Fawlty Towers is a British television sitcom written by John Cleese and Connie Booth, originally broadcast on BBC Two in 1975 and 1979. Two series of six episodes each were made. The show was ranked first on a list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes drawn up by the British Film Institute in 2000 and, in 2019, it was named the greatest ever British TV sitcom by a panel of comedy experts compiled by the Radio Times.
The "Fawlty Towers" sign in the background image varied (usually as an anagram) between episodes
Gleneagles Hotel, Torquay in 2009. Cleese stayed at the hotel with the Monty Python team in 1970, and was inspired to write the series by the eccentric behaviour of the hotel's owner Donald Sinclair.
Cast of Fawlty Towers, left to right: (front) Prunella Scales (Sybil Fawlty), Connie Booth (Polly) and Andrew Sachs (Manuel); (back) John Cleese (Basil Fawlty)
BBC studio recording ticket for the second episode, "The Builders"
John Marwood Cleese is an English actor, comedian, screenwriter, producer, and presenter. Emerging from the Cambridge Footlights in the 1960s, he first achieved success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and as a scriptwriter and performer on The Frost Report. In the late 1960s, he cofounded Monty Python, the comedy troupe responsible for the sketch show Monty Python's Flying Circus. Along with his Python costars Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin, and Graham Chapman, Cleese starred in Monty Python films, which include Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), Life of Brian (1979), and The Meaning of Life (1983).
Cleese in 2023
"Argument Clinic" sketch with Palin (standing) at Monty Python Live (Mostly), in 2014
Cleese appearing at the 61st Academy Awards in March 1989
Cleese in 2008
