Where Did The Idea For "Fawlty Towers"� Come From?

In the early 1970s, the Monty Python comedy team were filming in Torquay. The owner of the hotel they were staying in threw cast member Eric Idle's briefcase into the street, claiming it might contain a bomb. This was only one of his bizarre actions; most of the Python team left the hotel, but John Cleese stayed to observe. This, the story goes, was the origin of Basil Fawlty, manic proprietor of the Fawlty Towers hotel in the sitcom scripted by Cleese and his then wife Connie Booth. Only 12 episodes were made in all; each one took six weeks to write (an unheard-of length of time) and were worked on continuously. Cleese, who played Basil, Booth (Polly the waitress) and the rest of the cast would rehearse an episode endlessly, fine-tuning and rewriting until each word, gesture and expression was perfect. The result was a comedy that many believe has never been bettered. First shown in 1975, its popularity is undiminished today.