★★★★★

“a genius and unique experience”

The Faulty Towers Dining Experience is exactly what you’d expect: chaotic, charming and completely nostalgic. Amidst the wonderful service and the President Hotel there also are the hosts Basil & Sybil (Benedict Holme and Katharine Mary), alongside the trusty Manuel (Andrew Gruen). And their hosting does not disappoint fans of the show.

To begin with, the cast are excellent at both replicating the actors of the original Fawlty Towers TV show – in terms of voice and physicality – but they also all excel in improv. There were several points throughout the dinner that called for audience control and well as general witty repartee, which were all delivered masterfully. The team begin by delivering the guests to the dining hall, before we are taken through a three course dinner with several scenes of crisis layered throughout. The show itself is built up of a mix of original content and famous excerpts from the TV show. Notable mentions included Manuel’s ‘hamster’, hidden betting slips and Basil’s anxiety around German guests.

The dinner itself consisted of tomato soups, roast chicken with veg and a cheesecake dessert. Alternative dietary requirement options were available upon booking. I will warn that this is The Faulty Towers Dining Experience – many parts of the actual dining were as chaotic as you’d expect, so I would advise to go in with an open mind and much caution if you’re very precious about the dining out experience. I would also say this definitely means you need to see the Fawlty Towers TV show in order to fully enjoy this experience. The time in between courses is also quite long, considering the amount of content that actually is going into the show. This did, however, mean that as guest we were left in peace to enjoy the food as opposed to being confused by the drama.

The staging is very clever in the way the tables allow for a catwalk-like space for the actors to move between as they perform. At several points the tables also thoroughly investigated by the performers; both climbing underneath and dancing on top of them. Plenty of the furniture in the space is interacted with including the creative use of a fake plant and decorative fish. There are also various references to John Cleese’s other work littered throughout – including the opening track of ‘Life of Brian’ played once the show had finished.

Overall, a genius and unique experience that both brought the audience deep belly laughter, but also induced an incredible warm sense of nostalgia.

FOUR WOMEN AND A FUNERAL

Upstairs at the Gatehouse

★★★

“has potential to be hilarious if it goes further into exploiting the ridiculousness of the situation and characters”

Four Women and a Funeral, a new play by Jennifer Selway is a grounded comedy set in Restmore Funeral Home, celebrating the life of Reuben Roffe. Unfortunately, the only people who have turned up for the ceremony are ‘The Widow’ (Donna Combe), ‘The Mistress’ (Eliza McClelland), ‘The Guest’ (Leda Hodgson) and ‘The Celebrant’ (Victoria Jeffrey).

The play introduces us to the premise straight away, introducing the Widow and Celebrant well. We learn of the Widow and Reuben’s relationship to be tricky at times but overall loving, with the Widow consistently praising her dead husband’s work as a writer. Little is established about the Widow’s life outside of her husband’s at this stage, which is a detail that gets missed generally throughout the play. The show’s central plot is centred around the dead husband, and how each character’s lives related to him at some point. A man in whom we discover throughout the show, wasn’t the nicest or most honest to have lived, so the drama in which surrounded him felt slightly unfavourable.

A lot, however, is revealed about the Celebrant early on, information that will later unveil a rather large plot twist. The Guest is also introduced as a colleague of the deceased, but it’s quickly revealed that she is instead an FBI agent and the play transforms from a Farcical sit-com to a witty whodunnit. Leda Hodgson shines in this role, playing the special agent with deep focus and precision, contrasting well to her undercover escapades as the bubbly ex-colleague.

It felt at points that the style of the show was confused. The pacing and comedy of the show felt like an English Countryside farce, yet the play is set in America with the cast speaking in New York-like accents. This resulted in a pace that felt like it was falling behind itself. A more concise script could help with this, to make the action be snappier and move the story quicker.

The show does succeed in representing older women in roles and conversations that often go unrepresented on stage and screen. The women openly talk about sexual topics and there’s even a little woman loving woman representation thrown in there. However there were also moments where this felt at odds with itself; characters talking down about younger women for being young and speaking bad about each other for loving the same mediocre man. While the group – at a certain stage – shares a solidarity from both loving and being hard done by this man, I feel that message of female unity gets confused.

The play has potential to be hilarious if it goes further into exploiting the ridiculousness of the situation and characters. Eliza McClelland performs brilliantly as the mistress, enriching her performance with the melodrama that I think this play requires. With more rehearsal and a tightening of the script, this could be achieved throughout. There were several moments of laughter throughout the show, just too much time between each one.

Tag Archives: David Robinson

FAULTY TOWERS THE DINING EXPERIENCE

★★★★★

President Hotel

FAULTY TOWERS THE DINING EXPERIENCE

President Hotel

★★★★★

“a genius and unique experience”

FAULTY TOWERS THE DINING EXPERIENCE

President Hotel

Reviewed on 21st September 2025

by David Robinson

Photography by Rosie Powell

Previously reviewed at this venue:

FAULTY TOWERS THE DINING EXPERIENCE | ★★★ | April 2025

FAULTY TOWERS

FAULTY TOWERS

FAULTY TOWERS

FOUR WOMEN AND A FUNERAL

★★★

Upstairs at the Gatehouse

FOUR WOMEN AND A FUNERAL

Upstairs at the Gatehouse

★★★

“has potential to be hilarious if it goes further into exploiting the ridiculousness of the situation and characters”