Who played Mr Johnson in The Psychiatrist?

Nicky Henson played Mr Johnson in “The Psychiatrist.”

“The Psychiatrist” is the second episode of Fawlty Towers’ second series. Henson appears as Mr Johnson, a guest whose secret arrangement with a woman in another room becomes one of the episode’s running comic complications. Basil’s suspicion and prying turn the private matter into another example of the hotel owner’s inability to mind his own business.

The episode also features Basil dealing with Dr Abbott, a psychiatrist, and Mrs Abbott, a doctor. Their professions make Basil unusually eager to impress them, but his behaviour becomes even more embarrassing when he learns that one of his other guests may be concealing a relationship.

Henson was a British actor with a long stage and screen career. His Fawlty Towers appearance was brief—just one episode—but it became one of the roles most associated with him. The distractor “Basil Henson” is especially misleading because Basil is the name of John Cleese’s character, not the actor playing Mr Johnson.