I’m always amazed at how so many different sets were used in Fawlty Towers. In some episodes they had the whole of the ground floor as well as the first floor landing and different bedrooms. Squeezing all that and an audience into the studio must have been quite a feat.
Seem to recall reading somewhere that the layout of the set of Fawlty Towers was such that the ground floor of the hotel (ie the lobby, the bar and the dining room) was on show to the audience and the rest of the rooms (ie upstairs or the landing or whatever else) was "behind" it. The presentation of the kitchen and the camera view seems to suggest that's where the set ended, where the cameras are.
This article suggests John Cleese might have planned more than just the scripts:
https://cstonline.net/inside-fawlty-towers-by-marcus-harmes/
I recall that too, Neil. Cleese was somewhat of a micro-manager, as legend would have it. Given that there were a very limited number of episodes and only two series, any minor changes to the set (and there were quite a few) would be quite instantly recognized by regular viewers who would watch the classic series over and over again over the years.
There were quite a few upstairs scenes, with Fawlty quite often running up and down them at lightning speed. Cleverly done considering those stairs were only a very few in number.
Another one Neil, as a child viewer, I was always mystified by the set of Bob Monkhouse's Celebrity Squares. To me, as a child, how did those people get up there? Was it by magic? I guess if we could ever see a view from the other side of that set (which appeared vast to me), it would just be an array of ladders, cages and scaffold with lights attached to the front!
On that theme, I always also believed that University Challenge was filmed on a two-tier set, with one team above the other. The famous sketch on The Young Ones (where the team "above" would throw missiles down to the team "below") was very much my youthful take on reality.
The magic of tv, often held together with gaffer tape and scaffold, as this thread is revealing. Lighting is everything.