The Furchester Hotel

Channel: CBeebies

Running Time: 11 minutes

This is not The Muppets Show.

Premise

In an unnamed megapolis, inbetween the skyscrapers sits the Furchester Hotel - a 'half-star' establishment run by Sesame Street characters. They're the ones who aren't Muppets but look and act a bit like Muppets, but aren't as funny, and have Elmo and the Cookie Monster. In an unerring similarity to Fawlty Towers, to which this blog will make a series of contrived and predictable comparisons, a recurring cast of presumably minimum wage employees spend the episodes solving the various problems caused by idiosyncratic guests; from a goat that won't stop eating the furnishings (as solid an argument for a credit card deposit as you will ever see), to penguins who want to use Chef's gong for tobogganing down the staircases (penguin stereotyping at its most harmless).

Usually the problems are solved by owners Funella Furchester, her husband Fergus Fuzz, and a Spanish waiter called Manuel. Just kidding; their daughter Phoebe is also closely involved, as are all those fluffy things in the picture. They occasionally break out into songs that are just unclear enough to require subtitles, and will worm their way into your head until your child is old enough to sign your euthanasia waiver.

Background

It's an Anglo-American collaboration; Funella has been Anglicised, presumably so that the BBC could keep its funding for another year. There are 104 separate episodes - so only enough for one per week for two uninterrupted years. Bearing in mind this show has only been in production since 2014, that is a major achievement of output. It really shits on Fawlty Towers, which only managed 12 episodes in four years.

Wikipedia contributors have lovingly compiled episode synopses, writing and directing credits, original air dates and trivia notes for 68 of those episodes, suggesting the end of a work experience placement that left a job still left to be done. Please feel free to contribute information for episodes 69-104 for no reason whatsoever.

Entertainment

The theme tune is indeed catchy, though brings more questions than answers : "Your room is ready for you / Just needs to get the bed". Now, I worked for years at a hotel and bar - one of those years as duty manager no less - and with this industry experience I can reveal that Mrs Furchester is being a tad overconfident - dare I say hubristic - in her assessment of the situation. A missing bed was likely to be among the first complaints of a guest staying at our hotel; we avoided these conflicts by ensuring beds did not go missing from rooms from day to day. The Cookie Monster's contribution, "Cookies come with every meal" is charmingly predictable, and though it sounds like a repetitive meal accompaniment, my wife and I stayed in a small hotel in New York City that provided a vat of pink lemonade for its guests, and it was the most amazing thing ever. We literally still talk about it to this day, so you can see why the makers of the show might have thought to include it in the opening sequence.

Oh, for fuck's sake, again?

In terms of the actual storylines, there is an endearing inevitability about so many of the problems that the staff of the Furchester will face, and as a grown up, you can feel smug about anticipating the plot twists in this pre-school series. Those with a keen eye for foreshadowing and proleptic irony will enjoy watching episodes again to pick up on shrewdly placed motifs.

Phoebe serves as a smart foil to the chaos around her, and although there are elements of farce, there is a sense that all small businesses struggle for consistency. In a hotel, where there are so many variables to consider, you can forgive the staff for their individual foibles given their obvious work ethic. To further illustrate this, there are few to no scenes where we see the characters relaxing in their own time, so Conservatives will enjoy seeing business interests come before workers' rights. There are no racist characters, so that's another in the 'plus column' when compared with Fawlty Towers' Major Gowen. 

Elmo gets a bit irritating after the first few words.

Ratings:

Sex: Given the setting, you might expect something a bit racier, but ultimately this is an innuendo-free zone. Some celebrity excitement though, with episode 56's guest 'Chick Swagger', who comes to perform his latest song 'The Tail Feather Shake', which might set some pulses racing for people who shouldn't be watching children's TV. Phoebe is quite hot, and seems to be single, though she is not yet on Tinder. 5/10

Phoebe: Not yet on Tinder

Education: There is a genuine problem-solving aspect to the show, but they are unlikely to be used by Google as interview brain-teasers. 3/10

Music: As well as the lyrically challenging theme tune, there are some recurring favourites, such as 'A Furchester Never Gives Up', 'Catastrophe' (which occurs more often than you would wish for a hotel still awaiting its first TripAdvisor review), and the rather needy and desperate 'Don't Check Out'. They will run around your brain like a Kenyan marathon runner.

Plausibility: The hotel is nestled between many high-rise office blocks, and you have to think that by now, Funella and Fergus would have cashed in on the premises, and retired somewhere a bit more peaceful. They seem to go through a lot of stress for a building that is clearly in disrepair, and they would do well to sell out to a developer who could really do something with the space. Given that, it is nice to see an independent name going it alone in an increasingly competitive world. Nice touches of realism in the episode 'Hotel Inspector', which definitely does not steal the premise and title of Fawlty Towers' 'The Hotel Inspectors'.

Overall: A genuinely charming addition to the schedules. A bit of farce, a bit of music, a lot of colour, and enough British influence to not make your child's grandparents angry about America. A bit heavy going for the very early morning schedules; any time past 8:00am and it should set you up well for the day. 7/10