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His Lordship Entertains, broadcast in 1972, was Ronnie Barker's second vehicle for his Lord Rustless character, first seen three years earlier in Hark at Barker on ITV. This time though, Rustless appeared in a series for BBC2. Hark at Barker had also included sketch inserts, whereas His Lordship Entertains was a sitcom.

Set again in the aristocratic Chrome Hall, which had now become a hotel. It once more starred David Jason as the 100-year-old Dithers and Josephine Tewson as Mildred Bates, two actors who would continue to have a working relationships with Barker. In fact all of the regular cast reprised their roles from Hark at Barker.

Barker wrote all the scripts under the pseudonym Jonathan Cobbald. He liked to refer to the show as "Fawlty Towers mark one" as it appeared on television three years before that other hotel bound sitcom.

Four episodes of the sitcom have been performed on stage by the University of Nottingham's New Theatre.

Archive status

For many years it was thought that the series had been entirely lost. However, the first episode of His Lordship Entertains, 'The Food Inspector', was recovered in 2009. In addition the scripts were published in Ronnie Barker's anthology All I Ever Wrote.

Cast

• Ronnie Barker as Lord Rustless
• Josephine Tewson as Mildred Bates
• David Jason as Dithers
• Mary Baxter as Cook
• Moira Foot as Effie
• Frank Gatliff as Badger
• Mary Merrall as Mrs Ringer
• Bart Allison as Mr Blunt
• Gladys Henson as Mrs Ringer's friend
• Diana King as Harriet
• Anthony Sharp as Sir Geoffrey Quick
• Michael Knowles as Mr Smith
• Walter Sparrow as Mr Flint
• Patrick Troughton as The Sheik
• Colin Bean as guest
• Pamela Cundell as Mrs Featherstone

References

1. https://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/guide/articles/h/hislordshipenter_66600370.shtml
2. "Missing Believed Wiped: Programme One". British Film Institute. Retrieved 7 January 2010.
3. "Literature for "His Lordship Entertains"". IMDb. Retrieved 7 January 2010.

External links

• His Lordship Entertains at the bbc.co.uk Guide to Comedy
• His Lordship Entertains Archived 27 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine at Lost Shows
• His Lordship Entertains at IMDb

• 1972 British television series debuts
• 1972 British television series endings
• BBC television sitcoms
• Lost BBC episodes
• British English-language television shows