Faulty Towers The Dining Experience, the critically acclaimed international immersive phenomenon that has just celebrated its tenth year in London, will move to a new home in 2022, The President Hotel in Russell Square.
Due to high demand for tickets and sell out shows at its current home at the Radisson Blue Edwardian (where its current run ends on 19 December) 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!
The 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!”
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.
