Fawlty Towers is a British sitcom produced by BBC Television and first broadcast on BBC2 in 1975 and 1979. Twelve episodes were made (two series, each of six episodes). The show was written by John Cleese and his then wife Connie Booth, both of whom also starred in the show. The first series was produced and directed by John Howard Davies; the second was produced by Douglas Argent and directed by Bob Spiers.

The series is set in Fawlty Towers, a fictional hotel in the seaside town of Torquay, on the "English Riviera". The plots centre around rude and deranged manager Basil Fawlty (Cleese), his bossy wife Sybil (Prunella Scales), a comparatively normal chambermaid Polly (Booth), and hapless Spanish waiter Manuel (Andrew Sachs) and their attempts to run the hotel amidst farcical situations and an array of demanding and eccentric guests.

In a list drawn up by the British Film Institute in 2000, voted by industry professionals, Fawlty Towers was named the best television series of all time.^[1] It was also voted fifth in the BBC's "Britain's Best Sitcom" poll in 2004.^[2] In 1997, "The Germans" was ranked No. 12 on TV Guide's 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time.^[3]

Origins[link]

The Gleneagles Hotel, Torquay, in 2009

In May 1970 the Monty Python team stayed at the Gleneagles Hotel (which is referred to in "The Builders" episode) in Torquay whilst filming on location.^[4] John Cleese became fascinated with the behaviour of the owner, Donald Sinclair, whom Cleese later described as "the most marvellously rude man I've ever met."^{[citation needed]} This behaviour included Sinclair throwing a timetable at a guest who asked when the next bus to town would arrive;^{[citation needed]} and placing Eric Idle's briefcase (put to one side by Idle while waiting for a car with Cleese) behind a wall in the garden on the suspicion that it contained a bomb (Sinclair explained his actions, by claiming the hotel had 'staff problems').^[5] He also criticised the American-born Terry Gilliam's table manners for not being "British" (that is, he switched hands with his fork whilst eating). Cleese and Booth stayed on at the hotel after filming, furthering their research of the hotel owner. Cleese later played a hotel owner called Donald Sinclair in the movie Rat Race.

At the time, Cleese was a writer on the 1970s British TV sitcom Doctor in the House for London Weekend Television. An early prototype of the character that became known as Basil Fawlty was developed in an episode ("No Ill Feeling") of the third Doctor series (titled Doctor at Large). In this edition, the main character checks into a small town hotel, his very presence seemingly winding up the aggressive and incompetent manager (played by Timothy Bateson) with a domineering wife. The show was broadcast on 30 May 1971.^[6] Cleese parodied the contrast between organisational dogma and sensitive customer service in many personnel training videotapes issued with a serious purpose by his company, Video Arts.

Cleese said in 2009 that the first Fawlty Towers script, written with then-wife Connie Booth, was rejected by the BBC. At a 30th-anniversary event honouring the show, Cleese said,

"Connie and I wrote that first episode and we sent it in to Jimmy Gilbert," the executive "whose job it was to assess the quality of the writing said, and I can quote [his note to me] fairly accurately, 'This is full of clichéd situations and stereotypical characters and I cannot see it as being anything other than a disaster.' And Jimmy himself said, 'You're going to have to get them out of the hotel, John, you can't do the whole thing in the hotel.' Whereas, of course, it's in the hotel that the whole pressure cooker builds up."^[7]

Cleese was paid £6,000 for 43 weeks' work and supplemented his income by appearing in television advertisements.^[7][8]

Bill Cotton, the BBC's Head of Light Entertainment in the mid-1970s, said^{[citation needed]} after the first series was produced that the show was a prime example of the BBC's relaxed attitude to trying new entertainment formats and encouraging new ideas. He said that when he read the first scripts he could see nothing funny in them but trusting that Cleese knew what he was doing, he gave the go-ahead.^{[citation needed]} He said that the commercial channels, with their emphasis on audience ratings, would never have let the programme get to the production stage on the basis of the scripts.^{[citation needed]}

Production[link]

Although the series is set in Torquay in Devon, none of it was shot in south west England. For the exterior filming, the Wooburn Grange Country Club in Buckinghamshire was used instead of a hotel.^[9][10] In several episodes of the series (notably The Kipper and the Corpse, The Anniversary and Basil the Rat) the entrance gate at the bottom of the drive states the real name of the location. This listed building later served as a nightclub named "Basil's" for a short time after the series ended before being destroyed by a fire in March 1991.^[11][12] The remnants of the building were demolished and a housing estate was built on the site.^[13] Other location filming was done mostly around Harrow, notably the 'damn good thrashing' scene in Gourmet Night where Basil loses his temper and attacks his car with a tree branch which was filmed at the T-junction of Lapstone Gardens and Mentmore Close (51°34′52″N 0°18′33″W / 51.581103°N 0.309072°W / 51.581103; -0.309072).

In the episode "The Germans", the opening shot is of Northwick Park Hospital. In the episode "Gourmet Night", the exterior of Andre's restaurant was filmed on Preston Road in the Harrow area. The launderette next door to the restaurant still exists today and Andre's is now a Chinese restaurant called "Wings".

Cleese and Booth were married to each other at the time of the first series. By the second, they had been divorced for almost a year, after ten years of union (1968–78).^[14]

Both Cleese and Booth were so keen on every script being perfect, some episodes took four months and ten drafts to write until they were satisfied.^[15]

The names of Basil and Sybil Fawlty are thought to have originated from Oscar Wilde's novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Plot directions and examples [link]

The series focuses on the exploits and misadventures of short-fused hotelier Basil Fawlty, his wife Sybil and their employees, porter and waiter Manuel, maid Polly, and (in the second series) chef Terry. The episodes typically revolve around Basil's efforts to succeed in 'raising the tone' of his hotel and his increasing frustration at the numerous complications and mistakes, both his own and those of others, which prevent him from doing so. Much of the humour comes from Basil's overly aggressive manner, engaging in angry but witty arguments with guests, staff and in particular his formidable wife, whom he addresses (in a faux-romantic way) with insults such as "that golfing puff adder", "my little piranha fish" and "my little nest of vipers". Despite this, he frequently feels intimidated, she being able to stop him in his tracks at any time, usually with a short, sharp cry of "Basil!" At the end of some episodes, Basil succeeds in annoying (or at least bemusing) the guests and frequently gets his comeuppance.

The plots are occasionally intricate and always farcical, involving coincidences, misunderstandings, cross-purposes and meetings both missed and accidental. The innuendo of the bedroom farce is sometimes present (often to the disgust of the socially conservative Basil) but it is his eccentricity, not his lust, that drives the plots. The events test what little patience Basil has to the breaking point, sometimes causing him to have a near total breakdown by the end of the episode.

The guests at the hotel are typically comic foils to Basil's anger and outbursts. Each episode's one-shot guest characters provide a different characteristic that he cannot stand (including promiscuity, working class or foreign). Requests both reasonable and impossible test his temper. Even the afflicted seem to annoy him, with the episode "Communication Problems" revolving around the havoc caused by the frequent misunderstandings between the staff and the hard-of-hearing Mrs Richards. By the end, Basil faints just at the mention of her name. This episode is typical of the show's careful weaving of humorous situations through comedy cross-talk. The show also uses mild black humour at times, notably when Basil is forced to hide a dead body and in Basil's comments about Sybil ("Did you ever see that film, How to Murder Your Wife? ... Awfully good. I saw it six times.") and to the guests ("May I suggest that you consider moving to a hotel closer to the sea? Or preferably in it.").

Basil's physical outbursts are primarily directed at the waiter Manuel, an emotional but largely innocent Spaniard whose confused English vocabulary causes him to make elementary mistakes. Basil has beaten hapless Manuel with a frying pan and smacked Manuel's forehead with a spoon. The violence towards Manuel is one of the few reasons for the show's negative criticism. Sybil, on the other hand, is always condescending towards Manuel, excusing his behaviour to guests with, "oh, he's from Barcelona."

Basil often displays blatant snobbishness in order to climb the social ladder, frequently expressing disdain for the "riff-raff", "cretins" and "yobbos" that he believes to regularly populate his hotel. His desperation is readily apparent, as he makes increasingly hopeless manoeuvres and painful faux pas in trying to curry favour with those he perceives having superior social status. Yet, he finds himself forced to serve those individuals that are "beneath" him. As such, Basil's efforts tend to be counter-productive, with guests leaving the hotel in disgust and his marriage (and sanity) stretching to the breaking point.

Characters[link]

Basil Fawlty [link]

Basil Fawlty, played by John Cleese, is a snobbish and miserly bipolar^{[citation needed]} misanthrope who is desperate to belong to a higher social class. He sees a successful hotel as a means of achieving this ("turn it into an establishment of class...") yet his job forces him to be pleasant to people he despises.

He is terrified of his wife Sybil Fawlty. He yearns to stand up to her, but his plans frequently conflict with her demands. She is often verbally abusive (memorably describing him as "an ageing, brilliantined stick insect") but although he towers over her, he often finds himself on the receiving end of her temper, verbally and physically. Basil usually turns to Manuel or Polly to help him with his schemes, while trying his best to keep Sybil from discovering them. However, Basil occasionally laments the time when there was passion in their relationship, now seemingly lost. Also, it appears that he still does care for her. The penultimate episode — "The Anniversary" — is about his efforts to put together a surprise anniversary party, involving their closest friends. Things go wrong as Basil pretends the anniversary date doesn't remind him of anything, just to enhance the surprise (even accepting a slap in the process). Sybil believes he really forgot and leaves in a huff. In an interview in the DVD box set, Cleese claims that this episode deliberately takes a slightly different tone from the others, fleshing out their otherwise inexplicable status as a couple (as well as saying that, if a third series had been made, there would have been similar episodes).

