Voted the ninth most popular Fawlty Towers episode by our small but perfectly formed nest of vipers, The Builders was the second story of the first series. In which our titular tall antihero, having established his loathing for all humanity below the lower middle class demarcation line, further endears himself to the unsuspecting viewer with his stinginess and ill-mannered inability to accept responsibility for his fuckups with hilarious results. Although not if you’re Icelandic, apparently.
In other words, the hotel needs some minor construction work, but its skinflint proprietor has hired a no-hope builder on the cheap, and leaves Polly in charge while the couple head off to Paignton, all of three miles away. “It’s the first weekend we’ve had off since Audrey had her hysterectomy”, Sybil confides. But will it be fun, Basil? “Well, we’re going together.”
Referred to in passing in the previous week’s A Touch Of Class, we finally get to meet Mr Orally…um, O’Reilly, the calm “cut-price cock-up artist” with a mellifluous Irish accent, played by David Kelly in – according to Andrew Sachs – the most referred to six minutes of his entire career.
Favourite Moment: Discovering the almighty cock-ups, Basil calls O’Reilly and threatens physical violence if the shoddy work is not corrected before Sybil returns: “If you’re not over here in 20 minutes with my door I shall come over there and insert a large garden gnome in you. Good day.”
It raises the question of whether Fawlty Towers might have been even better had Cleese and Connie employed continuing storylines instead of the strictly episodic approach. Wouldn’t it be funny to know that the pile of bricks was never cleared away, much less cemented together, one on top of each other in the traditional fashion?
When the cloth-eared bint Polly falls asleep while building work is going on, Manuel preens behind the reception desk and pretends to take important phone calls. However, he makes a royal mess of things when “you, work, men” show up.
“Where’s the real boss? The Generalissimo?,” Mr delivery man armed with the thick-as-clotted-cream South-West accent and a laughing gnome enquires of Manuel. The wee waiter looks a trifle shocked: “In Madrid!”
Alleged shooter of rats and other pesky vermin, Spain’s fascist dictator General Franco, was still in power when this episode first aired, though only slightly: he died two months later.
Fun facts: As a thank you for providing technical construction information, John and Connie named the “professional builder” Stubbs after the constructionist father of their acting chum Una Stubbs, who played Alice Terry in The Anniversary.
Michael Cronin who plays the workman Lurphy (aka Spud, aka Man With Beard aka A Hideous Orangutan) was also in Jesus Of Nazareth. (Not in the Biblical sense, I hope? – Ed.) He can be spotted at the Crucifixion – and yes, he has the facial fuzz – objecting to the sign proclaiming ‘Jesus, King of the Jews’ with the same indignation he displays prior to punching Manuel’s lights out. Spoiler alert: he doesn’t actually punch Jesus in the face, though it might’ve been fun if he had.
Art imitates life: The old dears Miss Tibbs and Miss Gatsby (now and for the rest of the series played by Gilly Flower and Renée Roberts) are informed by Basil that because of the building work they have to go to Gleneagles to eat their “din-dins”, a sneaky cheeky reference to the real hotel that spawned the series.
Moreover, the episode was inspired by Cleese witnessing said owner of that hotel, Donald Sinclair, berating a group of builders for….having a tea break. Tsk. Tsk. Wicked.
Life imitating art: To quote O’Reilly, “You keep this up, you’ll have a stroke before yer 50! Stone dead, you’ll be!”
Donald Sinclair did indeed wind up stone dead from a stroke and heart attack (albeit aged 72) brought on by discovering his car and patio furniture had been repainted gunmetal grey by another group of workmen he’d chewed out.
Whether O’Reilly or his orangutans ever subjected Basil’s Austin 1100 to the same treatment is unknown.
Daniel Ruggero
