Fawlty Towers

Fawlty Towers (1975)

19 corrected entries

(6 votes)

The Wedding Party (a.k.a. Sex) - S1-E3

Corrected entry: When Basil and Sybil are in bed, the doorbell rings and Basil says "Someone must have forgotten their pass-key". Yet when Basil goes downstairs to open the front door, he slides back two bolts. So even if the person trying to enter the hotel did have his key, he still couldn't get in.

Correction: Its perfectly normal for hotels to provide pass keys to a side door, not the main entrance. But there is unlikely to be a doorbell on the side door, so if a guest forgets their pass key, they have to go round to the main entrance and ring the doorbell there to be let in.

Correction: As they leave you can see their reflection in the glass cabinet just outside the lounge and they stop.

Ssiscool

The Germans - S1-E6

Corrected entry: When Basil goes from clapping his hands in the hotel reception area (just after the first hospital scene), he goes from standing completely still showing a clear 'action' cue.

Correction: It's not hard to imagine that he walked in and took a moment to reflect that, finally, he has the run of the hotel to himself, then claps his hands eagerly and resumed walking.

A Touch of Class - S1-E1

Corrected entry: The newspaper boy and the couple in a hurry leave the lobby and turn left outside the hotel. However we see later that the drive is on the right as you leave the lobby. (00:03:45)

Correction: The paper boy could have left his bike to the left of the door. There is a car park to the left - the sign can be seen at the beginning of "Basil the Rat" and there is a little path to it from the left of the door. There is also parking to the right of the hotel. Also, the steps are much wider than the door. The only people who wouldn't turn even slightly left or right on exiting would be those who happen to have parked directly opposite the front door.

Gourmet Night (a.k.a. Gourmet's Paradise) - S1-E5

Corrected entry: Throughout this episode it keeps switching between day and night. When Basil's second dinner guests arrive, you can see darkness through the hotel entrance, yet when he leads them into the bar it is daylight through the bar windows. This episode is supposed to take place during the evening, yet when Basil collects the duck from Andre, it is broad daylight.

Correction: There is only one quick shot where it appears to be dark outside the front door, but is actually just a dark coloured bush. All other scenes correctly show daylight outside. In Torquay it is daylight in summer evenings at least until 9 pm.

Gourmet Night (a.k.a. Gourmet's Paradise) - S1-E5

Corrected entry: After Basil takes the guests' orders, he goes into the kitchen from the bar to sort out their starters. Then he and Manuel take the starters into the dining room, where the guests are sitting. However, to get from the bar to the dining room, they would have to have gone past the door to the kitchen, which was open throughout the kitchen scene, yet at no point did we see the guests walking past.

Correction: There is another way from the lounge to the lobby, off camera the other side of the reception area. It is also used by "Lord Melbury" in A Touch of Class when he is running from the police.

The Kipper and the Corpse (a.k.a. Death) - S2-E4

Corrected entry: In the scene where Basil and Manuel are trying to hide the corpse, just after the corpse's work partner come to 'collect' him, Basil and Manuel try to hide the body in the kitchen (where the Doctor is cooking sausages). If you look in the background, towards the room behind the reception, you can see the actors standing there, watching John Cleese finish his scene.

Correction: Already established they wanted to talk to him, and as it's not polite to go barging in we was simply waiting for the appropriate moment.

Correction: It was a piece of veal covered in rat poison, and it was completely intentional.

Correction: Well there was rat poison wasn't there? People slip on and trip over things all the time.

Gourmet Night (a.k.a. Gourmet's Paradise) - S1-E5

Corrected entry: When Basil hands the guests the new 'duck-or-nothing' menu, one of the guests says "how extraordinary", then Basil says "Lobster, tournedos, you name it, it's in the bin". Later on, Basil frantically starts preparing salmon mousses and mullet with mustard sauce, dishes that were never specified on the new menu. So how were the guests able to order these if everything from the first menu was scrapped and not listed on the second menu?

Correction: The duck was the main course, the other dishes could quite reasonably be starters or similar. It's extremely common to see menus with a number of fixed dishes and the option to choose the main course.

tw_stuart

Correction: Not true, I've just watched this and his reaction time is perfectly natural. It's certainly not one second.

tw_stuart

Communication Problems (a.k.a. Theft) - S2-E1

Corrected entry: In the opening scene, Mrs Richards is demanding change for the waiting taxi driver. However we never ever see her go outside to hand the taxi driver his change. Mrs Richards remains inside the hotel at all times throughout this scene.

Correction: In this scene, the taxi driver carries Mrs Richards' cases in for her, and then waits for his money. When Mrs Richards interrupts Polly for the second time, you see the taxi driver leave the hotel.