In keeping with the lack of explanation about the marriage, not much is revealed of the characters' back-stories. It is known that Basil served in the British Army and saw action in the Korean War, possibly as part of his National Service. (John Cleese was only 13 when the Korean War ended.) Basil exaggerates this period of his life, proclaiming to strangers: "I killed four men." To this Sybil jokes that "He was in the Catering Corps. He used to poison them." Basil is often seen wearing a military tie (similar to the East Lancs Regiment and the Royal Agricultural College), and his moustache seems to betray an Army background. He also claims to have sustained a shrapnel injury to his leg, although apparently it tends to flare up at suspiciously convenient times. The only person Basil consistently exhibits patience and decent manners towards is old and senile Major Gowen, a veteran officer of one of the World Wars (which one is never specified) who permanently resides at the hotel. When interacting with Manuel, Basil displays a rudimentary ability with Spanish (Basil states that he "learned classical Spanish, not the strange dialect he [Manuel] seems to have picked up"); this ability is also ridiculed, as in the first episode where a guest, whom Basil has immediately dismissed as a working-class bloke, communicates fluently with Manuel in Spanish after Basil was unable to do so.

Cleese described Basil as thinking that "he could run a first-rate hotel if he didn't have all the guests getting in the way," and as being "an absolutely awful human being", but says that in comedy, if an awful person makes people laugh, people unaccountably feel affectionate toward him.^[16] Indeed, he is not entirely unsympathetic. The "Hotel Inspectors" and "Gourmet Night" episodes feature guests who are shown to be deeply annoying with constant, and unreasonable demands. In "Gourmet Night", the chef gets drunk and is unable to cook dinner, leaving Basil to scramble in an attempt to salvage the evening. Much of the time, Basil is an unfortunate victim of circumstance.

Sybil Fawlty[link]

Sybil Fawlty, played by Prunella Scales, is Basil's wife. Energetic and petite, she prefers a working wardrobe of tight skirt suits in shiny fabrics and sports a tower of permed hair necessitating the use of overnight curlers. She is often a more effective manager of the hotel, making sure Basil gets certain jobs done or stays out of the way when she is handling difficult customers. Despite this, she rarely participates directly in the running of the hotel; during busy check-in sessions or meal-times, while everyone else is busy working, she is frequently talking on the phone to one of her friends with her phrase "Oohhh, I knoooooooow", or chatting to customers. She has a distinctive conversational tone and braying laugh, which her husband compares to "someone machine-gunning a seal". Being his wife, she is the only regular character who refers to Basil by his first name. When she barks his name at him, he flinchingly freezes in his tracks.

Basil refers to her by a number of epithets, occasionally to her face, including "that golfing puff-adder", "the dragon", "toxic midget", "the sabre-toothed tart", "my little kommandant", "my little piranha fish", "my little nest of vipers", and "you rancorous, coiffured old sow". Despite these less than complimentary nicknames, Basil is terrified of her. There is only one time that he loses patience and snaps at her. Basil: "Shut up, I'm fed up.", Sybil :"Oh you've done it now."

Sybil and Basil Fawlty are said to have married on 17 April 1958 and started their hotel in 1960. Prunella Scales has said that the reason Sybil married Basil was because his origins were of a higher social class than hers. In Gourmet Night she recounts an anecdote about "Uncle Ted and his crate of brown ale." This and some of Sybil's behaviour suggest a working-class background.

Polly Sherman[link]

Polly Sherman, played by Connie Booth, is a waitress and general helper at the hotel. She is the most competent of the hotel's staff and the voice of sanity during chaotic moments, but is frequently embroiled in ridiculous masquerades as she loyally attempts to aid Basil in trying to cover a mistake or keep something from Sybil.

In "The Anniversary" she snapped and refused to help Basil out when he wanted her to impersonate Sybil in semi-darkness in front of the Fawltys' friends, Basil having dug himself into a hole by claiming Sybil was ill instead of admitting that she had stormed out earlier. She only finally did so on condition that he lend her money to purchase a car, which he had previously refused to do.

Polly is generally good-natured but sometimes shows her frustration, and odd moments of malice. In The Kipper and the Corpse, the pampered shih-tzu dog of an elderly guest bit Polly and Manuel. As revenge Polly laced the dog's sausages with hot pepper, chilli powder and Tabasco sauce causing it to take ill.

Polly is apparently employed part-time (during meal times). In the first series she is said to be an art student who, according to Basil, has spent three years at university. Polly is not referred to as a student in the second series. Despite her part-time employment, she is frequently saddled with many other duties. In one episode, she is seen to draw a sketch (presumably an impressionistic caricature) of Basil, which everyone but Basil immediately recognises. Polly is also a student of languages, displaying ability with both Spanish and German. In "The Germans" Basil alludes to Polly's polyglot inclination by saying that she does her work "while learning two oriental languages". Like Manuel, she has a room of her own at the hotel.

Manuel[link]

Manuel, a waiter played by Andrew Sachs, is a well-meaning but disorganised and confused Spaniard from Barcelona with a poor grasp of the English language and customs. He is verbally and physically abused by his boss. When told what to do, he often answers, "¿Qué?" ("What?"). Manuel's character was used to demonstrate Basil's instinctive lack of sensitivity and tolerance. Every episode would involve Basil becoming enraged at Manuel's confusion at his boss's bizarre demands and even basic requests. Manuel is afraid of Fawlty's quick temper and violent assaults, yet often expresses his appreciation for being given employment. He is relentlessly enthusiastic and is proud of what little English he knows.

During the series, Sachs was twice seriously injured while playing Manuel. Cleese describes using a real metal pan to knock him unconscious in "The Wedding Party", although he would have preferred to use a rubber one. The original producer/director, John Howard Davies, explains that he made Basil use a metal one and that he was responsible for most of the violence on the show, which he felt was essential to the type of comical farce that they were creating. Later, when his clothes were treated to give off smoke after he escapes the burning kitchen in "The Germans", the corrosive chemicals ate through them and gave Sachs severe burns.^[17]

Manuel's exaggerated Spanish accent is part of the humour of the show. Manuel actor Andrew Sachs' native language is German; he emigrated to Britain as a child.^[18]

The character's nationality was switched to Italian (and the name to Paolo) for the Spanish dub of the show, while in Catalonia he is a Mexican (still called Manuel).^[19]

Other regular characters and themes[link]

Terry, played by Brian Hall, is the laid-back Cockney chef at Fawlty Towers.^[20] Terry's cooking methods are somewhat casual, which frustrates and worries the neurotic Basil. He appears in only the second series of episodes. Terry used to work in Dorchester (not at The Dorchester, as believed by a guest). In "The Anniversary" Terry and Manuel come to blows since he doesn't like anyone else cooking in his kitchen, and proceeds to sabotage the paella Manuel is making for Sybil, leading to fisticuffs at the end of the episode.

Major Gowen, played by Ballard Berkeley, is a slightly senile, amiable old soldier who is a permanent resident at the hotel.^[21][22] He is one of the few guests whom Basil seems to like. This is because of his former military status, making him a symbol of the establishment status that Basil craves. He is often introduced as their "oldest resident". He enjoys talking about the world outside, especially the cricket scores and workers' strikes, and is always on the lookout for the newspaper. In the episode "The Germans", he shows that he has trouble forgiving the Germans because of the wars; the best he can say is that German women make good card players. In the same episode, he also demonstrates his outdated racial attitudes when he comments about the ethnic difference between "wogs" and "niggers" — but in a manner innocent of malice or bigotry. Despite his good intentions, the Major can cause Basil's plans to go awry, notably in the episode "Communication Problems", when Basil tries his best to keep the money he won in a bet a secret from Sybil.

Miss Tibbs & Miss Gatsby, played by Gilly Flower and Renee Roberts respectively, are the other two permanent residents. Seemingly inseparable, these sweet-natured, dotty spinsters appear to have taken a fancy to Basil, feeling that they need to take care of him. In response Basil vacillates between superficial charm and blunt rudeness during his conversations with them.^{[21][22][23][24][25][26]}

Audrey, had one on-screen appearance in "The Anniversary". Audrey is Sybil's lifelong best friend, and is mostly acknowledged during gossipy telephone calls to Sybil. Talking with Audrey is a refuge for Sybil. When times get tough (Audrey has a dysfunctional relationship with her husband George), Sybil will offer solutions and guidance, often resulting in the catchphrase "Ohhh, I knowwww..." when she tries to commiserate with Audrey's problems. In Audrey's one on-screen appearance she is played by actress Christine Shaw.

The Paperboy, though rarely seen, is revealed to be the prankster who rearranges the letters on the "Fawlty Towers" sign to sometimes crude phrases.^[27] The shot of the hotel's sign appears at the beginning of every episode but one, "The Germans", when a hospital is used, since it is the only episode which does not begin at the hotel. During the first series, the sign loses letters each episode until almost no letters are left. Episode five brings the first anagram: "Warty Towels". In the second series, the first episode sign correctly spells 'Fawlty Tower', but changes in each subsequent episode, from the correct spelling to various anagrams. 'Flowery Twats' is the only proper anagram, using all the letters.

