British sitcom inspires Faulty Towers dining experience

It is mayhem at the Arabian Courtyard Hotel and Spa.

A guest has run out shrieking wildly, followed by a waiter chasing a rat on the loose, the proprietor is wearing a pair of underpants on his head while declaring the diners are a "bunch of good-for-nothing, useless, toffee-nosed layabouts" and his wife is patiently fishing a set of false teeth out of someone's soup.

If you thought customer service was bad in the UAE, you ain't seen nothing yet.

But if the scenarios sound familiar, it is because Faulty Towers: The Dining Experience, currently running in Dubai - and with a subtle spelling difference, presumably to avoid legal confusion - is an homage to one of the greatest cult classics of all time.

It is 36 years since the irascible Basil Fawlty and his long-suffering wife Sybil first appeared on British television in a 12-part sitcom set in a crumbling seaside hotel. The BBC originally rejected the script, denouncing it as "full of clichéd situations and stereotypical characters", adding it would be a "disaster" to set the entire show in a hotel.

Its writer, John Cleese, who played Basil, and his then wife Connie Booth (Polly the waitress) blithely pressed ahead and today, Fawlty Towers is still consistently nominated as one of the funniest programmes of all time, frequently topping polls of viewers and industry insiders. The show, based on a temperamental real-life hotelier encountered on location by the cast of Monty Python, ran for only 12 episodes because Cleese did not want to write a weaker third series, preferring to bring down the curtain on the programme at the height of its popularity.

Its success hinged on the interplay between the eccentric, snobbish Basil, who had aspirations to run a high-class establishment but was foiled in his ambitions by the "cretins" who were his guests, his bossy wife and their bumbling Spanish waiter Manuel, whose poor grasp of English led to slapstick humour and, more often than not, a jolly good thrashing at the hands of his hot-tempered boss.

While the series was a send-up of a peculiarly British snobbery, Fawlty Towers was a hit on both sides of the Atlantic and sold to 17 countries in 1977 alone.

Testament to its universal popularity is the multinational gathering in the Bur Dubai hotel, where 50 diners are served a three-course meal by a cast of actors re-enacting scenarios from the show.

Among them there are British guests, an Indian family from Spain, Americans and an Emirati family.

While the cast of three playing Basil, Sybil and Manuel write a loose script based around scenes from the programme, their interaction with guests means the night can take unpredictable twists and turns as they improvise.

Basil, dressed in a tweed jacket and played by the Australian Michael Davoren - who has given up a career as a cruise ship entertainer to play the comic anti-hero - begins by roll-calling the guests to their tables.

We draw a collective breath as he stumbles over the unfamiliar Indian and Arab names. Will the xenophobia of which episodes such as The Germans have been accused of become apparent?

"Mona Abdullatif," he finally reels off and there is a palpable sense of dissipating tension as we all exhale with relief.

She is not off the hook, however. Basil/Davoren discovers that while she is married to the Emirati Nooruddin Abdullatif, Mona is German, which fuels hissed asides of the now-legendary catchphrase: "Don't mention the war!"

Nor is their son, Mubarak, a 31-year-old businessman, safe. Basil stutters over his name before declaring "I'll just call you Jonathan", while Manuel crawls between their legs searching for his lost pet rat and produces a pair of underpants from beneath their table. The farce that ensues, which the Abdullatifs take in good sport, is as faithful to the original TV series as you can get and Alison Pollard-Mansergh, who plays Sybil, says this is why the concept has such enduring appeal.

"It is universal, timeless humour," she says. "Service in England and around the world can still be quite bungled. You come across scenarios where you wonder why on earth these people are in hospitality and dealing with the public.

"Everyone has those sorts of experiences and so people identify with the show."

A former primary school teacher from New Zealand, she began playing Sybil full-time 15 years ago and now so embodies the character that she scours shops around the world for the frilly blouses, tight skirt suits and bubblegum heels Sybil favours.

The trio have taken their dining theatre tour around the globe, from the UK and Europe to Singapore and Australia. In Britain, guests try to outwit the actors with sharp ripostes. In Scandinavian countries, they faithfully memorise all the lines from the TV show.

"Every show is different. We never know what to expect," says Pollard-Mansergh.

Sometimes the humour backfires. Sybil's response to queries about the menu - "I don't know what it is dear, I didn't read the packet" - has led to guests not in on the joke to march out and demand a refund from the hotel manager, refusing to pay for processed food. And Pollard-Mansergh says she has occasionally given in to the urge to giggle, particularly when Manuel chased an ice cube around the table with a spoon, then continued to do so in the lap of a 70-year-old guest as she spluttered in outrage.

Most of the gathering in Dubai are in on the joke, however. David and Sheila Ellis, both 63, are on holiday from the UK and are avid fans of the TV series.

The Mahtanis from India spent time studying in Britain and came across Fawlty Towers while they were there. Thomas Rooch, a German hotel manager, says many of the scenarios in the show are rooted in reality. The Abdullatifs declare it is their favourite comedy show. "One has to laugh at oneself," says Nooruddin. "I first saw it more than 20 years ago and it is still funny today."

Even a New Yorker, who has never seen the programme and insists on calling the hotelier Bay-sil, is left in stitches when Sybil politely asks where she left her handgun. And when a guest complains that the watery soup and congealed pasta are not "terribly pleasant", Basil replies: "Neither is my wife but I still have to put up with her."

In reality, the food is a prop to two hours of raucous fun which evoke a golden era of television. Cleese, who spent six weeks writing each episode with Booth, recently said he rarely watches television these days because there is less focus on quality writing and more emphasis on audience figures.

Its legacy lives on, though. The writers of Cheers and Third Rock from the Sun cited Fawlty Towers as their inspiration and, in tribute to the series, the creators of British shows including The Young Ones, The Office and Extras similarly refused to make more than two series for fear of watering down the quality of material. Which might have put a smile on the face of even the cantankerous Basil.

Tickets for Faulty Towers: The Dining Experience, Dh395 for dinner or Dh295 for lunch (until Sunday), from the Arabian Courtyard Hotel on 04 351 9111.