When Basil hits Manuel over the head with a pan, the prop designer installed heavy padding in one of the pans. But during filming, John Cleese couldn't see in the dark and grabbed the wrong pan-one that was totally unpadded. Andrew Sachs was almost knocked unconscious and suffered a headache for days.
Yvonne Gilan, who played the flirtatious Mrs. Peignoir, was in fact Scottish. A vocal coach in addition to being an actress, she later commented that her French accent sounded more Hungarian.
The sign reads "Fawlty Towers" with the second "w" tilted.
This is our first introduction to Sybil's famously annoying laugh.