Comedy legend John Cleese discusses his BBC TV sitcom masterpiece, Fawlty Towers.

He's sharing the inside story with TV veterans Peter Fincham and Jon Plowman.

John traces the beginnings of Basil Fawlty all the way back to his work on Monty Python (“nice though the abattoir is…”), and talks about the real hotelier who inspired the character.

He tells us about the writing and casting of the show, and discusses some of the challenges of bringing a character like Fawlty to the screen.

And John talks about the doomed American effort to remake Fawlty , but with one tiny change – the leading character Basil was written out!

Producer: Owen Braben

Made for BBC Radio 4 Extra by Expectation Productions, and first broadcast in October 2021. Show less