What is the most famous ending to an episode of Fawlty Towers? Surely “Gourmet Night” has to be up there, first broadcast on the 17th October 1975.
“Duck’s off, sorry.”
Great stuff, yes? Well, one of the delights with Fawlty Towers is hearing John Cleese endlessly tear apart classic moments of the show on his DVD commentary. It always bugged me that Basil doesn’t quite put the lid of the dish down correctly in the above scene, and Cleese concurs:
“When I put the dish down I should have cleanly covered the trifle. Then I should have waited longer before I leaned down and peeped…”
On the famous “Duck’s off, sorry” line, he’s happier:
“And that’s all you need at that moment – it’s almost a dying fall ending, there’s not a big laugh, but it rounds it off nicely.”
Yet there’s a mystery about this particular ending, which I first touched on a couple of years ago. And Cleese unfortunately doesn’t tackle it in the DVD commentary at all. Sitting on Getty Images is this intriguing photo, taken by Don Smith for the Radio Times, during the afternoon dress rehearsal of the episode.1
What the bloody hell is our drunken chef Kurt doing there on the right, in Mrs Hall’s lap? At no point in the broadcast episode does he appear in that final scene. What’s going on?
The answer is obvious, and yet I’ve never had proof of it until now. “Duck’s off, sorry” was never intended to be the final line of the episode. As scripted and originally performed, there’s an extra 30 seconds or so of action – action which involves Kurt making an drunken appearance before our esteemed guests. It was clearly decided in the edit that we didn’t quite need all these extra shenanigans.
In fact, if you listen carefully to the final episode, you can tell that something has been cut. At 53 seconds in the above video, just after the credits start, there’s a very obvious audio edit transitioning into the audience laughter. A section of the scene is clearly missing.
Sadly, although I have a copy of the camera script, for various boring reasons I can’t just quote the whole missing section of the scene here. (Yeah, yeah, I know, I’m annoyed too.) What I can do, however, is describe to you exactly what was intended to happen at the end of the episode:
The Colonel asks Basil whether the whole situation is some kind of practical joke. At this point Kurt comes flying in from the kitchen door, steadying himself in a steely way, and staring strangely. He walks forward, and addresses the guests. He attempts to recommend the lobster, before collapsing in a heap.
Basil immediately tries to rescue the situation, and tells everyone that yes, this is a practical joke. He then launches into a rendition of “Any Old Iron”, and starts smearing trifle on himself.
As the credits start, the guests look at Sybil, Polly and Manuel, who simply nod affirmatively: yes, it is a practical joke. The four guests slowly rise with dignity, and as though nothing untoward was happening, leave the room.
We can only guess as to why the above was cut; as far as I am aware, Cleese has never talked about it. In many ways, the material makes a great deal of sense. It’s always been a bit peculiar that Kurt has nothing to do with the final scene in the episode as broadcast. Shows like “The Hotel Inspectors” and “Waldorf Salad” do a much better job at tying all the disparate plots together at the end.
Perhaps the idea simply didn’t quite work on the night. The overall effect of the cut material is something dreamlike. I actually quite like it as an ending, but it definitely is a sudden swerve into something peculiar. The show manages this brilliantly in “The Anniversary”, which this has quite a lot in common with; the creepy, frozen posture of the ensemble during Sybil’s appearance in the final scene evokes something of the deleted material here. But perhaps the change in mood for this episode was simply too great. (Especially the trifle-smearing.)
The sad thing is, of course, is that we can’t properly judge either way; this material will have long since been wiped. The only scraps of unbroadcast Fawlty Towers material which have survived is via Christmas tapes, and the short excerpts from these on the Fawlty Towers DVD releases are all which remains.
Not for the first time, Don Smith unwittingly captured a moment visually which is now otherwise lost. But bit-by-bit, maybe we can piece these things together. Even if it takes us 50 years.
STUDIO T.C. 8.
PROJECT NO: 1154/2366
"FAWLTY TOWERS"
by
JOHN CLEESE & CONNIE BOOTH
EPISODE SIX FIVE
SUNDAY 7th SEPTEMBER
1030-1300 Camera rehearsal with TK
1300-1400 LUNCH
1400-1830 Camera rehearsal with TK
1830-1930 DINNER
1830-2000 Sound and vision line-up
TELERECORD
2000-2130 VTC/6HT/B00176 B01176
V.T. EDITING T.B.A.
