Basil and Sybil Fawlty return home to find the health inspector, Mr. Carnegie (John Quarmby), doing his normal semi-annual visit. His list of infractions is long. He tells the Fawltys that he will return in 24 hours to check on their work. If they don’t fix all the problems by then, he will close the hotel. The Fawltys and the staff all pitch in together to clean and fix everything on the list.
When Basil goes to Manuel’s room to give him instructions, he meets the waiter’s pet. Manuel tells Basil that the animal is a pedigree Siberian hamster. Basil recognizes it as your basic rat. Basil tells Manuel that he has to get rid of the rat. Manuel is inconsolable. Polly says she knows someone who likes animals and will take care of the rat, which Manuel has named Basil. In reality Polly and Manuel hid the rat in a shed in the back of the hotel. When Manuel goes to feed Basil the rat, he finds that it has escaped.
The rat ends up in the lounge where Major Gowen sees it. The Major gets his shotgun and starts hunting the rat. Basil puts out some poison veal for the rat but ends up poisoning all the veal on hand. Basil now must retrieve all the veal being served to diners, including Mr. Carnegie, before anyone gets poisoned.
The sign in front of the hotel reads Farty Towels. The F is crooked, and a W is missing.
This was the last episode of the series but by no means the least. The entire series has wonderful moments, and everyone has their favorite episode. Several attempts were made to bring back the show but with no success. America tried to make its own version of the series, “Chateau Snavely”, “Amanda’s” and “Payne”, but with no success.
In 2023 Cleese and his daughter Camilla tried to reboot the show in cooperation with Rob Reiner, however, plans for the new show appears to be falling apart. I’m not sure if you can do a reboot of the series today. Much of the 1970’s series included politically incorrect humor among the pratfalls, innuendos and slapstick action.
The character Mrs. Taylor was played by Melody Lang, Andrew Sachs real life wife.