot Indians: The collective name of four American Indian tribes in Canada and Montana. These nomadic warriors hunted the bison in North America until White people drove their primary food source to near extinction. The Blackfoot were resettled into Alberta in Canada, where they eventually thrived. There is no record of a Squawking Bird ever having led the tribes.

Mr. Hutchinson: ... about Squawking Bird, the leader of the Blackfoot Indians in the late 1860s. Now, this starts at 8:45 and goes on for approximately three quarters of an hour.

• Monty Python's Flying Circus: On Monty Python's Flying Circus, "Pepperpots" was the name the Pythons gave to the middle-aged, middle class women they played whenever they dressed in drag.

Basil: Ah, is there something we can get you, Mr. Hutchinson? A tea cozy for your pepperpot, perhaps?

Memorable Moments

• Basil asks Manuel to carry Mr. Walt's cases up to Room 7. When Manuel does not understand, Basil, still talking with Mr. Walt, holds up successive pieces of paper on which are drawn a picture of luggage, an "up" arrow, and the number "7." Manuel smiles and holds up a piece of paper on which is written the word "OK."

• Basil's struggle with Walt's first bottle of wine.

• The exchange between Polly and Basil intended to confuse Hutchinson and make him forget Basil told him to shut up.

• Basil knocks the screaming Hutchinson out.

Quotes

• Basil: I would find it a little easier to cope with some of the cretins we get in here, my little nest of vipers, if I got a smidgen of cooperation from you.

• Mr. Hutchinson: Now, listen: There is a documentary on BBC Two this evening about Squawking Bird, the leader of the Blackfoot Indians in the late 1860s. Now, this starts at 8:45 and goes on for approximately three quarters of an hour.
  Basil: I'm sorry, are you talking to me?
  Mr. Hutchinson: Indeed I am, yes. Now, is it possible for me to reserve the BBC Two channel for the duration of this televisual feast?
  Basil: Why don't you talk properly?

• Mr. Walt: Good afternoon.
  Manuel: No.

• Mr. Walt: Look, I did ask the waiter.
  Basil: Well, he's hopeless, isn't he? You might as well ask the cat.

• Basil: Come here.
  Manuel: Yeah.
  Basil: You're a waste of space.

• Basil: I'm so sorry, he's from Barcelona.