The sign changes as follows:

• Episode 1: "Fawlty Towers" (the letter "S" is askew)
• Episode 2: "Fawlty Tower" (the letter "L" is askew)
• Episode 3: "Fawty Tower" (the letter "W" is askew)
• Episode 4: "Fawty Toer"
• Episode 5: "Warty Towels"
• Episode 7: "Fawlty Tower" (the letter "L" is askew)
• Episode 8: "Watery Fowls"
• Episode 9: "Flay Otters"
• Episode 10: "Fatty Owls"
• Episode 11: "Flowery Twats"
• Episode 12: "Farty Towels"

Guest characters[link]

Episode guide[link]

The first edition of Fawlty Towers was originally broadcast on 19 September 1975. The 12th and final show was first shown on 25 October 1979. The first series was directed by John Howard Davies, the second by Bob Spiers. Both series had their premieres on BBC2.

Production of the last two episodes was disrupted by a strike of BBC technical staff, which resulted in the recasting of the role of Reg (the wisecracking friend of Basil and Sybil) in "The Anniversary", and delayed the episode's transmission date by one week. The episode "Basil the Rat" was also delayed, not being screened until the end of a repeat showing six months later.

Not the Nine O'Clock News was originally scheduled to debut after an episode of Fawlty Towers and Cleese was to have introduced Not the Nine O'Clock News in a sketch referring to the technicians' strike, explaining (in character as Basil Fawlty) that there was no show ready that week, so a "tatty revue" would be broadcast instead. However, the 1979 general election intervened, and Not the Nine O'Clock News was postponed as being too political. Later that year, Cleese's sketch was broadcast, but its original significance was lost.

When originally transmitted, the individual episodes had no on-screen titles. The ones in common currency were first used for the VHS release of the series in the 1980s. There were working titles, such as "USA" for "Waldorf Salad", "Death" for "The Kipper and the Corpse", and "Rat" for "Basil the Rat", which have been printed in some programme guides. In addition, some of the early BBC audio releases of episodes on vinyl and cassette included other variations, such as "Mrs. Richards" and "The Rat" for "Communication Problems" and "Basil the Rat" respectively.

It has long been rumoured that a thirteenth episode of the series was written and filmed, but never progressed further than a rough cut.^[28] Lars Holger Holm, author of the book Fawlty Towers: A Worshipper's Companion, has made detailed claims about the episode's content, but he provides no evidence of its existence and it is most likely a hoax or fan fiction.

On the subject of whether more episodes would be produced, Cleese revealed (in an interview for the complete DVD box set, which was republished in the book, Fawlty Towers Fully Booked) that he once had the genesis of a feature-length special – possibly sometime during the mid-1990s. The plot (which was never fleshed out beyond his initial idea) would have revolved around the chaos that a now-retired Basil typically caused as he and Sybil flew to Barcelona to visit their former employee Manuel and his family. Of the idea, Cleese said:

We had an idea for a plot which I loved. Basil was finally invited to Spain to meet Manuel's family. He gets to Heathrow and then spends about 14 frustrating hours waiting for the flight. Finally, on the plane, a terrorist pulls a gun and tries to hijack the thing. Basil is so angry he overcomes the terrorist and when the pilot says, "We have to fly back to Heathrow", Basil says, "No, fly us to Spain or I'll shoot you". He arrives in Spain, immediately arrested and spends the entire holiday in a Spanish jail. He is released just in time to go back on the plane with Sybil. It was very funny, but I couldn't do it at the time. Making Fawlty Towers work at 90 minutes was a very difficult proposition. You can build up the comedy for 30 minutes, but at that length there has to be a trough and another peak. It doesn't interest me. I don't want to do it.

Cleese may also have relented because of the lack of Connie Booth's involvement. She had practically retreated from public life after the show finished (and had been initially unwilling to collaborate on a second series, which explains the four-year gap between productions).

The decision by Cleese and Booth to quit before a third series has often been lauded, as it ensured the show's successful status wouldn't be weakened with later, lower-quality work. Subsequently, it has inspired the makers of other shows to do likewise. Most notably, Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant refused to make a third series of either The Office or Extras, citing Fawlty Towers' short lifespan. Rik Mayall, Ben Elton and Lise Mayer, the writers behind The Young Ones, which also ran for only two series (each with six episodes), used this explanation too. Elton also took the decision to end his next sitcom, Filthy Rich & Catflap, after only one series, despite its popularity. Victoria Wood also indicated this influenced her decision to limit dinnerladies to just 16 episodes over two series.

Reception[link]

Critical reaction[link]

The series was not held in as high esteem on its original broadcast as it later was. The Daily Mirror review of the show in 1975 had the headline "Long John Short On Jokes".^[29] Eventually though, as the series began to gain popularity, critical acclaim soon followed. Clive James writing in The Observer said the second episode had him "retching with laughter".^[30] By the time the series had ended, it was an overwhelming critical success.

One critic of the show was Richard Ingrams, then television reviewer for The Spectator. Cleese got his revenge by naming one of the guests in the second series 'Mr Ingrams', who is caught in his room with a blow-up doll.^[29]

In an interview for the "TV Characters" edition of Channel 4's 'talking heads' strand 100 Greatest (in which Basil placed second, between Homer Simpson and Edmund Blackadder), TV critic A. A. Gill theorised that the initially muted response may have been caused by Cleese seemingly ditching his label as a comic revolutionary – earned through his years with Python – to do something more traditional.

In a list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes drawn up by the British Film Institute in 2000, voted for by industry professionals, Fawlty Towers was placed first. It was also voted fifth in the BBC's "Britain's Best Sitcom" poll in 2004^[2] and second only to Frasier in The Ultimate Sitcom poll of comedy writers in January 2006. Basil Fawlty came top of the Britain's Funniest Comedy Character poll, held by Five on 14 May 2006.

Awards[link]

Three BAFTAs were awarded to people for their involvement with the series. Each of the two series was awarded the BAFTA in the category for "Best Situation Comedy", the first won by John Howard Davies in 1976, and the second by Douglas Argent and Bob Spiers in 1980. John Cleese won the BAFTA for "Best Light Entertainment Performance" in 1976.^[31]

Remakes and reunions[link]

Three attempted remakes of Fawlty Towers were started for the American market, with two making it into production. The first, Chateau Snavely starring Harvey Korman and Betty White, was produced by ABC for a pilot in 1978, but the transfer from coastal hotel to highway motel proved too much and the series was never produced. The second, also by ABC, was Amanda's starring Bea Arthur, notable for switching the sexes of its 'Basil' and 'Sybil' equivalents. It also failed to pick up a major audience and was dropped.^[32] A third remake called Payne (produced by and starring John Larroquette) was also produced, but was cancelled shortly after. A German pilot based on the sitcom was made in 2001, named Zum letzten Kliff, but further episodes were not made.

The popular sitcoms 3rd Rock from the Sun and Cheers (both in which Cleese had appeared) have cited Fawlty Towers as an inspiration, especially regarding its depiction of a dysfunctional "family" in the workplace. Also Arthur Mathews and Graham Linehan have cited Fawlty Towers as a major influence on their sitcom Father Ted. Guest House on Pakistan's PTV also resembled the series.

Several of the characters have made other appearances, as spin-offs or in small cameo roles. In 1981, in character as Manuel, Andrew Sachs recorded his own version of the Joe Dolce cod-Italian song "Shaddap You Face" (with the B-side "Waiter, There's a Spanish Flea in My Soup"). However, the record was not released after Joe Dolce took out an injunction; he was about to issue his version in Britain.^[33] Sachs also portrayed Manuel (or a Manuel-like character) in a series of British TV advertisements for life insurance. Gilly Flower and Renee Roberts, who played Miss Tibbs and Miss Gatsby in the series, reprised the roles in a 1983 episode of Only Fools and Horses.^[34] In 2006, Cleese played Basil Fawlty for the first time in 27 years, for an unofficial England 2006 World Cup song, "Don't Mention the War", named after the phrase Basil famously used in "The Germans".^[35] In 2007, Cleese and Sachs reprised their roles for a six-episode corporate video for Norwegian oil company Statoil. In the video, Fawlty is running a restaurant called "Basil's Brasserie", while Manuel owns a Michelin Star restaurant in London.^[36]

In November 2007, Prunella Scales returned to the role of Sybil Fawlty in a series of sketches for the BBC's annual Children in Need charity telethon. The character was seen taking over the management of the eponymous hotel from the BBC drama series Hotel Babylon, interacting with characters from that programme as well as other 1970s sitcom characters. The character of Sybil was used by permission of John Cleese.^[37]

[edit] Fawlty Towers: Re-Opened

In 2009, Tiger Aspect Productions produced a two-part documentary for digital comedy channel G.O.L.D., called Fawlty Towers: Re-Opened. The documentary features interviews with all four main cast members, including Connie Booth, who had refused to talk about the series for 30 years.^[38][39] John Cleese confirmed at the 30 year reunion in May 2009 that they will never make another episode of the comedy because they are "too old and tired", and expectations would be too high.^[40] In a television interview (shown in Australia on Seven Network and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation) on 7 May 2009, Cleese also commented that he and Connie Booth took six weeks to write each episode.^[41][42]

Overseas[link]

In just 1977 and 1978 alone, it was sold to 45 stations in 17 countries and was the BBC's best selling overseas programme for that year. Although it was initially a flop in Spain, because of the portrayal of the Spanish waiter Manuel, it was successfully resold, with Manuel's nationality changed to Italian.^[15] In the Catalan region of Spain however, Manuel was Mexican.^[33] To show how badly it translated, Clive James picked up a clip containing Manuel's "¿Qué?" phrase to show on Clive James on Television in 1982.

