This excellent touring production of Fawlty Towers – the play runs at Nottingham Theatre Royal until Saturday 6th June. The tour is cast with a brand new cast retaining Hemi Yerham (Manuel), and Paul Nicolas (The Major) from the original sell out West End production at the Apollo Theatre.

Written for the stage by John Cleese, based on three of Cleese’s favourite original twelve televised episodes, the show blends the stories of the hotel inspector, the deaf Mrs Richards, Basil’s secret horse racing bet and the Germans visit all cleverly sequenced within a familiar and hilarious stage farce. It is a fairly short show but really brings out the comedy guns with gusto and fine detailing in the direction (Caroline Jane Ranger).The result is fun, frantic and frivolous.

Liz Ashcroft’s set and costumes are a delight to the eye and one can even imagine the hidden lounge and kitchen areas made so familiar by the 1975 television programmes written by John Cleese and Connie Booth.

All the principals offer accurate stand-out performances: Mia Austen (Sybil Fawlty), Danny Bayne (Basil Fawlty), Hemi Yeroham (Manuel), Joanne Clifton (Polly Sherman), Paul Nicholas (The Major), and Jemma Churchill (Mrs Richards). The remaining ensemble roles are well acted and choreographed in the arts of comedy characters and comedy timing. They are all a joy to watch and offer a fun evening ensured to be full of laughter and talking moose heads. As a farce it is Fawlt-less.