Faulty Towers Experience serving up class comedy

The Faulty Towers Dining Experience returns to this year’s Vodafone Comedy Carnival, on October 25, following its sellout success at the event in previous years.

This experience is a loosely-scripted tribute to the much-loved TV series, Fawlty Towers, with new material, all the best gags from the TV series, and a three-course meal.

Its existence is a tribute to the genius of John Cleese and his then wife Connie Booth and to the superb cast of characters they created for this iconic series.

However, when they wrote Fawlty Towers 40 years ago, the two had no idea they were creating an anti-hero and a hotel that would become synonymous with bumbling incompetence. In fact, initial signs indicated that the series would be a total flop.

When BBC executives read the scripts, they thought the jokes weren’t funny, they felt the characters were stereotyped and the hotel setting was too boring.

But they didn’t want to risk upsetting Cleese as he was a comic writer and performer they valued hugely, so rather than reject it they hid it away on BBC2.

When the first show was aired on September 19, 1975, critics panned it and audiences were lukewarm, with viewing figures peaking at 2.5 million. However, it was repeated in January 1976 when audiences grew to seven million. By the time it was repeated again on BBC1 eight months later, Fawlty Towers had become a huge hit, pulling in more than 12 million viewers.

The Faulty Towers Dining Experience will pay homage to this great show by unleashing its trademark blend of comic mayhem on Galway diners and theatre-goers.

The fun starts as the audience are summoned to be seated in the restaurant of the Faulty Towers hotel, and it hurtles along as Sybil, Basil, and Manuel serve the meal.

Basil is manic, Sybil domineering, and Manuel – of course – is hopelessly language-challenged. All the favourite scenes from the series are brought to life while guests enjoy a fine-dining experience. Everything that can go wrong for Basil and company does, in brilliantly orchestrated two-hours of comic lunacy – just don’t mention the war!

■ The Faulty Towers Dining Experience is on Sunday, October 25, in the Salthill Hotel at 7.30pm and tickets cost €45. www.vodafonecomedycarni val.com