Furchester Hotel

Welcome!

"We welcome you with furry arms!"

Welcome to the Furchester Hotel, the finest half-star establishment anywhere. Run by Furnella Furchester and her husband Fergus Fuzz, and staffed by their daughter Phoebe, Furnella's nephew Elmo and an itinerant American catering worker with breathtaking impulse control issues, the Furchester is kind of like the Happiness Hotel from The Great Muppet Caper after a serious cash injection. A tottering pile of eccentric rooms with an easily distracted staff, it nonetheless manages to retain several long-term guests and attract new visitors every episode.

"Cookie monster! Mr Crumb is a guest!"
"Yeah; Mr Crumb is a cookie, Phoebe!"
"You can't eat the guests! It's strict hotel policy!"

A Sesame Street production in association with CBeebies, The Furchester Hotel is nebulously British set series about a hotel run by monsters, including Sesame's Street's Elmo and Cookie Monster. It's strictly formulaic - each episode opens with the theme song 'Welcome to the Furchester Hotel', a guest arrives, there is a problem, the Furchesters sing either 'A Furchester Never Gives Up' or 'The Catastrophe Song' depending on the scale of the problem, they put their furry heads together and solve the problem and the episode closes on 'Don't Check Out' and the end credits; at some point the Tea Time Monsters will charge through the lobby in response to the gong - but enlivened by sparky writing and energetic performances.

"I am the greatest cow sculptor in the world, or my name isn't
Henry Moo-er."

Arya loves it because it's got Cookie Monster (or, as she calls him, 'cat') in. I'm impressed by the progressive marriage in which the wife has retained her surname and the daughter has a double-barrel (Furchester-Fuzz.)