Fawlty Towers “The Builders”. Photo: BBC

With a majority of Planet Earth still in some form of lockdown or, at least, a sheltering-at-home mode, many people are turning to a variety of different DIY projects to stay busy, remain sane or just pass the time in-between the seemingly endless number of Zoom calls that populate the daylight hours.

For today’s Friday Funny from Tellyspotting, one simply has to look to a little DIY project at Fawlty Towers that went horribly wrong thanks to one, Mr. O’Reilly (played wonderfully but David Kelly). Unfortunately, for Basil, rather than take care of the renovations himself or, more importantly, take Sybil’s advice to have the work done by a professional workman, Mr. Stubbs, he contacts Mr. O’Reilly who has been responsible for several questionable jobs done at the hotel over the years. Basically, Basil likes him because he’s cheap so he has O’Reilly’s men take care of the work while Sybil is on a golfing holiday with friends. You know the rest….

So, the lesson learned here is…if you are thinking of tackling a similar DIY project at home over the course of the next few months — make sure you use a concrete lintel or an I-Beam — as your door could be on a load-bearing wall. If not, the supporting wall could give way at any moment and cause the entire house to collapse. Just a thought…