Food

The Faulty Towers Dining Experience

FaultyTowers Dining Experience

It is rare for a night’s entertainment to essentially involve being insulted while eating a three course meal. Somehow the Faulty Towers Dining Experience, has, however, managed to combine this together and not only made it enjoyable, but also hilarious.

The guests gathered in ‘Basil’s Bar’, having pre-drinks and waiting to see what was about to unfold in the Torquay Suite of the Charing Cross Hotel. An appropriate venue if ever there was one. Finally, we were, in true Faulty Towers style, scattered in a school assembly-ish style around the various tables for the evening being sent on our way with a healthy dose of scathing humour/condescension mixed in for good measure.

Basil-Jack Baldwin-4Jack Baldwin had really managed to get the tone and slightly manic attitude of Basil Faulty down to a tee. Leigh Kelly as the wonderfully over-the-top ‘Spanish’ waiter Manuel was not only the spitting image of the character he was playing, but had his clumsy, overly literal interpretation of Mr. Faulty orders mastered.

Manuel ole_Leigh Kelly-credit RonRutten_26012014_EN5E0868The evenings main event; the three course meal, then unfolded. Beginning with a soup for starter the chaos started and rattle along throughout the evening. Whoever came up with the concept clearly realised that the guests had a limit for being ‘insulted/assaulted’ and were also there to eat a meal. The balance between these two things had been perfectly judged, such that the actors added enormously to the dimension of the meal and ensured that what could have been an awkward evening, lumped on a table with complete strangers, was broken up and a level of comfort quickly assumed.

Evidently, the experience had recently been at the Fringe and I was assured by my neighbours that this version was a much more intimate affair, with a lot more attention paid to individuals and all round a more polished affair. What really struck me, was that the actors playing the relevant parts had obvious researched their roles and mastered the various mannerisms and more physical elements of the different roles.

Sybil-Imogen Miller Carter-4Being a keen fan of the series it was a pleasant surprise to really feel that such iconic characters had been brought to life and were strolling by your table, removing offending elbows from tables, hurling bread rolls across the room and surreptitiously trying to place bets without drawing the attention of ‘the Dragon’, the wonderful Imogen Miller-Porter as Sybil Faulty.

All in all, this is a fantastic evening’s entertainment and one that I would wholeheartedly encourage both fans of the show and non-devotees to see. For the price of a decent meal, you get a decent meal and a full blown stage show that passes by all around you and interacts with you without being invasive.

The Faulty Towers Dining Experience is on for some time in a variety of locations. Details of the London dates can be found here. They can also be found online, on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Fawlty Towers 2

By Peter Churchill