Following 'The Anniversary', there was a gap of months before the next 'Farty Towels'...sorry, 'Fawlty Towers' episode, due to industrial action, and it proved to be well worth the wait.
Mr.Carnegie ( John Quarmby ), a Public Health Inspector, gives Basil and co. twenty-four hours to clean their filthy kitchen else he will close the place down. Basil goes to Manuel's room to request he remove the dead pigeons in the water tank, and is horrified to find the Barcelona waiter keeping a live rat as a pet, believing it to be a Siberian hamster. He tells Manuel to get rid of it, and he appears to comply, but is secretly keeping the rodent - which he calls 'Basil' - in an outbuilding. It escapes, and a frantic 'rat' hunt gets underway as the deadline draws closer...
The show ends as it began, with the cast firing on all cylinders and working from a well-constructed script. David Neville is particularly good as the snooty 'Ronald' who chastises Basil for 'looking at his fiancée's legs' when all he is doing is hunting for the rat ( it is in her hand bag ). It would have been impossible to maintain this high standard of comedy for a third season, so in retrospect it was probably right for it to end here, and go out on a high note. Though the idea of Basil going to Spain ( once mooted as a film ) and encountering a snobbish hotelier like himself sounds tempting enough to make you wish they had proceeded with it.
Yes, I know the rat in the biscuit tin is about as convincing as the one that attacked Robert Powell in 'Doomwatch' but this is still a comedy classic.
Funniest moment - Fawlty finding the Major stalking around the lounge with a shotgun. "Vermin!", cries the old man. Mishearing, Basil thinks he has flipped and is out to shoot a German.
Second funniest moment - Mr.Carnegie finds 'Basil' in the tin, and Fawlty asks: "Would you care for a rat?".
After the rat has been found and removed, Sybil says: "I think its going to rain!" while Manuel drags Basil by his legs out of the dining room. The picture slowly fades to black. The show was over. Barring repeats and retrospectives. In 2010 its reputation as British television's finest ever sitcom remains intact.
Before the filming concluded, John Cleese shot a short scene for inclusion in a new sketch show that would sign post the direction British comedy took in the '80's. It was 'Not The Nine O' Clock News'. The baton had been passed...
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