Interview: Interactive Theatre's Jared Harford on Faulty Towers: The Dining Experience

Photo: Rosie Powell

Interactive Theatre's Faulty Towers: The Dining Experience is an immersive dinner show inspired by the classic BBC sitcom. As part of the experience, guests are treated to a three-course 1970s-inspired meal while Basil, Sybil and Manuel attempt to keep service running smoothly, with predictably disastrous results unfolding around them.

Since premiering, the show has enjoyed countless residencies across the UK and toured more than 40 countries, welcoming over a million guests worldwide. In 2027, Interactive Theatre will mark its 30th anniversary, and the London production of Faulty Towers: The Dining Experience will enter its 15th year.

We recently sat down with Interactive Theatre's Executive Producer, Jared Harford, to discuss, among other things, how Faulty Towers: The Dining Experience first came to be, the key to its remarkable longevity, and how the cast occasionally find themselves a little too in character...

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Immersive Rumours: Hi Jared. Thanks for speaking with us today. To kick things off, do you mind introducing yourself and telling us a bit about Interactive Theatre and its work?

Jared Harford: I’m Jared Harford, and I'm the Executive Producer - which is just the really wanky title that you give yourself when you're the person who has to come up with all the money for everything - at Interactive Theatre. The company will have been going for 30 years next year, and we’re currently in the planning stages for next year’s giant tours. 

Faulty Towers: The Dining Experience is the show that started the company, which is also turning 30 next year and is about to be 15 in the West End, which is very exciting. Aside from that, we do several other interactive-style shows.

In Australia we’ve got Confetti & Chaos, which is a wedding reception-style show. In the UK we’ve got Sheer Luck Holmes and Live and Let Dine, which are Sherlock Holmes and James Bond parody dining experiences, alongside a kids' show - Signor Baffo. We’re also working with a couple of other Fringey, off-West End shows that are looking to come and tour Australia next year, so we do lots of different things all around the world.

Immersive Rumours: How did Faulty Towers: The Dining Experience first come about?

Jared Harford: So the woman who created and wrote it, Alison Pollard-Mansergh, was essentially an out-of-work actress at the time. Like the forming of every great Fringe show - even though it wasn't a Fringe show, because that didn't really exist in Australia at the time - she just wrote herself a show. She got together with two improvisers/comedians in Brisbane, Australia, and they just thought, ‘Let’s do this night’. They got booked to do an evening for a dinner function, so they got together and came up with what became Faulty Towers. 

They thought it would work for six months, but it just kept going and going and going, and here we are 29 years later…

Immersive Rumours: As you mentioned, over on UK shores, Faulty Towers: The Dining Experience has enjoyed a 14-year run, and it’s toured the country multiple times alongside the West End version at The President Hotel. Why do you think the show has seen such huge success over here?

Jared Harford: When it was first written, Faulty Towers was incredibly unique. This idea of going to the theatre and not sitting in the seats and watching something on stage but instead being in amongst the action was, in its time, 30 years ago, mind-blowingly new. 

Nowadays, lots of people do similar concepts and lots of people do immersive theatre, so it’s not as groundbreaking anymore, but I do think that’s one of the things that’s given it such longevity. It was one of the original kinds of immersive-style shows. Of course, it's different every night, which adds a nice element to the show and makes audiences want to keep coming back, but also, the nature of it, I think, is what’s allowed it to have such a long life.

It's all very well and good to go along and sit there and watch something on stage, and you go, ‘OK, yeah, cool, that was fun’. But you get to actually be involved, and when it's based on such a beloved concept like Fawlty Towers, why would you want to sit in a chair and watch something on stage that you could see on TV when you could come along and be actively involved in the creation of your very own Fawlty Towers episode?

That's what's really made it such a long-running show -  giving audiences that chance to live out a fantasy episode of TV that they couldn't have otherwise done.

Photo: Rosie Powell

Immersive Rumours: Is that how you view the show? As if it's the lost thirteenth episode of the original series?

