His Lordship Entertains, 1972
His Lordship Entertains was the second outing for Ronnie Barker’s Lord Rustless character, who we had first seen three years earlier in Hark at Barker.
As well as getting a whole new sitcom his Lordship also got a new channel as His Lordship Entertains was screened on BBC2.
All the characters from Hark at Barker reprise their roles including two that would go on to work with Barker in other roles through the years: David jason and Josephine Tewson.
Ronnie Barker wrote all the scripts using the pseudonym Jonathan Cobbald. He would later refer to the show as”Fawlty Towers mk1″ on account it appeared on television three years before that other hotel bound sitcom.
Summary
Once again the setting is the aristocratic Chrome Hall, which has now become a hotel. However there have been various obstacles to overcome along the way.
Clips
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Cast
Ronnie Barker – Lord Rustless
Josephine Tewson – Mildred Bates
David Jason – Dithers, the gardener
Mary Baxter – Cook
Moira Foot – Effie, the maid
Frank Gatliff – Badger, the butler
Mary Merrall – Mrs Ringer
Details
Channel: BBC2
Written By: Jonathan Cobbald (Ronnie Barker)
Original Transmission Dates: 5th June – 17th July 1972
Archive Status
For many years it was thought that the series had been entirely lost after the tapes were wiped by the BBC. However, the first episode of His Lordship Entertains, ‘The Food Inspector’, was recovered in 2009. In addition the scripts were published in Ronnie Barker’s anthology “All I Ever Wrote”.