What happened to the cast of Fawlty Towers?
The classic 1970s sitcom is being revived by John Cleese and his daughter.
John Cleese is set to reprise his most memorable role in a revival of Fawlty Towers, over 40 years after the sitcom last aired.
The former Monty Python star is returning to write and star in the programme alongside his daughter Camilla Cleese.
The original show, written by Cleese and Connie Booth, ran on BBC Two for two seasons between 1975 and 1979 and followed the exploits of hotelier Basil Fawlty (Cleese) and his wife Sybil (Prunella Scales), as they endeavoured to keep their hotel and marriage afloat.
The new show will follow Basil as he attempts to navigate the modern world while working alongside a daughter he never knew to run a boutique hotel.
John and Camilla will both work as executive producers, as will Rob Reiner, his wife and fellow actor Michele Reiner, director Matthew George and producer Derrick Rossi.
John said of the revival: “What I like about Matt is that, unlike many producers, he really ‘gets’ the creative process. When we first met, he offered an excellent first idea, and then Matt, my daughter Camilla, and I had one of the best creative sessions I can remember.
“By dessert we had an overall concept so good that, a few days later, it won the approval of Rob and Michele Reiner. Camilla and I look forward enormously to expanding it into a series.”
With Cleese set to reprise his role, you might be wondering what happened to the other original Fawlty Towers cast members. Read on to find out.
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What happened to the cast of Fawlty Towers?
John Cleese
After his role in Fawlty Towers as Basil Fawlty, Cleese went on to enjoy a varied film career, starring in movies including 1981’s Time Bandits, which was directed by fellow Monty Python star Terry Gilliam.
He also wrote and starred in the black comedy film A Fish Called Wanda in 1988, which also starred another Python, Sir Michael Palin, as a man desperately in love with a tank of tropical fish.
Cleese also went on to play “R” and “Q” in two James Bond films – The World Is Not Enough and Die Another Day – and had a small role in the Harry Potter film franchise as one of the Hogwarts ghosts who interacted with students and staff.
Later in life, Cleese has made headlines for criticising so-called 'woke culture' and 'cancel culture'.
Most recently, he appeared in the 2018 sitcom Hold the Sunset.
Prunella Scales
Scales, who portrayed Basil’s long-suffering wife Sybil Fawlty, went on to enjoy a successful career after the show ended.
Outside of Fawlty Towers, she is best known for starring in 1991’s A Question of Attribution, penned by Alan Bennett, with her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II bagging her a BAFTA nomination.
Scales also headed up Tesco adverts for many years, appearing as a character called Dotty alongside the retailer’s “Every little helps” slogan.
Between 2014 and 2021, Scales hosted the Channel 4 travel series Great Canal Journeys alongside her husband, the actor Timothy West.
Sadly, Scales was forced to quit her TV career in 2020 after being diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2014.
Andrew Sachs
After Sachs found fame on Fawlty Towers for his role as the Spanish waiter Manuel, he went on to do voiceover work, including roles in Doctor Who audio productions with Big Finish.
In 2009, he appeared in a number of episodes of Coronation Street as Norris Cole's half-brother Ramsay Clegg, and also had a guest stint in EastEnders in 2015.
Sachs had big-screen roles too, appearing in Danny Dyer film Run for Your Wife and Dustin Hoffman's Quartet in 2012.
In 2008, Sachs was the victim of an infamous radio prank by Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand in which the duo left vulgar message on Sachs’s answerphone after he was unable to join them on BBC Radio for an interview.
In an essay for the Daily Mail in 2014 titled Cruelty, he wrote: “For all my family, the unpleasant incident that hit the headlines in October 2008 was hugely distressing."
Sachs died on 23rd November 2016 after being diagnosed with vascular dementia four years earlier.
Connie Booth
Booth co-created Fawlty Towers alongside her then-husband Cleese and starred as hotel employee Polly.
By the time the second season of Fawlty Towers began filming, the pair were divorced but remained friends.
Booth went on to star in various film, TV and theatre projects throughout the 1980s and early 1990s before giving up her acting career in 1995 to become a psychotherapist.
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