Basil the Rat (25^th October 1979)

A hygiene inspector arrives unannounced at the hotel - much to Basil’s annoyance, of course - and discovers several areas which are distinctly unhygienic and orders Basil to remedy them all by the time of his return visit. Unfortunately, his return visit to check up on their progress coincides with Manuel’s pet rat escaping from its illicit home in one of the outbuildings, and as soon as the rat is spotted in the hotel itself, all hell breaks loose……….

This final episode of the series is the one which I’m most unfamiliar with, simply because I’d recorded it off of the TV on a videotape all on its own which then went missing for a few years, and so I became very familiar with the other 11 episodes though much less so with Basil the Rat. Of all the people in the world that Basil is most frightened of, a health & hygiene inspector from the local council must be up there in the top 3 (Sybil being at the top of the list, naturally, most probably followed by the Hotel Inspectors from the episode of the same name). Thus Basil is at his most manic in this episode, frantically trying to avoid upsetting his ‘honoured’ guest wherever possible. As usual, this behaviour only occurs once Basil has actually realised the status of the strange man who’s been foraging in the kitchen unannounced; prior to this he treats the inspector with as much contempt and sarcasm as he does with anyone he meets for the first time – it’s guilty until proven innocent as far as Basil’s concerned.

Aside from trying to ingratiate himself with Mr Carnegie the hygiene inspector (for obvious reasons), Basil doesn’t really resort to any of his usual toadying in this episode.

Again, there are no real references to more common folk in Basil The Rat.

Though I’m sure Basil would, if needed, have resorted to sexual favours towards Mr Carnegie in order to gain a clean bill of health for the hotel, there are no direct references to nookie in this episode.

As mentioned in my overview, Basil initially mistakes the health inspector as some erstwhile guest who’s managed to wander into the kitchen by mistake and is helping himself to a snack from the fridge whilst he’s there. Manuel also makes a crucial mistake in the episode by assuming that his ‘filigree Siberian hamster’ is exactly what the man at the pet-shop told him it was, rather than the common rat that Basil and everyone else can see that it really is. Unfortunately Manuel has become so attached to the rodent that he really doesn’t care what it is, so Basil’s comment that General Franco must have had all the rats in Spain shot if the clueless Spanish waiter can’t recognise his pet for what it is, is somewhat wasted on him.

The posh couple who are trying their best to enjoy a quiet lunch in the restaurant are bemused by Mr Fawlty’s odd behaviour, and make the understandable mistake of thinking that his crawling around under the table is an excuse to get a closer look at the young lady’s legs rather than the ‘I think a bread roll fell down there’ excuse that Basil gives, though of course he is in fact trying to apprehend the escapee rodent which was seen scurrying under there.

Where do I start? Who can forget the sight of the dumfounded Mr Carneige as he’s offered a cream cracker only to be greeted by the sight of Basil the rat sitting in the biscuit box twitching at him? Or the demented nature of Major Gowan when he spots the rat in the bar and prepares to shoot it with a double-barrelled shotgun? One of my favourite moments is prior to us learning the name of the rat, where Manuel goes to the outhouse to feed his pet, crouches down, claps his hands together and calls out: "Basil!" After this, of course, Cleese and Booth as writers were able to use the rodent’s name to cause a bit of confusion in the hotel (as if there wasn’t enough already). Whilst the mix-up between Basil Fawlty and Basil the Rat was fairly predictable, the line of "You put Basil in the Ratatouille??" was not and so is another of my favourite moments in this episode.

John Quarmby played the Health & Hygiene Inspector in this episode, and he managed just the right amount of dull seriousness coupled with occasional sarcasm – in fact all the character traits of the archetypal government busy-body.

Recording of the final episode of Fawlty Towers was delayed due to industrial action (again, the same bout of strikes which caused the cancellation of Shada). Although it faired better than Doctor Who in as much as it managed to avoid cancellation, it wasn’t completed until after the previous episode had aired, thus the viewing audience had to wait a full seven months after transmission of The Anniversary to see Basil the Rat.