What's the Topic? Communication problems (real and contrived)

We opened this part of the book with a consideration of the challenge that confronts a person wishing to communicate effectively. Failure to communicate effectively can at times have dire consequences. At other times it can provide a rich source of comedy. The extract that follows is taken from an episode of the classic 1980s British television situation comedy Fawlty Towers entitled ‘Communications Problems’. One of the communication problems in the title centres on the failure of Mrs Richards’ hearing aids to operate correctly, although there is some evidence to suggest that its malfunctioning may be somewhat selective. Cast

John Cleese	Basil Fawlty
Prunella Scales	Sybil Fawlty
Andrew Sachs	Manuel
Connie Booth	Polly
Joan Sanderson	Mrs Richards
Ballard Berekley	Major Gowen
Gilly Flower	Miss Tibbs
Renee Roberts	Miss Gatsby

Scene: Interior, hotel reception area, Fawlty Towers MISS TIBBS and MISS GATSBY

[in unison] Good afternoon

MRS RICHARDS

[speaking to two elderly ladies as they cross the hotel reception] First they give me a room with no view and then there’s no lavatory paper.

MISS GATSBY

Oh!

MISS TIBBS

Would you like some of ours?

[Mrs Richards rings counter bell furiously]

MISS GATSBY

We keep an extra supply.

MISS TIBBS

Would you like some of ours?

MRS RICHARDS

[rings bell insistently] Hello! Girl! There’s no paper in my room. Why don’t you check these things? That’s what you’re being paid for, isn’t it?

POLLY

Well we don’t put it in the rooms.

MRS RICHARDS

What?!!

POLLY

We keep it in the lounge.

MRS RICHARDS

In the lounge!

POLLY

I’ll get you some. Do you want plain ones or ones with our address on it?

MRS RICHARDS

Address on it?

POLLY

How many sheets? [look of disbelief on Mrs Richards’ face.] Well how many are you going to use?

MRS RICHARDS

[rings bells furiously] Manager!

POLLY

Well? Just enough for one?

MRS RICHARDS

Manager! Manager!

BASIL FAWLTY

[emerges from the kitchen, cupping his hands to his mouth to amplify his voice] Yes. Testing. Testing.

MRS RICHARDS

There you are! I’ve never met such insolence in my life. I come down here to get some lavatory paper and she starts asking me the most insulting, personal things I’ve ever heard in my life.

POLLY

I thought she wanted writing paper.

MRS RICHARDS

I’m talking to you, what?

BASIL FAWLTY

What?

MRS RICHARDS

Are you deaf? I said ‘I’m talking to you’. I’ve never met such insolence in my life. She said people use it in the lounge.

BASIL FAWLTY

Yes, yes, she thought—

MRS RICHARDS

Then she started asking me the most awful—

BASIL FAWLTY

No no no, please listen. [Mrs Richards talks over him apparently oblivious to what he is saying.] No no no please I can explain. No no she thought you wanted to write.

MRS RICHARDS

Wanted a fight? I’ll give her a fight all right.

BASIL FAWLTY

No no no no – wanted to write.

MRS RICHARDS

What?!!

BASIL FAWLTY

Wanted to write. On the paper [makes handwriting gesture].

MRS RICHARDS

Why should I want to write on it?

BASIL FAWLTY

[exasperated] I’ll have some sent up to your room immediately. Hah. [Bangs desk bell] Manuel!

MRS RICHARDS

That doesn’t work either. What were you saying then?

BASIL FAWLTY

[leans forward and shouts] Turn it on [indicates hearing aid].

MRS RICHARDS

What?

BASIL FAWLTY

[leans further forward] TURN! IT! [Grabs paper and pen] TURN. IT. ON. [Holds handwritten note up to Mrs Richards.]

MRS RICHARDS

[impatiently] I can’t read that. I need my glasses. [She looks through her handbag] Where are they?

BASIL FAWLTY

They’re on your head, Mrs Richards.

MRS RICHARDS

[continues to look through her bag’s contents] I’ve lost them. They’re the only pair I’ve got. I can’t read a thing without them.

BASIL FAWLTY

Excuse me [raises left hand in air]

MRS RICHARDS

Now I had them this morning—

BASIL FAWLTY

Mrs Richards. Mrs Richards.

MRS RICHARDS

When I was buying the vase. I put them on to look at it.

POLLY

Mrs Richards [leans towards her, raising right hand in air] Hello!

MRS RICHARDS

I had them at tea time.

BASIL FAWLTY

[points to her head] Mrs Richards – your glasses are there.

MRS RICHARDS

There. Well who put them in there? [Misreads Basil’s pointing finger as pointing across the hotel foyer and walks across it towards the dining room door]

BASIL FAWLTY

No no no. On your head.

MRS RICHARDS

What?

BASIL FAWLTY

ON. YOUR. [Writes furiously on notepaper] ON. YOUR. Agh! [Gives up.]

What's Next?

Make a list of each of the communication problems encountered by the characters in this extract. Consider how each one might be resolved.