The series is still shown in the United States on at least one PBS member station. Maryland Public Television, which covers the state of the same name and the surrounding area, airs all episodes in order on Tuesday afternoons (4:00 pm ET) and Saturday nights (11:00 pm ET), along with other BBC sitcoms.^[43]

Home video releases[link]

Fawlty Towers was originally released by BBC Video in 1984, but was edited with the credits from all three episodes put at the end of the tape.

A Laserdisc containing all episodes spliced together as a continuous episode was released in the US on Laserdisc on 6/23/1993.

It was re-released in 1995 unedited and remastered. It was re-released in 1998 with a special interview with John Cleese. Fawlty Towers – The complete series was released on DVD on 16 October 2001, available in regions 1, 2 and 4. A "Collector's Edition" is available in region 2.

Series one of the show was released on UMD Video for PSP.

In July 2009, BBC America announced a DVD re-release of the Fawlty Towers series. The DVD set was released on 20 October 2009. The reissue, titled Fawlty Towers Remastered: Special Edition, contains commentary by John Cleese on every episode as well as remastered video and audio.

All episodes were also available as streamed video-on-demand via Netflix. Both series are also available for download on iTunes.

Australian releases[link]

• Fawlty Towers: The Complete First Series" VHS
• Fawlty Towers: The Complete Second Series" VHS
• Fawlty Towers: The Complete Third Series" VHS
• Fawlty Towers: The Complete Fourth Series" VHS
• The Complete Fawlty Towers VHS Box Set
• The Complete Fawlty Towers – 19 November 2001
• Fawlty Towers Volume 1: Basil The Rat (3 episodes, 94 minutes) – 31 July 2007
• Fawlty Towers Volume 2: The Psychiatrist (3 Episodes, 94 minutes) – 6 September 2007
• Fawlty Towers Volume 3: The Kipper And The Corpse (3 Episodes, 93 minutes) – 2 October 2007
• Fawlty Towers Volume 4: The Germans (3 Episodes, 93 minutes) – 7 November 2007
• Fawlty Towers: The Complete Collection – Remastered (3 DVD set, all 12 episodes, 374 minutes) – 3 November 2009
• Fawlty Towers – Series 1: Episodes 1–3 (Comedy Bites) (3 Episodes, 94 minutes) – 4 March 2010

References [link]

Further reading[link]

• Apter, Michael J. (1982), first published online in 2004 . "Fawlty Towers: A Reversal Theory Analysis of A Popular Television Comedy Series". The Journal of Popular Culture (Blackwell Publishing) 16 (3): 128–138.
• Bright, Morris; Robert Ross (2001). Fawlty Towers: Fully Booked. London: BBC Books. ISBN 0563534397.
• Cleese, John; Connie Booth (1988). The Complete Fawlty Towers. London: Methuen. ISBN 0413183904.
• Holm, Lars Holger (2004). Fawlty Towers: A Worshipper's Companion. London: Leo Publishing. ISBN 9197366188.
• McCann, Graham (2007). Fawlty Towers. London: Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 0340898119.

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Fawlty Towers

• Fawlty Towers at the Internet Movie Database
• Fawlty Towers at BBC Online
• Fawlty Towers at BBC Programmes
• Fawlty Towers at the British Film Institute
• Fawlty Towers at the BFI's Screenonline
• Fawlty Towers at the MBC's Encyclopedia of Television
• Fawlty Towers at the British Comedy Guide

Basil Fawlty is the main character of the British sitcom Fawlty Towers, played by John Cleese. The character is often thought of as an iconic British comedy character, and has been deemed unforgettable despite only a dozen half-hour episodes ever being made.

Personality[link]

This section may contain original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding references. Statements consisting only of original research may be removed. More details may be available on the talk page. (November 2011)

According to Manuel in "Communication Problems" Basil is from Swanage.

Basil has strong socially conservative views regarding almost everything he comes across. This is especially apparent in "The Wedding Party", when he shows open disgust towards a young unmarried couple with an active sex life.

He is terrified of his wife's sharp tongue, but wishes to stand up to her, and his plans often conflict with hers. She is often verbally abusive towards him (describing him as "an ageing, brilliantined stick insect") and though he is much taller than Sybil, he often finds himself on the receiving end of her temper, expressed verbally or physically. Basil usually turns to Manuel or Polly to help him with whatever scheme he has planned, while trying his best to prevent Sybil from finding out, and as such he gained a reputation as an unabashed prevaricator.

Basil takes many of his frustrations out on the hapless Manuel, physically abusing him in a variety of ways. On occasions he also assaults others, such as strangling the guest Mr. Hutchinson in "The Hotel Inspectors", kneeing Major Gowen in "Basil the Rat", and even—most famously—striking his "vicious bastard" of a car in "Gourmet Night" with a tree branch when it refuses to move. "The Germans" is the sixth episode. It is best remembered for its line "Don't mention the war" and Cleese's "funny walk" when he is impersonating Adolf Hitler.

Another eccentricity affecting Basil is that of occasionally swapping words around in a sentence while propounding a falsehood, for instance in "The Anniversary" when he announces to the party guests that it's "perfectly Sybil! Simple's not well. She's lost her throat and her voice hurts", and – less obviously – reassuring himself as much as his wife in "The Wedding Party" that the sound of knocking on his bedroom door was "probably some key who forgot the guest for their door". He also has difficulty disconnecting his thought-process from unrelated events, as in "The Wedding Party", when he is looking through Polly's sketchbook of life-drawing pictures and answers the telephone with, "Hello, Fawlty Titties?" or in "The Psychiatrist", where, after inadvertently staining the chest area of a female guest with paint, he realises that Sybil has noticed, but then in confusion puts his hands all over the woman's breasts as a means of stopping her from seeing it.

Basil is known to have served in the British Army during the Korean War, possibly as part of his National Service. He claims: "I fought in the Korean War, you know, I killed four men" to which his wife jokingly replies "he was in the Catering Corps; he used to poison them". He is often seen wearing a military tie (which is similar but not identical to the East Lancs Regiment and the Royal Agricultural College) and a military-type moustache. Fawlty also claims to have sustained a shrapnel injury to his leg in the Korean War, which has a tendency to flare up at convenient moments - usually when Sybil asks him an awkward question.

John Cleese himself described Basil as thinking that he could run a first-rate hotel if he didn't have all the guests getting in the way. He has also made the point that on account of Basil's inner need to conflict with his wife's wishes, "Basil couldn't be Basil if he didn't have Sybil".

Basil seems to have an attachment to any upper-class guests visiting, such as Lord Melbury, Mrs Peignoir (a wealthy French antique dealer) and Major Gowen, a recurring war veteran, although Basil is sometimes scalding towards him, frequently alluding to his senility and his attachment to the bar ("drunken old sod"). He has particular respect for doctors, having aspired to be one himself (though Sybil says that he couldn't even have been a tree surgeon: couldn't stand the sight of sap), and shows a reverential attitude to Dr. & Dr. Abbott in "The Psychiatrist" (until he learns that Dr. Abbott is a psychiatrist), and Dr. Price in "The Kipper and the Corpse" (until Dr. Price begins to ask awkward questions about the death of Mr. Leeman, and inconveniently requests sausages for breakfast).

Basil is constantly maniacally depressed, intimidating towards guests, and liable to pick up a tail-end of a situation and turning it into a farcical misunderstanding. Basil is known for his tight-fisted mannerisms, employing incompetent builder O'Reilly in "The Builders" because he was cheap.

Basil has been married to Sybil for fifteen years, as stated in the episode "The Anniversary". He very rarely shows any signs of real love for his long-suffering wife ("my little piranha-fish" is one of the kindest epithets he bestows on her), and vice-versa. Sybil's friend Audrey — who is, with exception to "The Anniversary", an unseen character— will often be the only support she gets. Ironically, "The Anniversary" was one of the few episodes in which Basil was the one trying to be nice, and Sybil was the one who had misread the situation (i.e., thinking he had forgotten what day it was).

John Cleese reprised the role of Basil in the song "Don't Mention the War", based on the situation in the episode "The Germans", for the 2006 Germany FIFA World Cup. This same phrase, "Don't Mention the War", was used as the title of the first episode of a 5-part BBC documentary series When Rover Met BMW.

Origins[link]

Fawlty Towers was inspired by the Monty Python team's stay in the Gleneagles Hotel in Torquay. Cleese and Booth stayed on at the hotel after filming for the Python show had finished. The owner, Mr. Donald Sinclair, was very rude, throwing a bus timetable at a guest who asked when the next bus to town would arrive and placing Eric Idle's suitcase behind a wall in the garden in case it contained a bomb (actually it contained a ticking alarm clock). He also criticised the American-born Terry Gilliam's table manners for being too American (he had the fork in the "wrong" hand while eating), and it is reasonable to assume that his treatment of Gilliam partially inspired Basil's treatment of an American visitor in the episode "Waldorf Salad". Cleese used the name "Donald Sinclair" for his character in the 2001 film Rat Race. In the episode "The Builders", Fawlty refers to a local hotel or restaurant called "Gleneagles" while talking to Miss Gatsby and Miss Tibbs. The name 'Basil' comes from Basil Street, where Cleese lived for some time.^[1]

Libel case[link]

In 1989, Cleese successfully sued the Daily Mirror for libel when it described him becoming like his character Basil Fawlty.^[2]

Cultural references[link]

In the British fantasy series Redwall, an extremely sarcastic and imprudent anthropomorphic hare, "Basil Stag Hare", makes an appearance. He is somewhat aristocratic, and an ex-serviceman, who sometimes makes reference to his "honourable war wound". A running gag is his 'Officer and a Gentleman' way and his "tally ho!" slang. Author Brian Jacques claims to have based his name and character on Basil Fawlty.