Show generally

Corrected entry: The Grandfather-Clock in the lobby is often showing the incorrect time for the time of day. I think in the "Wedding Party" episode it says 6.15 at breakfast time and in "The Hotel Inspector" it says 4.05 at lunchtime. Possibly deliberate, given the shambolic nature of the hotel, but worth looking out for.

David Mercier

Correction: "Possibly deliberate". Not a film mistake, then.

Basil the Rat (a.k.a. Rats) - S2-E6

Corrected entry: When Mr. Carnegie is running through the list of things he has found wrong in the kitchen, one of them is the lack of a wash-hand basin. However in the episode "Waldorf Salad" Terry is seen washing his hands in the kitchen sink (wash-hand basin) and in this episode when Polly closes the fridge door the sink is visible. So why is Mr. Carnegie complaining about the lack of a wash-hand basin when there is one already present?

Correction: Perhaps he considered just one not enough for the size of the kitchen, thus a "lack" of hand wash basins would be correct.

Mad Ade

The Kipper and the Corpse (a.k.a. Death) - S2-E4

Corrected entry: In the scene where Basil, Polly and Manuel take the corpse back into it's previous room and find the new guest blowing a doll, just after they go back out of the room with the corpse watch the right side of the screen and you will see the Major briefly appear, mistakenly, and disappear again when he sees that the scene is still in progress.

Correction: This could well be the Major just wandering around in the hotel going about his business.

Correction: Manuel also has a room of his own. This would, using the logic in the correction below, bring the total to 27. Therefore, the original correction is correct and the number of rooms mentioned in the hotel inspector episode was a continuity error.

Correction: Sybil doesn't say the hotel has only 22 rooms; she says "22 rooms is the limit". She is talking about rooms available if any upper class people such as Basil is hoping for, ring up asking for rooms, ie she doesn't count rooms occupied by permanent residents. The Hotel Inspectors' "26 rooms" means all the hotel's guest rooms, so to the 22 we add on 3 for the Major, Miss Tibbs and Miss Gatsby, and one more room now available because Polly is no longer living in. (Note - in "Gourmet Night" Basil tells the ladies "You're supposed to be in your rooms", thus confirming they have separate rooms at this time, and in "The Germans" Polly states "I'm only here at mealtimes", confirming she has moved out.).

Correction: It is likely the Inspectors meant 26 rooms for guests - not counting Manuel's room nor Basil and Sybils'. However, Polly could've moved out by then (as we learn in The Germans), which would mean 26 rooms available for guests, even if three are occupied by long-term guests.

The Hotel Inspectors - S1-E4

Corrected entry: When Mr Hutchinson is complaining that they keep getting his order for a cheese salad wrong, he says "I've had the omelette, then prawn cocktail with a silly name, then the plate of stew then the omelette again." However earlier on he was given a plate of paté NOT prawn cocktail.

Correction: Mr. Hutchinson is not happy about the service at the hotel, and people who are complaining vocally often get themselves onto a soapbox and slightly distort the truth while ranting. This is at best a character mistake.

Neil Jones

Waldorf Salad - S2-E3

Corrected entry: After the Hamiltons have ordered their drinks (screwdrivera), Basil asks 'Nothing to drink?' Mr Hamilton then says 'What?', and then if you listen carefully Basil replies 'Well, you can't drink a screwdrivers (sic) can you?'

Correction: He says "You can't drink your screwdrivers", reflecting the fact that both Mr and Mrs Hamilton asked for one.

Moose

The Kipper and the Corpse (a.k.a. Death) - S2-E4

Corrected entry: In the scene where Sybil is talking on the phone in the lobby about the short elderly gentleman guest and has tall redhead bimbo, just before the old man and his bimbo come in you can see the bimbo come past the corner of the office wall early, then stop, then start walking again on cue.

Correction: She doesn't stop. She slows down, but doesn't stop.

Ssiscool

Correction: No she isn't, it could well be a wry smile of "I told you so", considering the facts of the situation and that it adds authenticity to her claims against Lord Melbury.

Neil Jones

The Builders - S1-E2

Deliberate mistake: When Basil is arguing with Polly and eventually decides to call O'Reilly, he trips over the gnome. However when we see Basil come out from behind the desk, he takes the gnome out of a side gap in the desk, perfectly out of reach of Basil tripping over it. (00:14:30)

More mistakes in Fawlty Towers
More quotes from Fawlty Towers
More trivia for Fawlty Towers

The Anniversary - S2-E5

Question: When Polly is laying in bed disguised as Mrs Fawlty, was that really Prunella scales playing that part? I was wondering as Polly as a more thinner face than Sybil and could never have really got away with it.

Gavin Jackson

Chosen answer: Indeed it is Polly. She has stuffings in her mouth to pretend she is swollen.

Mortug

More questions & answers from Fawlty Towers

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.