His Lordship Entertains (1972)

• Comedy

His Lordship Entertains was Ronnie Barker's second sitcom vehicle for his Lord Rustless character, first seen three years earlier in Hark at Barker on ITV. This time though, Rustless had switched channels and was now appearing on BBC2. Hark at Barker had also included sketch inserts, whereas His Lordship Entertains was a regular sitcom. Set again in the aristocratic Chrome Hall, which had now become a hotel. It again also starred David Jason as the 100 year old Dithers and Josephine Tewson as Mildred Bates. Two actors who would go on to have a long working relationship with Barker. In fact all of the regular cast reprised their roles from Hark at Barker. Barker wrote all the scripts under the pseudonym Jonathan Cobbald. He liked to refer to the show as "Fawlty Towers mark one" as it appeared on television three years before that other hotel bound sitcom. Four episodes of the sitcom were recently performed on stage by Nottingham University's New Theatre.