At the beginning of the month, the bloke and I made our way to the Charing Cross Hotel (London) to attend the Saturday matinee of "Faulty Towers the Dining Experience". The dining experience is a tribute to this 1970's comedy series, Fawlty Towers, created by John Cleese, and it is created by Australian company Interactive Theatre International. The experience is available to attend at various locations world-wide. The term for this form of entertainment is 'immersive theatre' as guests are involved in the story. (This is similar to the Secret Cinema concept, where users are immersed into the film.)
Basil and Sybil Faulty in one of many arguments in front of their guests
For those of my readers who are not familiar with the popular television series Fawlty Towers, each episode features Basil Faulty and his wife Sybil as they run a guest house -- poorly. Whatever can go wrong at the guest house does go wrong. They are not afraid to argue in front of the guests and insult the guests that stay with them. Added into the mix is their employee Manuel, a Spanish man with a poor grasp on English, who misunderstands instructions given to him.
When we arrived, we were asked to go to the bar. We placed our drinks order here, and I ordered a bottle of wine to have with our meal and enjoyed a glass of this while we waited. The bar's and dining room's windows looked out into Charing Cross train station.
The bar
After a short time, the actors (Basil, Sybil, and Manuel) came in and greeted us. This is where the comedy started. Manuel misunderstood instructions to provide guests with nuts. This resulted in him taking glasses off the faces of some guests and many other issues. We were then given our seat numbers. I was insulted because of my German-sounding surname. (One of the most famous Fawlty Towers sketches is about Germans who come to stay at the hotel.)
Basil gets frustrated about Manuel's inability to serve nuts
We took our seats and watched the entertainment. One moment consisted of Basil and Manuel trying to open a bottle of wine with much difficulty.
Opening the wine
Basil glares at Manuel for his lack of understanding of instructions.
Manuel and Basil
The soups came out eventually, and a couple of guests had found something extra in their bowls. I won't spoil it, but it's in the series. On top of this, Sybil shouted out to all of the guests that "the chef only has to open another tin".
Manuel collects soup bowls
After the soup, we were eventually brought our main meals, which consisted of chicken and mash potato and carrots and green beans. The meal was okay, but this experience is all about the theatre and not the food. While we ate, the actors came over to make sure that we were all alright. I did try to land Manuel into trouble, but that failed, and I complimented Sybil on her pink outfit. The actors stayed in character throughout and did a good job. When I said my chicken was "okay" unconvincingly, Basil stayed in character to say that it was "simply marvellous", or whatever terms he used and refused to go away until I agreed.
Chicken
More jokes and sketches from the show followed, including some new sketches with Manuel standing on our table.
Fawly Towers
We were eventually given our dessert, which we had to wait for as they were apparently "frozen solid" because the chef forgot to defrost them (not really, this was part of the show). The dessert was quite tasty.
Dessert
Of course, the experience could not end without the German jokes. See the picture of Basil Faulty below to see what I mean! This drew the experience to a close.
Basil Faulty "Don't mention the war!"
I had not laughed so hard in awhile. Faulty Towers the Dining Experience was one of the most memorable experiences that I have had in London. If you have been, drop a message below and let me know what you thought.
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