References[link]

John Cleese
Cleese in 2008
Born	John Marwood Cleese (1939-10-27) 27 October 1939 (age 72) Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, England, UK
Residence	Los Angeles, California
Nationality	British
Alma mater	Downing College, Cambridge, Clifton College
Occupation	Actor, comedian
Years active	1961–present
Influenced by	Spike Milligan, the Goons, Dick Emery, William Shakespeare
Home town	London, England
Height	6'5" (1.96 m)
Political party	Liberal Democrat
Spouse	Connie Booth (m. 1968–1978) «start: (1968-02-20)–end+1: (1978-09)»"Marriage: Connie Booth to John Cleese" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.db.wn.com/index.php/John_Cleese) (divorced) Barbara Trentham (m. 1981–1990) «start: (1981-02-15)–end+1: (1990-10-11)»"Marriage: Barbara Trentham to John Cleese" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.db.wn.com/index.php/John_Cleese) (divorced) Alyce Eichelberger (m. 1992–2008) «start: (1992-12-28)–end+1: (2008-02)»"Marriage: Alyce Eichelberger to John Cleese" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.db.wn.com/index.php/John_Cleese) (divorced)
Partner	Barbie Orr (2008–2009) Jennifer Wade (2010–present)
Children	Cynthia Cleese (b. 1971) with Connie Booth Camilla Cleese (b. 1984) with Barbara Trentham
Website
TheJohnCleese.com

John Marwood Cleese (/ˈkliːz/; born 27 October 1939) is an English actor, comedian, writer and film producer. He achieved success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and as a scriptwriter and performer on The Frost Report. In the late 1960s he became a member of Monty Python, the comedy troupe responsible for the sketch show Monty Python's Flying Circus and the four Monty Python films: And Now for Something Completely Different, The Holy Grail, Life of Brian and The Meaning of Life.

In the mid 1970s, Cleese and his first wife, Connie Booth, co-wrote and starred in the British sitcom Fawlty Towers. Later, he co-starred with Kevin Kline, Jamie Lee Curtis and former Python colleague Michael Palin in A Fish Called Wanda and Fierce Creatures. He also starred in Clockwise, and has appeared in many other films, including two James Bond films as R/Q, two Harry Potter films and three Shrek films.

With Yes Minister writer Antony Jay he co-founded Video Arts, a production company making entertaining training films.

Early life[link]

Cleese was born in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, the only child of Muriel Evelyn (née Cross) (b.1899), and Reginald Francis Cleese (b. 1893), who worked in insurance sales.^[1] His family's surname was previously "Cheese", but his father changed it to "Cleese" in 1915 upon joining the Army.

Cleese was educated at St Peter's Preparatory School, where he was a star pupil, receiving a prize for English studies and doing well at sports, including cricket and boxing. At 13 he received an exhibition to Clifton College, an English public school in Bristol. He was tall as a child and was well over 6 ft when he arrived there. While at the school he is said to have defaced the school grounds for a prank by painting footprints to suggest that the school's statue of Field Marshal Earl Haig had got down from his plinth and gone to the toilet.^[2] Cleese played cricket for the first team, and after initial indifference he did well academically, passing 8 O-Levels and 3 A-Levels in mathematics, physics and chemistry.^[3][4]

After leaving school, he went back to his prep school to teach science, English, geography, history and Latin^[5] (he drew on his Latin teaching experience later for a scene in Life of Brian in which he corrects Brian's badly written Latin graffiti^[6]) before taking up a place he had won at Downing College, Cambridge, where he studied Law and joined the Cambridge Footlights. There he met his future writing partner Graham Chapman. Cleese wrote extra material for the 1961 Footlights Revue I Thought I Saw It Move,^[7][8] and was Registrar for the Footlights Club during 1962, as well as being one of the cast members for the 1962 Footlights Revue Double Take!^[7][8] He graduated from Cambridge in 1963 with a 2:1. Despite his successes on The Frost Report, his father would send him cuttings from the Daily Telegraph offering management jobs in places like Marks and Spencer.^[9]

Career[link]

Pre-Python[link]

Cleese was one of the script writers, as well as being a member of the cast, for the 1963 Footlights Revue A Clump of Plinths,^[7][8] which was so successful during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe that it was renamed Cambridge Circus and taken to the West End in London and then on a tour of New Zealand and Broadway, with the cast also appearing in some of the revue's sketches on The Ed Sullivan Show in September 1964.^[8]

After Cambridge Circus, Cleese briefly stayed in America, performing on and Off-Broadway. While performing in the musical Half a Sixpence,^[8] Cleese met future Python Terry Gilliam, as well as American actress Connie Booth, whom he married on 20 February 1968.^[8]

He was soon offered work as a writer with BBC Radio, where he worked on several programmes, most notably as a sketch writer for The Dick Emery Show. The success of the Footlights Revue led to the recording of a short series of half-hour radio programmes, called I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again, that were so popular that the BBC commissioned a regular series with the same title that ran from 1965 to 1974. Cleese returned to Britain and joined the cast.^[8] In many episodes, he is credited as "John Otto Cleese".

Also in 1965, Cleese and Chapman began writing on The Frost Report. The writing staff chosen for The Frost Report consisted of a number of writers and performers who would go on to make names for themselves in comedy. They included co-performers from I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again and future Goodies Bill Oddie and Tim Brooke-Taylor, and also Frank Muir, Barry Cryer, Marty Feldman, Ronnie Barker, Ronnie Corbett, Dick Vosburgh and future Python members Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin. It was while working on The Frost Report, in fact, that the future Pythons developed the writing styles that would make their collaboration significant. Cleese and Chapman's sketches often involved authority figures, some of which were performed by Cleese, while Jones and Palin were both infatuated with filmed scenes that open with idyllic countryside panoramas. Idle was one of those charged with writing David Frost's monologue. It was during this period that Cleese met and befriended influential British comedian Peter Cook.

It was as an actual performer on the Frost Report that Cleese achieved his breakthrough on British television as a comedy actor, appearing as the tall, patrician figure on the classic class sketch, contrasting comically in a line-up with the shorter, middle class Ronnie Barker and the even-shorter, working class Ronnie Corbett. Such was the popularity of the series that in 1966 Cleese and Chapman were invited to work as writers and performers with Brooke-Taylor and Feldman on At Last the 1948 Show,^[8] during which time the Four Yorkshiremen sketch was written by all four writers/performers (the Four Yorkshiremen sketch is now better known as a Monty Python sketch).^[10] Cleese and Chapman also wrote episodes for the first series of Doctor in the House (and later Cleese wrote six episodes of Doctor at Large on his own in 1971). These series were successful, and in 1969 Cleese and Chapman were offered their very own series. However, owing to Chapman's alcoholism, Cleese found himself bearing an increasing workload in the partnership and was therefore unenthusiastic about doing a series with just the two of them. He had found working with Palin on The Frost Report an enjoyable experience and invited him to join the series. Palin had previously been working on Do Not Adjust Your Set with Idle and Jones, with Terry Gilliam creating the animations. The four of them had, on the back of the success of Do Not Adjust Your Set, been offered a series for Thames Television, which they were waiting to begin when Cleese's offer arrived. Palin agreed to work with Cleese and Chapman in the meantime, bringing with him Gilliam, Jones, and Idle.

Monty Python[link]

Monty Python's Flying Circus ran for four seasons from October 1969 to December 1974 on BBC Television, though with only limited participation of Cleese in the last six shows. Cleese's two primary characterisations were as a sophisticate and a stressed-out loony. He portrayed the former as a series of announcers, TV show hosts, and government officials (for example, "The Ministry of Silly Walks"). The latter is perhaps best represented in the "Cheese Shop" and by Cleese's Mr Praline character, the man with a dead Norwegian Blue parrot and a menagerie of other animals all named "Eric". He was also known for his working class "Sergeant Major" character, who worked as a Police Sergeant, Roman Centurion, etc. He is also seen as the opening announcer with the now famous line "And now for something completely different", although in its premiere in the sketch "Man with Three Buttocks", the phrase was spoken by Eric Idle.

Partnership with Graham Chapman[link]

	The Dead Parrot sketch performed on Monty Python's Flying Circus in 1969 noicon listen to a clip from the sketch.
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

Along with Gilliam's animations, Cleese's work with Graham Chapman provided Python with its darkest and angriest moments, and many of his characters display the seething suppressed rage that later characterised his portrayal of Basil Fawlty.

Unlike Palin and Jones, Cleese and Chapman actually wrote together—in the same room; Cleese claims that their writing partnership involved his sitting with pen and paper, doing most of the work, while Chapman sat back, not speaking for long periods, then suddenly coming out with an idea that often elevated the sketch to a different level. A classic example of this is the "Dead Parrot" sketch, envisaged by Cleese as a satire on poor customer service, which was originally to have involved a broken toaster and later a broken car (this version was actually performed and broadcast on the pre-Python special How To Irritate People). It was Chapman's suggestion to change the faulty item into a dead parrot, and he also suggested that the parrot be specifically a Norwegian Blue, giving the sketch a surreal air which made it far more memorable.

