UK classic Fawlty Towers first hit screens back in in 1975 and ended four years later in 1979.
Despite only ever showing 12 episodes of the antics inside the Torquay hotel, the show became an instant classic with fans.
But what are the cast of the beloved show doing 30 years later?
Well, one is still world famous and another went on to do voiceover and radio work as well as TV, including a brief stint in Coronation Street and also released three singles in character.
Daily Star has taken a look into the iconic stars of the hit comedy, and they’ve certainly been busy.
John Cleese – Basil
John Cleese has recently starred in BBC sitcom Hold The Sunset (Image: BBC)
Every episode saw Cleese’s rude hotel owner Basil explode in a fit of rage, whether it was directed at bumbling Spanish waiter Manuel, giving his car a “damn good thrashing” or dementedly goose-stepping around the room.
Monty Python star Cleese based Basil on Donald Sinclair, a real-life hotel owner he met in Torquay who treated guests as a hindrance to the running of his hotel.
The star released a book about creativity in 2020 (Image: 2020 Dave J Hogan)
After leaving the English Riviera behind, Cleese focused on films during the 1980s and 90s, starring in Clockwise, A Fish Called Wanda and its sequel Fierce Creatures and two Bond films.
Various TV projects, stage shows and tours followed, including a 2014 Monty Python reunion.
Cleese recently starred in BBC sitcom Hold the Sunset and this month released a book about creativity.
In 2016, he revived Basil and his car thrashing for a Specsavers advert, with some speculating it was to help recover from a very expensive divorce. Four-times married Cleese was ordered to pay third wife Alyce Eichelberger £12million, including £600,000 a year for seven years.
The dad of two now lives with jewellery designer wife Jennifer Wade on the Caribbean island of Nevis, where he emigrated after becoming disillusioned with British politics.
Prunella Scales – Sybil
Sybil was always more apt to handle the hotel than her husband Fawlty
Sarcastic Sybil Fawlty was always on hand with a putdown and far more capable of handling the hotel than husband Basil.
Scales went on to star in a string of films, including The Boys From Brazil and Howard’s End, but she might be best remembered for the Tesco ads she did as Dotty, alongside Jane Horrocks as her long-suffering daughter.
Great Canal Journeys…Timothy West and Prunella Scales. (Image: CHANNEL 4)
She is married to actor Timothy West and the pair have two sons, the eldest actor Sam West who is currently on screens in All Creatures Great and Small.
Scales, now 88, and her husband filmed Great Canal Journeys together on Channel 4 from 2014 to 2019. When the show started they revealed she was living with Alzheimer’s disease and earlier this year West, 85, said the condition had forced them to quit the show.
Connie Booth – Polly
Connie Booth had separated from John Cleese by the time the second series of Fawlty began (Image: PA)
Booth co-wrote Fawlty Towers with then-husband Cleese and starred in the show as sensible chambermaid Polly Sherman.
Booth and Cleese met in the 1960s, married in 1968 and had their daughter Cynthia three years later. By the time the second series of Fawlty Towers began filming, the two were divorced but still good friends.
Booth went on to star in shows including The Tomorrow People and The Buccaneers but quit acting in 1995. She then changed career and became a psychotherapist. Now 79, she lives in London with her author husband John Lahr.
Andrew Sachs – Manuel
Sachs recorded three singles in character, including Manuel’s Good Food Guide (Image: GETTY)
Sachs’ hapless waiter Manuel often took the brunt of Basil’s bashings. But did you know Sachs recorded three singles in character, including Manuel’s Good Food Guide in 1977? On the show Sachs was also left with second degree burns due to a fire stunt.
After hanging up his apron, he went on to do voiceover and radio work as well as TV, including a brief stint in Coronation Street.
Sachs was prank called by Russell Brand saying he’d slept with the star’s granddaughter (Image: GETTY)
In 2008, Sachs was back in the headlines after Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross prank called him, leaving messages about Brand having sex with his granddaughter Georgina Baillie.
The story sparked a huge scandal and the BBC was forced to apologise with Brand resigning and Ross suspended for 12 weeks.
Sachs was diagnosed with vascular dementia in 2012, which eventually left him unable to speak and forced him to use a wheelchair. He died in November 2016 with his widow Melody dying the following year.
Ballard Berkeley – The Major
Major Gowen, played by Ballard Berkeley, was a permanent resident in the hotel (Image: BBC)
Slightly senile old Major Gowen was a permanent resident at the hotel. But the character’s racist and bigoted views have been censored with his most offensive lines cut out of repeats.
In real life Berkeley appeared in several TV series including Hi-de-Hi! and To The Manor Born, and his last role was a voiceover in the animated film The BFG before his death in 1988.
Before becoming an actor, he worked as a special constable during WW2, and witnessed the Blitz.
Bruce Boa – Mr Hamilton
Boa died in 2004 after a number of television appearances (Image: Medavia)
Canadian actor Boa starred as Mr Hamilton who persistently demanded a Waldorf salad during his stay at Fawlty Towers.
Boa appeared in The Empire Strikes Back, The Omen and Return to Oz among other films, and his television credits include The Avengers, The Saint, and Dempsey and Makepeace. He died in 2004.
Bernard Cribbins – Mr Hutchinson
Bernard Cribbins starred in Doctor Who (Image: BBC)
Cribbins played spoon salesman Mr Hutchinson, whom Basil became convinced was a hotel inspector.
Now 91, the actor’s career has spanned more than 70 years.
Highlights include narrating The Wombles, starring in three Carry On films and appearing alongside David Tennant and Catherine Tate in Doctor Who. Cribbins, who has an OBE, has been married to Gillian since 1955.
Robin Ellis – Undercover policeman
Robin Ellis has most recently appeared in the Poldark remake (Image: NC)
Do you remember the undercover policeman in Fawlty’s first episode who arrests a hotel guest? That was Robin Ellis who would shortly go on to become Poldark in the 1970s series of the same name, based on the books by Winston Graham.
When that finished in 1977, Ellis continued to work steadily on shows including Heartbeat.
The star played an uncover police officer in the first episode of Fawlty (Image: Medavia)
Most recently he has appeared in the Poldark remake with Aidan Turner, as Reverend Halse.
The 78-year-old lives in France with his wife.
Nicky Henson – The guest
Nicky Henson died last year, aged 74 (Image: 2014 Dave J Hogan)
Henson guest starred on the show as a guest who landed in hot water with Basil after trying to sneak a girl into his room.
The actor, who was pals with Cleese, told how the comedian called him to ask him to play the part as he would be too embarrassed to be so rude to an actor he didn’t know.
Henson, who died last December aged 74, was a regular on screens appearing in everything from Minder and Boon to Vera Drake and Downton Abbey and even George Clooney flick Syriana. He was married to actress Una Stubbs and then ballerina Marguerite Porter.
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
