Basil the Rat

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Fawlty Towers episode
“Basil The Rat”
Episode no.	Season 2 Episode 6
Writer(s)	John Cleese & Connie Booth
Director	Bob Spiers
Production no.	12
Original airdate	25 October 1979
Episode chronology
← Previous	Next →
"The Anniversary"	"n/a"
List of Fawlty Towers episodes

"Basil the Rat" is the sixth and final episode of the second series of the BBC sitcom Fawlty Towers and the final episode of the programme as a whole. Unlike all other eleven episodes of Fawlty Towers, "Basil the Rat" ran for 40 minutes.

1 Synopsis
2 Cast
3 Plot
4 Trivia

[edit] Synopsis

An inspector from the public health authority makes a surprise visit to the hotel in order to check the cleanliness and safety of the facilities. It soon becomes clear that the hotel is not up to standards and therefore will need to be improved over the next 24 hours before the inspector returns. However, in this time Basil learns that Manuel has been harbouring a rat as a pet and has to deal with this as well as the other problems in the hotel.

[edit] Cast

With:

Sabina Franklyn as Quentina
Melody Lang as Mrs. Taylor
David Neville as Ronald
John Quarmby as Mr. Carnegie
Stuart Sherwin as a Guest
James Taylor as Mr. Taylor

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The episode begins when Sybil and Basil arrive back at the hotel to find that an inspector from the public health authority, Mr. Carnegie, is examining the cleanliness of the kitchen. At first Basil does not realise that Mr. Carnegie is actually an inspector and therefore introduces him to Sybil as a scavenger gourmet - because when Basil walks in the kitchen Mr. Carnegie is crouching in front of an open fridge sniffing a plate of meat.

Mr. Carnegie adopts a firm and serious tone with Basil because the premises do not meet the standards set out by the authority. He reels off a list of problems, not only in the kitchen but all over the hotel including the fact that there are two dead pigeons in the water tank. Mr. Carnegie informs Basil that he expects all the problems to have been rectified when he returns the following day.

Sybil, Polly and Terry all get to work straight away whilst Basil goes upstairs to get Manuel - who is relaxing in his room playing the guitar. Basil bursts into Manuel's room and tells him to get the pigeons out of the water tank. However, Basil notices that Manuel is keeping a rat in a small cage in his room. Manuel tries to persuade Basil that the animal is in fact a 'filigree' Siberian hamster. Basil insists that the rat must go and takes the cage from Manuel's room and carries it downstairs.

Manuel is deeply unhappy that Basil has removed his pet but Sybil agrees that it cannot stay in the hotel. Polly tells Basil that she has a friend who will look after the rat and that Manuel would still be able to visit it. Basil, by this time under the impression that the rat has been taken to Polly's friend is unaware that Polly and Manuel have in fact only taken the rat into an outbuilding behind the hotel. Terry, who is the only other person aware that the rat is still on site gives Manuel food and water to take out to the rat, which we now learn is called "Basil".

Manuel realises that the rat has escaped and informs Polly and Terry, who go on a rat hunt around the hotel. The Major, who is reading his newspaper in the hotel bar catches sight of the rat on one of the bar tables and goes to get his rifle in order to shoot it dead. Basil speaks to Major who informs him that he has seen the rat, prompting Basil to realise that Polly had indeed not actually taken the rat away at all. A full scale hunt for the rat starts around the hotel. Basil applies rat poison to a slice of veal and puts it on the floor in the kitchen.

Mr. Carnegie arrives back at the hotel to re-inspect as the rat hunt is in full swing. The sound of a gun firing is heard and everyone rushes into the bar. Major insists that the rat had come back but because of the presence of the health inspector Basil silences the Major and downplays the event - assuring Mr. Carnegie that the Major was in fact shooting a starling out of the bar window.

Mr. Carnegie comes face to face with Basil

Meanwhile more problems are unfolding in the kitchen, where Polly knocks over a tub containing slices of veal onto the kitchen floor. Terry picks them all up, not realising that he has also picked up the slice which is covered in rat poison. As the veal is cooked and then served to guests in the dining room it suddenly dawns on Basil that one of the slices has got rat poison on it. Basil announces to the guests that the veal is off (spoiled) and tells Polly to retake their order.

Mr. Carnegie, having finished the inspection and declaring that the hotel is now up to standard says that he intends to have lunch at the hotel and that he had noticed the veal and would like to try this. A sequence of events unfolds whereby Polly, Terry, Basil, Sybil and the hotel cat all try to ascertain which slices of veal are safe to eat. Meanwhile Manuel has spotted the rat under Ronald and Quentina's table. He tries to pick it up whilst taking their order and eventually manages to retrieve the rat, subsequently placing it in the box of cream crackers.

Mr. Carnegie asks for cheese and crackers, and when Basil opens the box of crackers there is the rat looking straight at Mr. Carnegie. A stunned, silent Mr. Carnegie stares at the rat and is asked by Basil, "Would you care for rat?" Basil then faints and must be dragged out of the dining room by Manuel. The scene ends with Polly and Sybil carrying on nonchalantly, leaving Mr. Carnegie unsure of whether he really saw the rat.

[edit] Trivia

In this episode, during exterior footage, the entrance sign saying 'Wooburn Grange Country Club' can be clearly seen. This was the second time in the series to feature this error, as the sign was also seen in The Anniversary.
This final episode was recorded six months after the rest of the series, because of a strike at the BBC.
A prop newspaper features the headline "Punch Blacks Out TV Show", this is a reference to the fight between a BBC executive and a rigger that caused the original strike.
Andrew Sachs later married Melody Lang who appears in this episode.
Basil tells Major Gowen that there are 'no Germans staying this week' - a reference to the episode: "The Germans".

Fawlty Towers

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