TRANSMISSION Friday 24 17th October 2100-2130
With thanks to Tanya Jones.
Note that they clearly didn’t want to waste a real trifle during the dress rehearsal. ↩
25 comments
Rob Keeley on 7 September 2025 @ 9am
Just read this with breakfast and you never lose your ability to make my jaw hit the table. That is an incredibly bizarre ending even for Cleese/Fawlty Towers. Though I would pay good money to see Basil singing ‘Any Old Iron’ and smearing himself with trifle. PLEASE somebody, find the studio tape or a copy of it. (Hey, if a missing episode of Mr Majeika can an turn up two weeks ago in the middle of an ITV Wales tape of sports coverage, anything’s possible)
Looks like another mystery for you to solve, at the end: were this episode and ‘The Germans’ switched in order? I thought at first then episode number was a typo, but the TX date has been changed as well.
Rob Keeley on 7 September 2025 @ 9am
Just thought: if you can’t find the studio tape, forward the script to the Fawlty Towers Dining Experience and get them to recreate it! Perfect climax to their evening.
Adam Tandy on 7 September 2025 @ 9am
Great work as usual John.
Food to be eaten in vision was usually supplied by the chefs in the Restaurant Block at TVC, and there were rules about how many repeats you could order. I never knew whether this was to prevent the chefs being over worked, or to stop the AFMs ordering themselves a free dinner.
In this case, the trifle isn’t eaten, so it could have been prepared by an outside caterer, but the prop buyer would have still tried to limit the amount spent on cash items like this. And the costume designer would definitely have argued against the cost of an extra suit (there may have been a double but for one retake in front of the audience perhaps) for Cleese.
One interesting thing I noticed. The normally ever-reliable Don Smith and his picture editor at 35MHS have his photograph dated 6th September. The actual recording was 7th September. What’s going on there, then?
James on 7 September 2025 @ 12pm
“I’m going to give you a damn good thrashing!”
DocWallace on 7 September 2025 @ 2pm
A lot of people in the socials thread for this suggesting that the cut may be because a vomit stained Kurt collapsing on Mrs Hall and puking again probably got cut for the same reason as the original vomit cutaway.
Is it a step beyond to say that, having had two puke related gags cut here, Mr Creosote became a catharsis for the otherwise bodily function averse Cheese?
DocWallace on 7 September 2025 @ 2pm
Gah, autocorrect strikes right at the end. I meant Cleese.
Rob Keeley on 7 September 2025 @ 3pm
It doesn’t say anything in John’s plot summary about Kurt throwing up on Mrs Hall.
David Wardrop on 7 September 2025 @ 6pm
Absolutely fantastic work. Intriguingly, the original PasC for Gormet Night still lists Cleese as singing ‘Any Old Iron’…
DocWallace on 7 September 2025 @ 9pm
It’s what appears to be in her skirt that was provoking the interest. To me it seems a step too far, but if they did go down that route, it probably explains the exit, as it matches the other reasoning.
John J. Hoare on 8 September 2025 @ 12am
Thanks for the kind words everyone! A few thoughts:
Rob: Yes indeed, Gourmet Night and The Germans were switched in order. In fact, you can see the big fire alarm on the wall in reception in Gourmet Night, the week before it’s needed for the story in The Germans. I don’t know why – maybe they thought The Germans was better as a final episode? Ironically, Germans is the one John Cleese really doesn’t like parts of on the commentary.
John J. Hoare on 8 September 2025 @ 12am
Adam: I never noticed the date on the photo. So here’s what Andrew Pixley states are the recording dates for each episode:
A Touch of Class: 23rd December 1974 (pilot)
The Builders – Sun 3rd August 1975
The Wedding Party – Sun 10th August 1975
The Hotel Inspectors – Sun 17th August 1975
There’s then a week’s gap, followed by:
The Germans – Mon 1st September 1975
Gourmet Night – Sun 7th September 1975
However, the metadata on the Don Smith photos claims The Germans was Sun 31st August, and as you say, Gourmet Night was Mon 6th September. The script itself for Gourmet Night does indeed give the 7th September.
