359. Dining With The Faultys At The Council House.

There should be theatre involved when dining out but not, we hope, drama. Certainly dinner should not be a tragedy, or for that matter, a comedy to any great degree but a chef who can inject wit and a sense of humour into his fine dishes will usually be among the more successful of his profession.

While restaurant dramas are more often set in the kitchen than the dining room, one salle de manger, which has become familiar to several generations is that situated in the fictitious hotel restaurant, Fawlty Towers, allegedly located in 1980s Torquay, which is presided over by the misanthropic snob and hotelier Basil Fawlty, his domineering and long suffering wife Sybil, both unably assisted by their waiter, the hapless Manuel who originated in Barcelona.

More than a decade ago a stage version of the comedy, or perhaps it should be named a restaurant version, of the programme was introduced in which diners pay to eat in a theatre or somewhere else suitable to be served a meal by the awful trio.

When I saw that Faulty Towers The Dining Experience was coming to Birmingham for a limited run and that it was to be staged and served in the rather grand banqueting hall of the Council House, then I resolutely hurried to bag myself a seat at the table, so to speak.

Everything kicked off in the bar area where Basil had his first opportunities to berate Manuel for his errors of English-Spanish misinterpretation and then the diners moved into the marbled dining room for the two hour performance which included vignettes of some of the famous scenes of the television programme. The first food to appear were the delicious little brioches rolls which Manuel largely threw at the diners and then , served by professional waitresses, delicious tomato and basil soup which was much better than I might have expected though a little cool, an inevitable result of the shenanigans taking place around us. At one stage, as the hilarity increased, the chef’s dentures were located in one diner’s bowl by Mr Faulty as he prowled around the banqueting suite conversing with his guests.

After Manuel had sung “Viva Espagne” whilst standing on a table, Sybil had had several opportunities to berate her unappealing husband, Basil had attempted to place a horse racing bet without Sybil becoming aware of it and Manuel had paraded Basil, his pet ‘Siberian hamster’, around the dining room, the Faultys and their assistant took their bows to well-deserved applause and the meal proceeded with a wonderful chicken supreme, delicious beyond expectation, succulent and tasty with the subtle flavour of tarragon and accompanied by an accurately cooked fondant potato and nicely textured carrot. This was really very, very good.