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In "The Builders," John Cleese proves there are no limits to what lengths Basil Fawlty will go to save a few quid. Enlisting a resistant Polly in his plot, he quietly fires the respectable carpenters hired by his wife, Sybil, and brings in a cheap crew with a history of disaster. Sure enough, they wind up walling up the entrance to the dining room, sending an insanely outraged Basil into a frenzy as he tries to correct the blunder before Sybil returns. Davis Kelly (
Waking Ned Devine) costars as the genial but incompetent O'Reilly. Basil smells hanky-panky in the air in "The Wedding Party" when he signs in an unmarried couple and soon sees foreplay in every innocent kiss and embrace. Meanwhile, a sexy French antique dealer sends Basil into red-faced vexations with her flirtations and Manuel's birthday results in a drunken binge and a morning-after hangover that only adds to the bellhop's usual incompetence at the morning breakfast service. Basil's prudish hypocrisy gets a workout in "The Psychiatrist" when a handsome young chap sneaks a girl into his room. Compounding Basil's strange behavior is the discovery that another guest is a psychiatrist, sending Basil into a tizzy as he is sure the man is analyzing his every utterance. As his attempts to catch the adulterers in the act turns into a bedroom farce, Basil finds himself caught in a position both compromising and absurd--his duck walking climax has to be seen to be believed.
--Sean Axmaker
