I was watching some DVDs of “Fawlty Towers,” and I got to wondering does Polly live at Fawlty Towers?
I know Basil, Sybil and Manuel, live there, this is clearly established and Terry the chef does NOT live there.
Polly is usually referred to just a “waitress” on two seperate ocassions she mocks this saying she does so much more. Also in one episode Sybil asks her to fill in for the housekeeper, who can’t start till Monday.
Is it ever established whether Polly lives there or not?
In “The Builders”, I remember her going to take a nap in one of the rooms, and Manuel forgets to wake her up. I assumed it was “her” room, but of course she could have just borrowed an empty hotel room. When Mr. Fawlty comes back and sees that the work has been finished by O’Reilly’s men, but they did it all wrong, Polly comes creeping down the stairs - isn’t the timeline that Basil came back the morning after the builders where there, and Polly just woke up, because she didn’t wake up from her nap until the next day?
No, Manuel sees her asleep and doesn’t have the heart to wake her.
During the episode The Wedding Party when Polly’s school friend stays at the hotel with her fiancée & parents, I seem to remember a line indicating that Polly normally did not stay overnight at the Hotel.
I don’t recall an episode that said Manuel lived there. Which one was that?
I seem to remember at least one instance where it seems like she came in the front door first thing in the morning to start setting up for something… I had these on VHS years ago and watched the hell out of them, but haven’t seen it for a while. I remember definitely having the impression that Polly didn’t live there. Not sure about Manuel, never really ever saw him leave (I know Polly at least had a car).
In the episode Basil tries to bribe the Chef into staying late, it is quite clear that Polly and chef were going to carpool back to town for the evening, presumably to their respective homes.
Manuel lives up on the third floor. We see his room in the last episode regarding his pet rat.
No, no - Siberian hamster.
In the episode with the fire drill, Basil tells Polly to check that all the rooms are empty. She asks who would do that if she wasn’t there, and says she’s only there at mealtimes.
This is correct but the timeline seems odd, Polly would take a nap in the afternoon and sleep till the next morning without waking up. She would’ve had to have slept for around 14 hours. And yes in that episode it was established the hotel was empty except for the regulars of the Major and the two old ladies. Are they sisters?
It seems to be implied that there is more staff but we never see this. And by the second series, Manuel (who English is somewhat better) also functions as a waiter with Polly.
Is Filigree Siberian Hamster. Man make special price in shop.
Think so? I’ve seen every episode multiple times and don’t recall ever getting that vibe.
Well, there is clearly a chef, but with only 22 rooms, I doubt they could support more staff.
Right, and we see both of them in several episodes.
I can’t put my finger on the episode at IMDB at the moment, but there was a scene where Polly came in from a date (totally freaking hot and braless, by the way), kissed her beau at the desk, and went upstairs to change into her maid/waitress/jack of all trades uniform.
Maybe she stayed there on occasion, or had a room for downtime during the day.
Jeez, I can’t believe we’re talking about this like it was *Lost *or something. 
Related, but as an aside, I think it was on the Beeb’s website that it was mentioned that Fawlty Towers was written at a time when the elderly would sometimes retire to a hotel as more or less permanent residents.
Explains the regular elderly faces, I was surprised that it was a retirement strategy of sorts. I wonder if its possible to do the same in the current day and age.
That was “The Wedding Party” Series 1 episode 3
If you listen you can hear the old ladies and the Major talk about a maid, a gardner and a bartender. Though the latter two could easily be part time. Plus Mrs Fawlty mentions a maid on more than one ocassion. But does she ever work there? Polly says she does much more than she was hired for, like bartend, clean rooms, deal with the tradesmen, type up the menus, manage the inventory.
Polly seems to have a better grasp of the whole hotel than even Basil and Sybil.
Kind of like on “The Beverly Hillbillies,” when Mr Drysdale was out of the bank, Miss Jane, who was his secretary, was left in charge of the entire bank. Not realistic, but that’s how it goes 
I think ‘The Germans’ provides the definitive answer, when Polly asserts that she is only there at meal times (when discussing fire drill arrangements) (as Robot Arm has pointed out). I think it is given that Polly has an outside life and only works at FT, rather than actually being resident. It’s perfectly possible that at times she uses an unoccupied room for some temporary reason, without it actually being where she lives.
I take exception to Ostragoth’s parting comment. Lost is just a TV show. Fawlty Towers is very much a real place, and a venerated, sacred one at that. It exists in the reality of the British way of life, and the British hotel trade in particular. If you wish to believe it’s fiction, that is your (erroneous) right, but it suggests you’ve never actually spent some time in a regional British hotel. I’m British, and I have, and believe me, FT is, if anything, an understatement of the awfulness of service one can experience on a depressingly regular basis.
Case in point, I recently stayed in a hotel in Blackpool. I had specifically asked for a room on the side of the hotel away from the street and traffic noise. This had been confirmed TWICE before I got there. Lo and behold, when I got there my room was on the street side of the hotel, and all the traffic noise came right in through the window. The hotel owner, when asked about this, merely observed that she thought she had got things a bit muddled up. And smiled about it.
The room was the smallest hotel room I have ever stayed in, anywhere in the world. Smaller even than hotel rooms in Japan, which are very small indeed.
When I arrived, the owner explained that for some reason the heating in my room had temporarily stopped working, but it wasn’t a problem as she had put a portable, temporary heater in there. Just what I needed: something to take up more of the room I didn’t have. Swapping notes later with another hotel ‘resident’, this turned out to be a tissue of lies. The heating didn’t work in ANY of the rooms, and hadn’t for years, and they ALL had little portable room heaters in them.
There was no cold water supply in my room. Turn the tap, nothing. When I asked the owner about this, she paused for a while, stared at me with a sweet but vacant smile, and then asked me if I was saying I wanted her to do something about it. Her tone made it sound as if I had requested some outlandishly fanciful luxury item. I said yes, please, I would, and so eventually it was put right.
And so on. Fiction? I assure you, Sir, that Fawlty Towers is very much a documentary series, and the passing of the years has not diminished its relevance or accuracy one iota.
I assure readers this is not a joke. From Wikipedia:
Heh.