Their humour often involved ordinary people in ordinary situations behaving absurdly for no obvious reason. Like Chapman, Cleese's poker face, clipped middle class accent, and imposing height allowed him to appear convincingly as a variety of authority figures, such as policemen, detectives, Nazi officers or government officials—which he would then proceed to undermine. Most famously, in the "Ministry of Silly Walks" sketch (actually written by Palin and Jones), Cleese exploits his stature as the crane-legged civil servant performing a grotesquely elaborate walk to his office.

Chapman and Cleese also specialised in sketches where two characters would conduct highly articulate arguments over completely arbitrary subjects, such as in the "cheese shop", the "dead parrot" sketch and "The Argument Sketch", where Cleese plays a stone-faced bureaucrat employed to sit behind a desk and engage people in pointless, trivial bickering. All of these roles were opposite Palin (who Cleese often claims is his favourite Python to work with)—the comic contrast between the towering Cleese's crazed aggression and the shorter Palin's shuffling inoffensiveness is a common feature in the series. Occasionally, the typical Cleese-Palin dynamic is reversed, as in "Fish Licence", wherein Palin plays the bureaucrat with whom Cleese is trying to work.

Though the programme lasted four series, by the start of series 3, Cleese was growing tired of dealing with Chapman's alcoholism. He felt, too, that the show's scripts had declined in quality. For these reasons, he became restless and decided to move on. Though he stayed for the third series, he officially left the group before the fourth season. Despite this, he remained friendly with the group, and all six began writing Monty Python and the Holy Grail; Cleese received a credit on episodes of the fourth series which used material from these sessions, and even makes a brief appearance in one episode as the voice of a cartoon in the "Hamlet" episode, though he was officially unconnected with the fourth series. Cleese returned to the troupe to co-write and co-star in the Monty Python films Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Monty Python's Life of Brian and Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, and participated in various live performances over the years.

Post-Python[link]

From 1970 to 1973, Cleese served as rector of the University of St Andrews.^[11] His election proved a milestone for the university, revolutionising and modernising the post. For instance, the rector was traditionally entitled to appoint an "Assessor", a deputy to sit in his place at important meetings in his absence. Cleese changed this into a position for a student, elected across campus by the student body, resulting in direct access and representation for the student body.^[12]

Around this time, Cleese worked with comedian Les Dawson on his sketch/stand-up show Sez Les. The differences between the two physically (the tall, lean Cleese and the short, stout Dawson) and socially (the public school, and then Cambridge-educated Cleese and the working class, self-educated Mancunian Dawson) were marked, but both worked well together from series 8 onwards until the series ended in 1976.^[13][14]

Cleese achieved greater prominence in the United Kingdom as the neurotic hotel manager Basil Fawlty in Fawlty Towers, which he co-wrote with his wife Connie Booth. The series won three BAFTA awards when produced and in 2000, it topped the British Film Institute's list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes. The series also featured Prunella Scales as Basil's acerbic wife Sybil, Andrew Sachs as the much abused Spanish waiter Manuel ("...he's from Barcelona"), and Booth as waitress Polly, the series' voice of sanity. Cleese based Basil Fawlty on a real person, Donald Sinclair, whom he had encountered in 1970 while the Monty Python team were staying at the Gleneagles Hotel in Torquay while filming inserts for their television series. Reportedly, Cleese was inspired by Sinclair's mantra, "I could run this hotel just fine, if it weren't for the guests." He later described Sinclair as "the most wonderfully rude man I have ever met," although Sinclair's widow has said her husband was totally misrepresented in the series. During the Pythons' stay, Sinclair allegedly threw Idle's briefcase out of the hotel "in case it contained a bomb," complained about Gilliam's "American" table manners, and threw a bus timetable at another guest after they dared to ask the time of the next bus to town.

The first series was screened from 19 September 1975 on BBC 2, initially to poor reviews,^[15] but gained momentum when repeated on BBC 1 the following year. Despite this, a second series did not air until 1979, by which time Cleese's marriage to Booth had ended, but they revived their collaboration for the second series. Fawlty Towers consisted of only twelve episodes; Cleese and Booth both maintain that this was to avoid compromising the quality of the series.

Muppet Show[link]

In December 1977, Cleese appeared as a guest star on The Muppet Show. Cleese was a fan of the show, and co-wrote much of the episode. He appears in a "Pigs in Space" segment as a pirate trying to hijack the spaceship Swinetrek, and also helps Gonzo restore his arms to "normal" size after Gonzo's cannonball catching act goes wrong. During the show's closing number, Cleese refuses to sing the famous show tune from Man of La Mancha, "The Impossible Dream". Kermit the Frog apologises and the curtain re-opens with Cleese now costumed as a Viking trying some Wagnerian opera as part of a duet with Sweetums. Once again, Cleese protests to Kermit, and gives the frog one more chance. This time, he is costumed as a Mexican maraca soloist. He has finally had enough and protests that he is leaving the show, saying "You were supposed to be my host. How can you do this to me? Kermit – I am your guest!". The cast joins in with their parody of "The Impossible Dream", singing "This is your guest, to follow that star...". During the crowd's applause that follows the song, he pretends to strangle Kermit until he realises the crowd loves him and accepts the accolades. During the show's finale, as Kermit thanks him, he shows up with a fictional album, his own new vocal record John Cleese: A Man & His Music, and encourages everyone to buy a copy.^[16]

This would not be Cleese's final appearance with the Muppets. In their 1981 film The Great Muppet Caper, Cleese does a cameo appearance as Neville, a local homeowner. As part of the appearance, Miss Piggy borrows his house as a way to impress Kermit the Frog.

Awards[link]

Cleese won the TV Times award for Funniest Man On TV – 1978-79.^[17]

1980s and 1990s[link]

During the 1980s and 1990s, Cleese focused on film, though he did work with Peter Cook in his one-off TV special Peter Cook and Co. in 1980. In the same year Cleese played Petruchio, in Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew in the BBC Television Shakespeare series. In 1981 he starred with Sean Connery and Michael Palin in the Terry Gilliam-directed Time Bandits as Robin Hood. He also participated in Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl (1982), and starred in The Secret Policeman's Ball for Amnesty International. In 1985, Cleese had a small dramatic role as a sheriff in Silverado, which had an all-star cast that included Kevin Kline, with whom he would star with in A Fish Called Wanda three years later. In 1986, he starred in Clockwise as an uptight school headmaster obsessed with punctuality and constantly getting in to trouble during a journey to a headmasters' conference.

Cleese at the 1989 Academy Awards

Timed with the 1987 UK elections, he appeared in a video promoting proportional representation.^[18]

In 1988, he wrote and starred in A Fish Called Wanda, as the lead, Archie Leach, along with Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline and Michael Palin. Wanda was a commercial and critical success, and Cleese was nominated for an Academy Award for his script. Cynthia Cleese starred as Leach's daughter.

Graham Chapman was diagnosed with throat cancer in 1989; Cleese, Michael Palin, Peter Cook and Chapman's partner David Sherlock, witnessed Chapman's death. Chapman's death occurred a day before the 20th anniversary of the first broadcast of Flying Circus, with Jones commenting, "the worst case of party-pooping in all history." Cleese's eulogy at Chapman's memorial service—in which he "became the first person ever at a British memorial service to say 'fuck'"—has since become legendary.^[19]

Cleese would later play a supporting role in Kenneth Branagh's adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein alongside Branagh himself and Robert De Niro. He also produced and acted in a number of successful business training films, including Meetings, Bloody Meetings and More Bloody Meetings. These were produced by his company Video Arts.

With Robin Skynner, the group analyst and family therapist, Cleese wrote two books on relationships: Families and How to Survive Them, and Life and How to Survive It. The books are presented as a dialogue between Skynner and Cleese.

In 1996, Cleese declined the British honour of Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). The follow-up to A Fish Called Wanda, Fierce Creatures—which again starred Cleese alongside Kevin Kline, Jamie Lee Curtis and Michael Palin—was also released that year, but was greeted with mixed reception by critics and audiences. Cleese has since often stated that making the second film had been a mistake. When asked by his friend, director and restaurant critic Michael Winner, what he would do differently if he could live his life again, Cleese responded, "I wouldn’t have married Alyce Faye Eichelberger and I wouldn’t have made Fierce Creatures."^[20]

In 1999, Cleese appeared in the James Bond film, The World Is Not Enough as Q's assistant, referred to by Bond as "R". In 2002, when Cleese reprised his role in Die Another Day, the character was promoted, making Cleese the new quartermaster (Q) of MI6. In 2004, Cleese was featured as Q in the video game James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing, featuring his likeness and voice. Cleese did not appear in the subsequent Bond films, Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace.

2000 to present[link]

Cleese is Provost's Visiting Professor at Cornell University, after having been Andrew D. White Professor-at-Large from 1999–2006. He makes occasional, well-received appearances on the Cornell campus. He sold his home in the town of Montecito, California in 2008^[21][22] and planned on moving to Bath in the UK where he has a home on the Royal Crescent. In 2011 Cleese was quoted as saying that for tax purposes he might have to live in Switzerland or Monaco.^[23][24][25]

In 2001, Cleese was cast in the comedy Rat Race as the eccentric hotel owner Donald P. Sinclair, the name of the Torquay hotel owner on who he had based the character of Basil Fawlty.^[26] In 2002, Cleese made a cameo appearance in the film The Adventures of Pluto Nash in which he played "James", a computerised chauffeur of a hover car stolen by the title character (played by Eddie Murphy). The vehicle is subsequently destroyed in a chase, leaving the chauffeur stranded in a remote place on the moon. In 2003, Cleese appeared as Lyle Finster on the US sitcom Will & Grace. His character's daughter, Lorraine, was played by Minnie Driver. In the series, Lyle Finster briefly marries Karen Walker (Megan Mullally). In 2004, Cleese was credited as co-writer of a DC Comics graphic novel titled Superman: True Brit.^[27] Part of DC's "Elseworlds" line of imaginary stories, True Brit, mostly written by Kim Howard Johnson, suggests what might have happened had Superman's rocket ship landed in Britain, not America.