In short, I hate research.
John J. Hoare on 8 September 2025 @ 12am
DocWallace/Rob: So I can confirm that the script itself says nothing about Kurt vomiting on Mrs Hall’s lap. In fact, the script doesn’t say anything about her lap at all – it simply states “HE FALLS IN A HEAP”.
Could it be vomit? Possibly, and I can see *something* there – but I personally doubt it. I just can’t see Cleese pushing things that far. More to the point, it doesn’t really look like vomit to me. I wonder if some drink or something has splashed onto her in the chaos.
John J. Hoare on 8 September 2025 @ 12am
David: This is a brilliant fact! I have the PasC somewhere here for Gourmet Night, but can’t find it off-hand.
The interesting thing is that it indicates it was put together before the final edit was done, which is perhaps a little surprising. Perhaps they just had a REALLY efficient PA.
Leigh Graham on 8 September 2025 @ 12am
I’ve always been conflicted when Basil doesn’t quite put the lid of the dish down correctly if it’s better that the trifle is still visible or not. And who serves trifle like that anyway?
Martin Fenton on 8 September 2025 @ 10am
I thought this article was going to be about why they keep calling an ordinary iced Madeira cake a trifle.
Adam Tandy on 8 September 2025 @ 4pm
David, John:
1975 is just before the new programme numbers came in, so this is pure supposition but if the programme was SyPHERed, the hard fade audio might suggest that the programme was finished long, and then re-edited (without another dub) to bring it down to length. Cleese’s comments on the DVD sound like the other – longer – option might have been floating around for longer. Long enough for a PasC to be typed and not corrected pre-TX.
Adam Tandy on 8 September 2025 @ 5pm
John:
The Fawlty Towers composite set is enormous, and would not have been an easy candidate for an O/N S&L. So if it went in on the previous day, it might have been available for cast rehearsal in the evening. Certainly unusual, but not unheard of, and any show with the theatricality, speed, complexity and size of Fawlty would definitely benefit from it. Don Smith was invariably floating around TVC…
Rob Keeley on 8 September 2025 @ 5pm
The trifle looks like it came from BBC VFX, rather than the kitchens. Inside the icing and sprinkles, it’s foam like you get in fire extinguishers! The original ending explains why they made it so messy.
John J. Hoare on 9 September 2025 @ 2am
Martin:
I wonder if this is similar to the Blackadder turnip/parsnip confusion. Trifle *sounds* funnier, so that’s what they went with.
John J. Hoare on 9 September 2025 @ 2am
Adam, re: shooting dates – it’s at this point that I really wish we had John Cleese’s diaries as well as Palin’s!
Also, if the diaries could just be a dry list of rehearsal and recording dates and absolutely nothing else, that would be great.
David Wardrop on 9 September 2025 @ 10am
John:
Amazingly, I think subsequent PasCs of Gourmet Night just copied and pasted from the original. So, an unaired piece of Fawlty Towers material was hidden in plain sight on BBC documents for 50 years!
Adam:
From my hazy memory, I think Cleese’s ‘Old Iron’ routine is timecoded on the orignal doc, so it looks like the PasC was typed from the longer edit.
John J. Hoare on 10 September 2025 @ 3pm
Just checked my copies of the PasC. They were still mentioning Any Old Iron right up until at least 1998! Once something gets on those bloody things, it never gets revised.
Interestingly, the 1980 one calls the episode “The Gourmet’s Paradise”.
Rob Keeley on 12 September 2025 @ 4pm
I reckon “The Gourmet’s Paradise” is the restaurant that Kurt and Andre founded after the events of this episode.
Bruce Dessau on 21 October 2025 @ 12pm
Putting the trifle lid on a little skew whiff always gives me – to use contemporary parlance – the ick. It’s like the Morecambe and Wise breakfast sketch when Eric doesn’t quite chop one of the grapefruits into equal halves.
John J. Hoare on 29 October 2025 @ 6am
That kind of thing always annoys me. I have to keep telling myself: a version of the programmes where they had endlessly retaken it in order to get it right would NOT have improved the energy of the show. I almost certainly prefer the versions we actually have, despite it making me itchy.
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