Jared Harford: We've had lots of people say that before because we don't use the TV script. That's one of the things that really sets it apart - it's its own original script. Obviously there's catchphrases - you can't go away with not using some of the catchphrases - and if people in the audience call out a line from the TV series, the actors will respond with the correct line. If someone said ‘I want a Waldorf salad’ and we just went ‘Too bad’, that would be crap for everybody. You've got to respond with ‘Oh, fresh out, I'm afraid’. 

There’s certainly an element of ensuring that you're not just replicating the TV show but also making sure that you're touching enough points that people are like, ‘Oh, yeah, I get where we're going here’. As to it being like a thirteenth episode, I’d say yeah, it is, but with the caveat that you want it to be different enough each night that really we’d be in the thousands of episodes.

Immersive Rumours: Have audience expectations for the experience changed over the years, with the popularity of immersive and interactive theatre continuing to grow?

Jared Harford: Yeah, I think there's a lot more expectation these days. I actively steer away from saying it's immersive. I don't call it that anymore because when people think of immersive now, they’d think of a full recreation of the Fawlty Towers set, and would want to see all of the waiters in period costume, as if you stepped off a London street and bang, you’re in 1970s Cornwall. I now call it an interactive, immersive style. 

But the thing for us is that the stripped-back nature of it really allows people to use their own imagination. We can only go as far as we can while working within some of the constraints that we have. There's no way we would have been able to tour over forty countries if we had to recreate the hotel. Unlike a regular touring show that might need to go sit somewhere for a week to a couple of months, we're going places for a night, and then we move on to the next town, which is much more flexible and adaptable.

Immersive Rumours: Given the show has toured around so much of the world, are there any cultural differences you've had to account for when it comes to the moments of audience interaction?

Jared Harford: Basically, anywhere that’s part of the Commonwealth knows the humour, knows the show and understands the references, so there are no real changes needed. When the show is in countries like Sweden, Finland, Iceland, etc., they’re not part of the Commonwealth, but they’re close enough to the UK that they speak English incredibly well and happen to have also grown up on the show. 

Of course, we make minor tweaks and add in some references to the locations we’re in, just like any good comedian does. The first thing you do when you get somewhere is ask ‘Where's the really crap place that everyone makes jokes about, and if I wanted to say that someone was a snob, where would they be from?’.

Ali - who wrote the show - when she was touring in Denmark, she would always make a reference to stealing the bicycles, and that used to go down a hoot in Amsterdam and wherever else it was performed, because it was a reference to what the Nazis did in World War Two. The locals just thought it was hilarious that they were obviously making a war reference but keeping it topical and not being offensive about it. So, yeah, you've got to tweak some of it, but thankfully not too much.

Photo: Rosie Powell

Immersive Rumours: The original TV series is, of course, a product of its time and has had several cuts made in subsequent years to remove offensive, outdated language. The Dining Experience is set in the 70s but has a much more modern take on the series' subject matter. How often do you have to update the script and references to make sure it stays up to date with where we are as a culture?

Jared Harford: Faulty Towers is a live piece of theatre, so things are constantly changing and being updated. Even as little as ten years ago, there was a reference in the script involving some butter that we don't use anymore, because someone pointed out that it can be quite offensive. We’d bring out a tray of butter and place it in front of one person, then Basil would come out and say ‘It’s not all for you, don’t be so greedy’. One night it just happened to get put in front of someone who had an eating disorder, and it was something that hadn’t ever been considered, so we quickly changed that. 

It's all very well and good to make a joke at the expense of Basil, Sybil or Manuel, because they're not real people; they’re characters from 1970, but you wouldn't do that to someone in the audience because that's not funny. 

Immersive Rumours: Do you find that nowadays, you're getting more people coming to the show that have never seen the original series, or do you think the show is still ageing alongside a core audience who are more familiar with the show’s inspiration?

Jared Harford: It depends. In the UK, we don't have that issue because every single person in the country knows Fawlty Towers. You do get people who say that they've never seen it, and that really does shock me in the UK, but it’s very few people who are coming in having grown up in the UK and haven’t seen the show. 