From 10 November to 9 December 2005, Cleese toured New Zealand with his stage show, John Cleese—His Life, Times and Current Medical Problems. Cleese described it as "a one-man show with several people in it, which pushes the envelope of acceptable behaviour in new and disgusting ways." The show was developed in New York with William Goldman and includes Cleese's daughter Camilla as a writer and actor (the shows were directed by Australian Bille Brown). His assistant of many years, Garry Scott-Irvine, also appeared, and was listed as a co-producer. It then played in universities in California and Arizona from 10 January to 25 March 2006 under the title "Seven Ways to Skin an Ocelot".^[28] His voice can be downloaded for directional guidance purposes as a downloadable option on some personal GPS-navigation device models by company TomTom.

In a 2005 poll of comedians and comedy insiders, The Comedians' Comedian, Cleese was voted second only to Peter Cook. Also in 2005, a long-standing piece of Internet humour, "The Revocation of Independence of the United States", was wrongly attributed to Cleese. In 2006, Cleese hosted a television special of football’s greatest kicks, goals, saves, bloopers, plays and penalties, as well as football’s influence on culture (including the famous Monty Python sketch “Philosophy Football”), featuring interviews with pop culture icons Dave Stewart, Dennis Hopper and Henry Kissinger, as well as football greats including Pelé, Mia Hamm and Thierry Henry. The Art of Soccer with John Cleese^[29] was released in North America on DVD in January 2009 by BFS Entertainment & Multimedia.

Cleese lent his voice to the BioWare video game Jade Empire. His role was that of an "outlander" named Sir Roderick Ponce von Fontlebottom the Magnificent Bastard, stranded in the Imperial City of the Jade Empire. His character is essentially a British colonialist stereotype who refers to the people of the Jade Empire as "savages in need of enlightenment". His armour has the design of a fork stuck in a piece of cheese. He also had a cameo appearance in the computer game Starship Titanic as "The Bomb" (credited as "Kim Bread"), designed by Douglas Adams.^[30]

In 2007, Cleese appeared in ads for Titleist as a golf course designer named "Ian MacCallister", who represents "Golf Designers Against Distance". Also in 2007, he started filming the sequel to The Pink Panther, titled The Pink Panther 2, with Steve Martin and Aishwarya Rai. On 27 September 2007, The Podcast Network announced it had signed a deal with Cleese to produce a series of video podcasts called HEADCAST to be published on TPN's website. Cleese released the first episode of this series in April 2008 on his own website, headcast.co.uk.

Cleese collaborated with Los Angeles Guitar Quartet member William Kanengiser in 2008, on the text to the performance piece "The Ingenious Gentleman of La Mancha". Cleese, as narrator, and the LAGQ premiered the work in Santa Barbara. 2008 also saw reports of Cleese working on a musical version of A Fish Called Wanda with his daughter Camilla. He also said that he is working on a new film screenplay for the first time since 1996's Fierce Creatures. Cleese collaborates on it with writer Lisa Hogan, under the current working title "A Taxing Time". According to him, it is "about the lengths to which people will go to avoid tax. [...] It's based on what happened to me when I cashed in my UK pension and moved to Santa Barbara."^[31]

At the end of March 2009, Cleese published his first article as 'Contributing Editor' to The Spectator: "The real reason I had to join The Spectator".^[32] Cleese has also hosted comedy galas at the Montreal Just for Laughs comedy festival in 2006, and again in 2009. He had to cancel the 2009 appearance due to prostatitis, but hosted it a few days later.^[33] Towards the end of 2009 and into 2010, Cleese appeared in a series of television adverts for the Norwegian electric goods shop chain, Elkjøp.^[34] In March 2010 it was announced that Cleese would be playing Jasper in the video game "Fable III".^[35]

In 2009 and 2010, Cleese toured Scandinavia and the US with his Alimony Tour Year One and Year Two. In May 2010, it was announced that this tour would extend to the UK (his first tour in UK), set for May 2011 – The show is dubbed the "Alimony Tour" in reference to the financial implications of Cleese's divorce. The UK tour started in Cambridge on 3 May, visiting Birmingham, Salford, Liverpool, Oxford, Leeds, Edinburgh and finishing in Palmerston North, New Zealand.^[36]

In October 2010, Cleese was featured in the launch of an advertising campaign by The Automobile Association for a new home emergency response product.^[37] He appeared as a man who believed the AA could not help him during a series of disasters, including water pouring through his ceiling, with the line "The AA? For faulty showers?" During 2010, Cleese appeared in a series of radio advertisements for the Canadian insurance company Pacific Blue Cross, in which he plays a character called "Dr. Nigel Bilkington, Chief of Medicine for American General Hospital".^[38][39]

In 2012, Cleese was cast in Hunting Elephants, an upcoming heist comedy by Israeli filmmaker Reshef Levi.^[40][41]

Admiration for black humour[link]

In his Alimony Tour Cleese explained the origin of his fondness for black humour, the only thing that he inherited from his mother. Examples of it are the Dead Parrot sketch, his clip for the 1992 BBC2 mockumentary "A Question of Taste", the Undertakers sketch, the Vomit episode in The Meaning of Life and his eulogy at Graham Chapman's memorial service.

Personal life[link]

1960s to 1980s[link]

Cleese met Connie Booth in the US during the late 1960s and the couple married in 1968.^[15] In 1971, Booth gave birth to Cynthia Cleese, their only child. With Booth, Cleese wrote the scripts for and co-starred in both series of the TV series Fawlty Towers, even though the two were actually divorced before the second series was finished and aired. Cleese and Booth are said to have remained close friends since.^[42]

Cleese married American actress Barbara Trentham in 1981.^[43] Their daughter Camilla, Cleese's second child, was born in 1984. He and Trentham divorced in 1990. During this time, Cleese moved from the United Kingdom to Los Angeles.^[44]

1990s on[link]

On 28 December 1992 he married American psychotherapist Alyce Faye Eichelberger. In January 2008 the couple announced they had split. The divorce was settled in December 2008. The divorce settlement left Eichelberger with £12 million in finance and assets, including £600,000 a year for seven years. Cleese stated that "What I find so unfair is that if we both died today, her children would get much more than mine".^[45]

In April 2010, Cleese revealed on The Graham Norton Show on BBC One that he had started a new relationship with a woman 31 years his junior, Jennifer Wade.^[46][47][48]

Cleese has a passion for lemurs.^[49][50] Following the 1997 comedy film Fierce Creatures, in which the ring-tailed lemur played a key role, he hosted the 1998 BBC documentary In the Wild: Operation Lemur with John Cleese, which tracked the progress of a reintroduction of Black-and-white Ruffed Lemurs back into the Betampona Reserve in Madagascar. The project had been partly funded by Cleese's donation of the proceeds from the London premier of Fierce Creatures.^[50][51] Cleese is quoted as saying, "I adore lemurs. They're extremely gentle, well-mannered, pretty and yet great fun... I should have married one."^[49]

Political views[link]

Currently a member of the Liberal Democrats after previously being a Labour party voter, Cleese switched to the SDP after their formation in 1981, and during the 1987 general election, Cleese recorded a nine minute party political broadcast for the SDP-Liberal Alliance, which spoke about the similarities and failures of the other two parties in a more humorous tone than standard political broadcasts. Cleese has since appeared in broadcasts for the Liberal Democrats, in the 1997 general election and narrating a radio election broadcast for the party during the 2001 general election.^[52] In April 2010, Cleese tweeted his support for the Lib Dems after Nick Clegg performed strongly in the first leaders' debate on ITV1, stating: "Well, well, well. First leaders debate, and LibDems do so well. Good luck to them."^[53]

In 2011, Cleese declared his admiration for Britain's coalition government between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, saying: "I think what’s happening at the moment is rather interesting. The Coalition has made everything a little more courteous and a little more flexible. I think it was quite good that the Liberal Democrats had to compromise a bit with the Tories." He also criticised the previous Labour government, commenting: "Although my inclinations are slightly left-of-centre, I was terribly disappointed with the last Labour government. Gordon Brown lacked emotional intelligence and was never a leader." Cleese also declared his support for proportional representation.^[54]

In April 2011, Cleese revealed that he had declined a life peerage for political services in 1999. Outgoing leader of the Liberal Democrats, Paddy Ashdown, had put forward the suggestion shortly before he stepped down, with the idea that Cleese would take the party whip and sit as a working peer, but the actor quipped that he "realised this involved being in England in the winter and I thought that was too much of a price to pay."^[55]

Cleese expressed support for Barack Obama's presidential candidacy, donating US$2,300 to his campaign and offering his services as a speech writer.^[56] He also criticised Republican Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin—saying that "Michael Palin is no longer the funniest Palin"^[57]— and wrote a satirical poem about Fox News commentator Sean Hannity for Countdown with Keith Olbermann.^[58]

Radio credits[link]

• I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again
• I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue (1972–73)

Television credits[link]

Major roles[link]

• The Frost Report (1966)
• Frost on Sunday
• At Last the 1948 Show
• How to Irritate People (1968) with Michael Palin, Graham Chapman, Connie Booth and Tim Brooke-Taylor
• Monty Python's Flying Circus (1969–74)
• Sez Les (1971, 1974)
• Fawlty Towers (1975, 1979)
• Cheers (episode "Simon Says") (1987), he won an Emmy Award for best actor in a guest starring role
• The Taming of the Shrew (1980) as Petruchio
• True Stories: Peace in our Time? as Neville Chamberlain

As host[link]

• The Human Face
• Wine for the Confused
• We Are Most Amused: Master of Ceremonies for a stand-up comedy show celebrating Prince Charles's 60th birthday.

