Ever since Basil Fawlty, Sybil Fawlty and of course Manuel & Polly burst onto our TV screens in the 1970s, they’ve had audiences in stitches and hotel owners smiling through gritted teeth at every reference their guests make to this BBC comedy.
When the TV series went off air in 1979 there was rather a void, that is until a group of actors came up with a plan in 1997 to bring back Basil and company, not on stage but in real hotels around real paying hotel guests.
One could imagine the first hotel asked about this idea might have been a little nervous, but they need not have worried as the Laughlines group were an instant success with sell out performances of this rather unique style of acting based on comic timing and improvisation.
Many of the most famous sketches are mingled into the shows including the Hotel Inspector, the Germans and Basil the rat plus many others which change with each performance…just like the sign in the Fawlty Towers TV series [bet you didn't know that].
Metro calls it “Pure Gold” and the Yorkshire Post said “An absolutely Fawltless performance”.
For more information about these Fawlty Towers Theme Breaks, click here.
Fawlty Towers Factfile:
- There were only 12 episodes ever made.
- The original hotel exterior was Wooburn Grange Country Club, but this has since burned down and been replaced by houses.
- John Cleese apparently based Basil on the [at the time] owner of the Gleneagles Hotel in Torquay, one Mr Donald Sinclair (1909-1981).
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