Torquay's finest hotel has some interesting new guests - Mrs.Chase ( Mavis Pugh ) and her pampered dog Prince, Dr.Price ( Geoffrey Palmer ) who loves sausages but never seems to get them, and Mr.Leeman ( Derek Royle ). Feeling unwell, the latter retires to his room. The next morning, he is discovered dead in bed. Suspicion immediately falls on the kipper he was given for breakfast. Basil goes frantic trying to conceal it from Price.
He next has to worry about the guests not seeing the body, so he, Manuel, and Polly, lug it from one part of the hotel to another. Leeman's colleagues turn up to take him to a business meeting. How best to explain the situation?
John Cleese took the view during the writing of Season 2 that, being little more than a collection of farces, the show would benefit by being pushed in a slightly more macabre direction. He risked alienating the audience by doing so, but went ahead, and the result is one of the season's undisputed highlights. He got the idea from a hotelier friend, who told him the hardest part of the job was 'getting rid of the stiffs'.
Mavis Pugh went on to play the batty 'Lady Lavender' in the underrated Jimmy Perry & David Croft sitcom 'You Rang M'lord', while Geoffrey Palmer is a national comic treasure through his roles in 'The Fall & Rise Of Reginald Perrin', 'Butterflies', and 'As Time Goes By'. Derek Royle was 'Dr.Hogg' in the popular children's show 'Hogg's Back' on I.T.V. in the '70's, and later replaced ( briefly as it turned out, he died after only 8 episodes ) Jack Haig as 'Monsieur Leclerc' in 'Allo, Allo'. Robert McBain, who played 'Mr.Xerxes', was also in a children's comedy show - the Freddie & The Dreamers' sketch show 'Little Big Time' - in which he played a variety of pompous Englishmen. Richard Davies, who plays 'Mr.White' was teacher 'Mr.Price' in 'Please, Sir!'.
Funniest moment - Miss Tibbs, hysterical on seeing the late Leeman, is slapped hard by Polly. So hard in fact that she loses consciousness. "Spiffing!", exclaims Basil, "Two guests dead, twenty-five to go!".
Second funniest moment - Manuel is trying to stop Dr.Price from having breakfast. Basil intervenes. "Let me explain!", he says, and then pokes the Spanish waiter in the left eye.
He next has to worry about the guests not seeing the body, so he, Manuel, and Polly, lug it from one part of the hotel to another. Leeman's colleagues turn up to take him to a business meeting. How best to explain the situation?
John Cleese took the view during the writing of Season 2 that, being little more than a collection of farces, the show would benefit by being pushed in a slightly more macabre direction. He risked alienating the audience by doing so, but went ahead, and the result is one of the season's undisputed highlights. He got the idea from a hotelier friend, who told him the hardest part of the job was 'getting rid of the stiffs'.
Mavis Pugh went on to play the batty 'Lady Lavender' in the underrated Jimmy Perry & David Croft sitcom 'You Rang M'lord', while Geoffrey Palmer is a national comic treasure through his roles in 'The Fall & Rise Of Reginald Perrin', 'Butterflies', and 'As Time Goes By'. Derek Royle was 'Dr.Hogg' in the popular children's show 'Hogg's Back' on I.T.V. in the '70's, and later replaced ( briefly as it turned out, he died after only 8 episodes ) Jack Haig as 'Monsieur Leclerc' in 'Allo, Allo'. Robert McBain, who played 'Mr.Xerxes', was also in a children's comedy show - the Freddie & The Dreamers' sketch show 'Little Big Time' - in which he played a variety of pompous Englishmen. Richard Davies, who plays 'Mr.White' was teacher 'Mr.Price' in 'Please, Sir!'.
Funniest moment - Miss Tibbs, hysterical on seeing the late Leeman, is slapped hard by Polly. So hard in fact that she loses consciousness. "Spiffing!", exclaims Basil, "Two guests dead, twenty-five to go!".
Second funniest moment - Manuel is trying to stop Dr.Price from having breakfast. Basil intervenes. "Let me explain!", he says, and then pokes the Spanish waiter in the left eye.