Faulty Towers The Dining Experience, the critically acclaimed international immersive phenomenon that has just celebrated its tenth year in London moves to its new home, President Hotel in Russell Square, with performances from 21 January. Due to popular demand, the producers have also announced that they will increase the number of weekly performances to six from February onwards.
A loving tribute to the BBC’s classic TV series, the show has been seen by over a million people worldwide since it was born in Australia in 1997. As London’s longest running immersive show, Faulty Towers The Dining Experience is a highly interactive experience, where audiences enjoy a 3-course meal and 5-star comedy.
When the audience become diners in the ‘Faulty Towers’ restaurant, pretty much anything can happen – because 70% of the show is improvised. The fun starts as guests wait to be seated. It then hurtles along in a 2-hour tour de force of gags and shambolic service as Basil, Sybil and Manuel serve a ‘70s-style 3-course meal together with a good dollop of mayhem.
Expect the unexpected!
President Hotel is situated in the heart of Bloomsbury, just a few minutes’ walk from Russell Square underground and the British Museum, making it a perfect location for visitors to explore central London from. The décor has a vintage sixties theme, inspired by The Beatles, who made the hotel their temporary home in 1963 when they first moved down from Liverpool. Many of the 523 guest rooms overlook Russell Square, with the BT Tower and the British Museum’s glass domed roof peering out in the distance.
Charles Maw, Hotel Manager of the President, said, “As a family hotel business, welcoming guests to London for almost 200 years, we are extremely excited to be hosting the Faulty Towers The Dining Experience at our President Hotel. Since it first opened in 1962, the President has welcomed many famous guests through its doors, including Cilla Black and the Beatles. We are delighted to be continuing this legacy by welcoming Basil, his wife Sybil and Manuel to the hotel, and we wish them many more successful years - 200 perhaps!”
Producer Jared Harford said, “We’re so thrilled to be announcing our new, long-term partnership, that sees us cementing our place on London’s West End. After ending our first decade with the horrors of covid, we’re looking forward to leaving that all behind and welcoming back audiences in our new location. The way the audiences have responded to our reopening in 2021 gives us the confidence to open more shows through the week, and we have even more opportunities to keep adding them as demand returns. We’re still yet to meet the Royal Family, but I think the Presidential Family is the next best thing.”
The company of actors (thirteen in total in London) include; Jack Baldwin, Jonathon Saunders, Rob Langston, Benedict Holme, and Dave Tremaine alternating as ‘Basil’; Kat Mary, Nerine Skinner, Suzanna Hughes, Karina Garnett and Rebecca Norris alternating as ‘Sybil’; Oliver Ford, Leigh Kelly, Ben Hood, and Anthony Clegg as ‘Manuel’.
Born in Australia in April 1997, devised by Alison Pollard-Mansergh, the show has been touring the UK and internationally since 2008, having appeared in 41 countries to date, and employing 56 actors per season. The show has toured to over 1000 venues, with approximately 400 shows per year on average in the UK alone. 2021 has already seen runs at Sydney Opera House, Adelaide Fringe and Melbourne International Comedy Festival, with tours in Ireland, Scandinavia, and Australia yet to come.
In October 2009, Faulty Towers The Dining Experience played its first performance in London: a sold-out weekend in Covent Garden. The next two years saw sold out summer seasons of six weeks. Then, in 2012, the show opened its first London West End residency at Charing Cross Hotel (now Amba Hotel Charing Cross). Since opening, the cast have performed to notable guests including Fawlty Towers' very own Andrew Sachs, John McEnroe, Stefan Edberg, and England footballer Joe Cole, as well as taking a pop-up version of their restaurant on the London Underground and to a sold-out Royal Albert Hall.
Faulty Towers The Dining Experience is a loving tribute to Fawlty Towers, the BBC TV series written by John Cleese and Connie Booth. Their TV scripts are not used in Faulty Towers The Dining Experience. Faulty Towers The Dining Experience uses its own original scripts and format.