Elsewhere in the world, it really depends. You'll obviously get your older demographic, and they know the show, and they grew up with the show.

Then you've got the ones who are coming along because their parents or grandparents watched it. In America, you're getting a younger audience coming through because it's out on streaming and BritBox is huge, and everyone's wanting to watch that.

Photo: Rosie Powell

Immersive Rumours: I’d love to discuss the show’s dining elements, as they’re a big part of the experience. The show’s menu has remained a constant for many years now and leans into the kind of offerings you’d have found at a 70s hotel. There’s a case to be made that the food should be pretty bland and subpar to match the setting, so how do you balance that expectation with the reality that you need to provide a good experience with good food?

Jared Harford: Making sure that people are having good food is hugely important because otherwise people aren't going to have a good night. You’ll likely have noticed when you attended, but the service when we serve the starter is really bad, and the other two courses aren't. That's deliberate, because the first time it happens, it's funny. When people get upset at you, it's funny. I actually kind of love it when people get angry at the waiters, because the waiters and actors get to snap back at them.

The other two courses are served normally because it wouldn't be funny if it kept happening and then people are becoming genuinely frustrated.  We’ve obviously got to consider that people are coming out and spending quite a bit of money to attend, so we want them to have a good night out.

When we perform at the Sydney Opera House, and the chefs are Michelin-starred, people are expecting a Michelin-starred meal, so their ticket price reflects that. On nights where it’s your general run-of-the-mill food, the ticket price reflects that also.

Immersive Rumours: Logistically, the dining aspects of the experience must be a bit of a headache behind the scenes, as all 100+ guests need to be served all at once and at specific moments in the show. How is it trying to organise all of that with the venues?

Jared Harford: Everything is coordinated to the absolute nth degree. The run sheet that gets sent to each venue gives instructions on when things need to be plated by, how long the window of service is, and so on. Everything is timed down to the last second. A lot of work goes into making sure that everything goes really smoothly.

We're really lucky in London, where we’re performing all year round. This is our fourth year at the President Hotel, so they're very good, and they know how everything runs. Normally, when you go to a venue for the first time, you spend that first hour going over everything to make sure they understand how it's all going to work. 

Sybil also spends a lot of time going into the kitchen during the show - it’s in her script, saying the first thing you do when you come off the floor is walk into the kitchen and say, ‘Right, you need to start doing this now’.

Later, when Manuel comes off, he'll have something and need to put it in the kitchen, so every time any of the performers come off, they’re sharing where they’re at in the script so the team knows where they should be at.

The cast are almost stage-arming as well as performing.

Photo: Rosie Powell

Immersive Rumours: So the kitchen staff are getting their own tiny version of the show where they're going, ‘Oh, God, Sybil's here. We need to move faster’.

Jared Harford: Yeah. What's funny is that sometimes, the actors refuse to come out of character. Most of them will come off stage, walk into the kitchen and drop character, but you get some who refuse, and they'll say, ‘No, I'm in costume. I'm in character.’ and Basil will be berating them in the kitchen. The most difficult one, of course, is Manuel, who’ll be asked a question and just won't give a straight answer. 

There are times when I see that, and I'll just be like, ‘Can you just, for a moment, for the safety of the show, stop being Manuel’, but you can't say that to an actor because they get very offended…

Immersive Rumours: 2027 is set to be a big year as the show celebrates 30 years internationally and 15 years in the West End. Are there any big plans in the works for the milestone?

Jared Harford: There’s a lot happening in the background. What I can say at the moment is that we've got some very big national tours happening in Australia and the UK. We've got a big international tour happening, and obviously London will be continuing to do its thing, alongside some new additions that are coming to the London version of the show next year to celebrate turning fifteen. 

Basically, there’s lots of versions of the show happening all around the world, which is very exciting.

Review: Faulty Towers - The Dining Experience (London)

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Faulty Towers - The Dining Experience runs at the President Hotel near Russell Square. Tickets are priced from £65.00 per person and include a three-course meal. For more information and to book tickets, visit faultytowersdining.com