The Builders

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"The Builders" is the second episode from the first series of the BBC television 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 remove 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 has actually hired 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 has still not been built.

After the Fawltys leave, Polly goes to her room for a break and tells Manuel to wake her as soon as the builders arrive. As Manuel watches over the front desk, a delivery man arrives to deliver a garden gnome Sybil has ordered, but a confused Manuel thinks 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 then 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 anger, but drops the receiver in shock when he realises that the caller is Basil himself. 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 to check on the renovations, and discovers to his frustration that they haven't been carried out properly; the door intended for the kitchen has been placed in front of the stairs, the drawing room door is still in place, and the dining room door has been blocked instead. In a combination of fury at the poor workmanship and fear over Sybil's anticipated reaction, he scolds Polly and physically attacks Manuel before phoning O'Reilly and threatening to "insert a large garden gnome" in him if he does not return to rectify the work within 20 minutes. While imploring O'Reilly to fix the renovations, Basil notices that Sybil has returned early as well, having forgotten her golf shoes. Sybil, suspicious upon seeing O'Reilly's van outside, questions Basil, who blames the situation on Stubbs and falsely claims that O'Reilly has come to fix it. To Basil's relief, Sybil seems to believe him. Polly calls the front desk impersonating Stubbs' secretary, but is almost immediately caught by Sybil.

Furious that Basil hired O'Reilly and refusing to listen to anymore of his lies, Sybil vows to make him regret it for the rest of his life and, after hurling a cash box across the room, furiously reminds Basil of the previous jobs O'Reilly had been hired to do and the problems it caused. When O'Reilly walks into the room and tries to joke about his mistakes and smiles at Sybil (much to Basil's horror), this is the last straw and Sybil proceeds to assault 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 to 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 confronts Basil about the work, he learns that O'Reilly had used a wooden lintel for the door to the kitchen instead of a concrete one or an RSJ. As the door is on a load-bearing wall, the supporting wall could give way at any moment and cause the entire building to collapse. As Stubbs telephones his company to commence emergency repair work, 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[]

• John Cleese as Basil Fawlty
• Prunella Scales as Sybil Fawlty
• Connie Booth as Polly Sherman
• Andrew Sachs as Manuel
• Ballard Berkeley as Major Gowen
• Gilly Flower as Miss Abitha Tibbs
• Renee Roberts as Miss Ursula Gatsby
• David Kelly as Mr. O'Reilly
• 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[]

John Cleese names this episode 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.

Production notes[]

• Interior scenes of this episode were recorded on 3 August 1975 in Studio TC3 of the BBC Television Centre before a live audience.^[1]
• Basil tells his guests that they must go to "Gleneagles" for their dinners - this is a reference to the Gleneagles Hotel 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.

References[]

External links[]

• "The Builders" at BBC Online