Guest appearances[link]

• The Avengers (1968), guest appearance as Marcus Rugman (egg clown-face collector) in the episode Look (Stop Me if You've Heard this One)...
• The Goodies (1973), guest cameo appearance as a Genie in the episode The Goodies and the Beanstalk
• Ripping Yarns (1979), guest cameo appearance as "Passer-by" in the episode Golden Gordon^[59]
• Doctor Who (1979), guest cameo appearance as an Art Lover in the episode City of Death as a favour to writer/script editor Douglas Adams
• The Muppet Show (1977)
• Cheers (Season 5, Episode 21, Simon Says) as Dr. Simon Finch-Royce, an acquaintance of Kelsey Grammer's character Frasier Crane and fellow psychiatrist, who offers pre-marriage advice to Sam and Diane, much to his later chagrin.
• Last of the Summer Wine (1993), guest cameo appearance in the episode Welcome to Earth.
• 25 Years of Last of the Summer Wine (1997).
• 3rd Rock from the Sun (1998–2001) as recurring character Dr. Liam Neesam.
• Casper & Mandrilaftalen (1999) both as the repairman of the purple Gunrack, and as the Danish soccer coach Bosse Bo Johansson.
• Wednesday 9:30 (8:30 Central) (2002) as Red
• Will & Grace (2003–2004) as recurring character Lyle Finster.
• Numerous commercials, including for supermarket chain Sainsbury's, snack firm Planters and a British government Stop Smoking campaign.
• Party political broadcasts for the Liberal Democrats and predecessor, the SDP-Liberal Alliance.
• In November 2009 commercials, in which he appears for Swedish electrical appliance chain "Elgiganten", began broadcasting in Sweden, as well as broadcasting in Denmark in late 2010.
• Song "Don't Mention The World Cup" animated video played on ITV, BBC and Channel 4 News, June 2006.
• Batteries Not Included—gadget show on UKTV channel Dave (2008).
• Entourage as himself, season 7 finale (2010).
• Ronnie Corbett's Comedy Britain as Himself.

Filmography[link]

Video game credits[link]

• Monty Python's Complete Waste of Time (1994) 7th Level
• Monty Python & the Quest for the Holy Grail (1996) 7th Level
• Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (1997) Panasonic
• Starship Titanic (1998) Simon & Schuster Interactive (voice of the Bomb) — (Credited as Kim Bread)
• 007 Racing (2000) Electronic Arts
• The World Is Not Enough (2000) Electronic Arts
• James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing (2004) Electronic Arts
• Trivial Pursuit: Unhinged (2004) Atari
• Jade Empire (2005) BioWare (as Sir Roderick Ponce von Fontlebottom the Magnificent Bastard)
• Shrek the Third (2007) King Harold, Narrator
• Fable III (2010) Jasper

Awards[link]

• Academy Awards
  • (1988) Nominated—Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay / A Fish Called Wanda (shared with Charles Crichton)
• Golden Globe Awards
  • (1988) Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy / A Fish Called Wanda
• BAFTA Awards
  • (1970) Nominated—BAFTA Television Award for "Best Light Entertainment Performance" / Monty Python's Flying Circus
  • (1971) Nominated—BAFTA Television Award for "Best Light Entertainment Performance" / Monty Python's Flying Circus
  • (1976) Nominated—BAFTA Television Award for "Best Light Entertainment Performance" / Fawlty Towers
  • (1980) Won—BAFTA Television Award for "Best Light Entertainment Performance" / Fawlty Towers
  • (1989) Nominated—BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay / A Fish Called Wanda
  • (also 1989) Won—BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
• Primetime Emmy Awards
  • (1987) Won—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor - Comedy Series / Cheers (as Dr. Simon Finch-Royce)
  • (1998) Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor – Comedy Series / 3rd Rock from the Sun (as Dr. Liam Neesam)
  • (2002) Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for "Outstanding Nonfiction Special" / The Human Face
  • (2004) Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor – Comedy Series / Will & Grace (as Lyle Finster)
• Writers Guild of America
  • (1989) Nominated—Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original Screenplay / A Fish Called Wanda (shared with Charles Crichton)

Other credits[link]

• In 2003, John Cleese took part in Mike Oldfield's re-recording of the 1973 hit Tubular Bells, Tubular Bells 2003. He took over the "Master of Ceremonies" duties in the ‘Finale’ part, in which he announced the various instruments eccentrically, from the late Vivian Stanshall.^[60]
• Cleese recorded the voice of God for Spamalot, the musical based on Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
• Cleese narrated the audio version of C.S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters.
• In the mid 1980s, Cleese starred in British advertisements for Compaq computers and Schweppes beverages.
• In the late-1990s, Cleese appeared in a set of poorly-received commercials for the UK supermarket chain Sainsbury's. Around the same time, his Fawlty Towers co-star, Prunella Scales, appeared in more well-received commercials for rival chain Tesco.
• He has enunciated a set of directions for the TomTom in-car navigation system. This allows itself humorous notes at non-critical moments, for instance when asking for a U-turn and when signing off: "I'm not going to carry your baggage—from now on, you're on your own" and "Bear right..Beaver left."
• He plays the voice of Samuel the Sheep in the 2006 adaptation of Charlotte's Web. Samuel repeatedly tells the other sheep to be individuals, not sheep. This is a reference to Monty Python's Life of Brian.
• He has a speaking part at the end of the Alan Parsons song "Chomolungma" from the album A Valid Path.
• In 2008, John Cleese appeared in a humorous TV commercial in Poland advertising a bank loan.
• From 2006 to 2008 John Cleese has appeared in humorous TV commercials in Iceland advertising Kaupþing.

Honours and tributes[link]

• A species of lemur, the Bemaraha woolly lemur (Avahi cleesei), has been named in his honour. John Cleese has mentioned this in television interviews. Also there is mention of this honour in "New Scientist"^[61]—and John Cleese's response to the honour.^[62]
• An asteroid, 9618 Johncleese, is named in his honour.
• Cleese declined a CBE (Commander of the British Empire) in 1996.
• There is a municipal rubbish heap of 45 metres (148 ft) in altitude that has been named Mt Cleese at the Awapuni landfill just outside Palmerston North after he dubbed the city "suicide capital of New Zealand".^[63]
• "The Universal Language" skit from All in the Timing, a collection of short plays by David Ives, centres around a fictional language (Unamunda) in which the word for the English language is "johncleese".
• The post-hardcore rock band I Set My Friends On Fire has a song on their You Can't Spell Slaughter Without Laughter album titled "Reese's Pieces, I Don't Know Who John Cleese Is?".

Bibliography[link]

• The Rectorial Address of John Cleese, Epam, 1971, 8 pages
• Foreword for Time and the Soul, Jacob Needleman, 2003  ISBN 1-57675-251-8 (paperback)
• The Human Face (with Brian Bates) (DK Publishing Inc., 2001, ISBN 978-0-7894-7836-8)
• Cleese Encounters: The Unauthorized Biography of Monty Python Veteran John Cleese, Jonathan Margolis, St. Martin's Press, 1992, ISBN 0-312-08162-6

Scripts[link]

• The Strange Case of the End of Civilisation As We Know It, w/Jack Hobbs & Joseph McGrath, 1977  ISBN 0-352-30109-0
• Fawlty Towers, w/Connie Booth, 1977 (The Builders, The Hotel Inspectors, Gourmet Night)   ISBN 0-86007-598-2
• Fawlty Towers: Book 2, w/Connie Booth, 1979 (The Wedding Party, A Touch of Class, The Germans)
• The Golden Skits of Wing Commander Muriel Volestrangler FRHS & Bar, 1984  ISBN 0-413-41560-0
• The Complete Fawlty Towers, w/Connie Booth, 1988  ISBN 0-413-18390-4 (hardcover), ISBN 0-679-72127-4 (paperback)
• A Fish Called Wanda: The Screenplay, w/Charles Crichton, 1988  ISBN 1-55783-033-9
• Fawlty's Hotel: Sämtliche Stücke, w/Connie Booth, (The Complete Fawlty Towers in German), Haffmans Verlag AG Zürich, 1995

Dialogues[link]

• Families and How to Survive Them, w/A.Robin Skynner, 1983  ISBN 0-413-52640-2 (hardc.), ISBN 0-19-520466-2 (p/back)
• Life and How to Survive It, w/A.Robin Skynner 1993  ISBN 0-413-66030-3 (hardcover), ISBN 0-393-31472-3 (paperback)

See also[link]

• Declining a British honour

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: John Cleese

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: John Cleese

• Official website
• Official Podcast
• John Cleese at the Museum of Broadcast Communications
• John Cleese at the BBC Guide to Comedy
• John Cleese at the Internet Movie Database
• John Cleese at the Internet Broadway Database
• John Cleese on Charlie Rose
• John Cleese collected news and commentary at The New York Times
• Works by or about John Cleese in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Podcast to celebrate The Life of Brian (March 2008)
• Daily Llama: John Cleese Visits Lemurs at San Francisco Zoo
• On-line video interview for Czech TV (24. 7. 2011)