The Builders

"The Builders" is the second episode in the first series of the BBC TV sitcom Fawlty Towers.

Plot

As Fawlty Towers is undergoing renovations over the weekend, Basil informs Major Gowen, Miss Tibbs, and Miss Gatsby that they will have to have dinner at the Gleneagles Hotel. Basil and Sybil themselves are going on a golfing holiday in Paignton with friends, leaving Polly and Manuel in charge of the hotel. Before they leave, Basil reminds Polly that the workmen are to block off the drawing room door and build a door leading into the kitchen at the bottom of the stairs. Sybil believes the renovations will be carried out by workmen from the professional (albeit expensive) Stubbs, but Basil tells Polly that he is actually hiring the cheaper O'Reilly, an Irish "cowboy" builder with very little understanding of his trade. Sybil warns Basil not to hire O'Reilly, as they hired him to build a wall a few months ago which still has not been built yet.

After the Fawltys depart, Polly goes to her room for a short nap and tells Manuel to wake her as soon as the builders arrive. As Manuel mans the front desk, a delivery man arrives to deliver a garden gnome Sybil has ordered, but confuses Manuel into thinking that he wants a room for it. When the builders arrive, confusion arises again when Manuel keeps asking them if they are "Orally men." Manuel goes upstairs to wake Polly, but decides not to disturb her upon seeing her sleeping peacefully. He answers a call from someone he believes is asking for Basil. Despite telling them that Basil is not available, the phone rings several times and eventually Manuel insults the caller out of frustration, only to realize that Basil has been the one calling him. In retaliation, Basil tricks Manuel into calling one of the builders "a hideous orangutan", resulting in Manuel getting punched in the face.

The next morning, Basil arrives early and discovers to his horror that the renovations haven't been carried out properly. The dining room door, not the drawing room door, has been blocked off, and although a door has indeed been placed at the bottom of the stairs, it doesn't lead to the kitchen. In a combination of rage and fear over Sybil's anticipated reaction, he furiously threatens Polly and assaults Manuel before phoning O'Reilly and threatening to "insert a large garden gnome" in him if he does not return to rectify the work. Just as O'Reilly arrives, Basil notices that Sybil has returned early as well. Sybil, suspicious upon seeing O'Reilly's van outside, confronts Basil, who blames the situation on Stubbs and falsely claims that O'Reilly has come to fix it. To Basil's surprise, Sybil seems to believe him. Polly calls the front desk impersonating Stubb's secretary, but is almost immediately caught by Sybil.

Despite Basil's desperate excuses, an enraged Sybil hurls a cash box him and goes into a furious tirade about O'Reilly's poor workmanship. When O'Reilly walks into the room and tries to joke about his mistakes, Sybil proceeds to lash out at both him and Basil with an umbrella, before telling O'Reilly to leave and never return. Sybil calls Stubbs to get him to do the work the next morning. As Sybil leaves, Basil convinces O'Reilly to stay and complete the work. The next morning, Sybil returns find the renovations have been completed by O'Reilly, apparently with no problems. Stubbs arrives and is initially impressed with the job done. However, when Stubbs further questions Basil about the work, it turns out that O'Reilly only used a wooden lintel for the door to the kitchen; as the door is on a load-bearing wall, it could cause the entire building to collapse. As Stubbs goes to telephone his company, Sybil finds Basil marching down the driveway with the garden gnome in his arms. Basil calls back to Sybil that he is "going to see Mr. O'Reilly" before adding that he thinks he "might go to Canada" under his breath.

Cast

Episode-credited cast:

• 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
• David Kelly as Mr. O'Reilly

With:

• James Appleby as Mr. Stubbs
• Michael Cronin as Mr. Lurphy
• Barney Dorman as Mr. Kerr
• Michael Halsey as Mr. Jones
• George Lee as Bennion, a Delivery Man
• Pat Gorman as Departing Guest (uncredited)

Criticism

David Stubbs has rated The Builders as the weakest Fawlty Towers episode due to its reliance on stereotypes such as the battleaxe wife, the feckless Irish labourer and the dimwitted Spaniard.^[1]

John Cleese himself named The Builders as "the least good" of the Fawlty Towers episodes that were filmed, owing to a general lack of laughter in the studio on recording day. He recalls that members of the Icelandic Broadcasting Corporation were visiting the studio that day and many of them were in the front row seats, apparently not entirely amused.

Connections

• Interior scenes of this episode were recorded on 3 August 1975, in Studio TC3 of the BBC Television Centre, before a live audience.^[2]
• Basil tells his guests that they must go to "The Gleneagles" for their dinners. This is a reference to the Hotel Gleneagles which Donald Sinclair, the hotel manager on which John Cleese based Basil Fawlty, ran in Torquay, the town where Fawlty Towers is set, and where the Monty Python team had stayed when Cleese gained his inspiration for Fawlty Towers.
• George Lee, who plays Bennion the deliveryman, also appears as a deliveryman in the episode "Communication Problems".
• The man who delivers the garden gnome to Fawlty Towers asks Manuel where the "Generalissimo" (his boss) is, to which Manuel (believing that he is talking about Francisco Franco) responds "in Madrid!" This episode aired less than two months before Franco's death. In the Catalan version, broadcast in 1986 (eleven years after Franco's death), Manuel replied "Dead!".

References

External links

• "The Builders" at BBC Programmes