Headscratchers / Fawlty Towers

• Like all BBC sitcoms of the time, the interior sets were built at television centre in London, while the exteriors were all done at various locations in north London and Buckinghamshire, even though the supposed location was Torquay in Devon. The designers did quite well in matching the interior sets with the real-life building used for the exterior of the hotel — stuff like the wine bar and the dining room are pretty close. But they still didn't quite get it right. The kitchen, in particular, seems to exist in a place where it simply could not be on the real life building.
  • The hotel is bigger on the inside.
  • The much worse problem is that when you're looking outside from inside via the open front door there's a walkway immediately outside with all sorts of plants about four feet away at the most, whereas whenever you see the actual exterior in a shot from the outside there's a stairway, no walkway, and no plants in front of the door.
• If Manuel is from Barcelona, wouldn't his first language be Catalonian rather than Spanish? That could mean that when Basil said he learned "Classical Spanish" he was actually meaning he learned "Castillan Spanish" and that Manuel is speaking Catalonian, possibly the dialect Basil refers to, despite the fact that the pair of them speak Castillan (Basil doing it very badly, i.e. not using proper vocabulary like "mucho mantequilla" instead of "demasiado mantequilla" and poor pronunciation e.g. "valisa" instead of "balisa).
  • The average British viewer has only a vague understanding of the divisions within Spain. The writers were either unaware of the mistake or didn't care.
  • Barcelona is a bilingual city; Catalan and Castilian are both widely spoken there. Also, at the time, Franco's regime heavily suppressed the use of the Catalan language (and other regional and minority languages in Spain) in an attempt to create an exclusively Castilian-speaking Spain. Manuel could certainly be a Catalan-speaker as well, but his first language being Castilian would be neither strange nor unlikely.
• Why does Polly always allow herself to be dragged into Basil's daft schemes, instead of shopping him to Sybil at the next available opportunity? Is she that scared of 'never waitressing in Torquay' again?
  • Money, Dear Boy. Polly's a poor art student who needs the income, and she seems to get board as part of the deal as well. Presumably she deems putting up with Basil's insanity a fair enough price for an otherwise sweet arrangement.
  • In "The Anniversary", she agrees to impersonate Sybil if Basil does lend her the money for a car, which would support the above.
  • It's possible, despite her best attempts to be uninvested, that Polly does sympathise/care for Basil on some level. There's not a tremendous amount of evidence to directly support this, but she looks happy enough when Basil cheerfully thanks her for passing on his betting winnings in 'Communication Problems' and agrees not to tell Sybil. That sort of support for your boss suggests a certain level of loyalty.
• Perhaps most importantly: how the hell did the hotel manage to stay open?
  • Best guess; cheaper prices than nearby hotels and existing before internet review sites.
  • Having three regular residents (The Major, Miss Tibbs, and Miss Gatsby), while not being the full answer, does help.
• How did Sybil and Basil even get together?
  • Word of God says that Sybil was a hairdresser originally and she was attracted to Basil because of his upper-class pretensions. Basically, she thought she was marrying up and it was only too late that she realised Basil was never going to be a success.
• In Waldorf Salad, where did Sybil's Waldorf Salad come from?
  • She probably made it herself. When Basil told her the ingredients she suggested he "just look". While Basil flapped about Sybil probably did look, find the ingredients and make the salad.
  • ^ Very likely correct. Basil tried to convince Mr Hamilton to try the 'Ritz' salad before confirming if they had what they needed for the Waldorf.
• Also, in Waldorf Salad, the ending where Mr and Mrs Hamilton are intent on leaving the hotel. Firstly, it's late evening. Where on earth were they expecting to find another place to stay at that time of night? Secondly, Mr Hamilton phones for a taxi. What about the car they hired to drive to the place? Furthermore, where were they planning on travelling to? Back to London? The fare would be astronomical! Not to mention leaving said hired car behind?
  • Mr Hamilton asked for 'ten taxis', as Basil returns to the hotel at the end of the episode, he is seen on the phone in his coat with suitcases in hand getting off the phone with a taxi firm. He gives Basil £20 to keep the kitchen open, which is roughly £100 now. Mrs Hamilton makes not that when he is home, she rarely has time to read because they're always going places.
• Why in god's name does Basil give the money he won betting on Dragonfly to the Major? He had options: Polly, Terry, Manuel (if he was that desperate). Alternatively, if his concern was that Sybil would look in his trouser pockets, he could have hidden it somewhere around the hotel where no one would look. Plot has to plot and such, but... no.
  • IIRC The Major is the only person around at the time. It seems to be a case of limited options at that particular moment.
• Where is the other entrance to the drawing room, after the door leading there from the foyer is blocked off in "The Builders"? This floor plan doesn't appear to show any other possible way of accessing it.
  • How often is it used or mentioned? The floor plan is not necessarily used in-universe as the same, but there is an unseen on camera section between the lobby and the bar, and it would most likely be there. The floor plan just left it out.

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