The Complete Fawlty Towers

What did Basil Fawlty fail to avoid mentioning? Why did Sybil keep snagging her cardies? Where was Polly on the night of the great wedding anniversary disaster? And what is the Spanish word for "donkey"?The answer to all these questions can be found in this, the complete and unexpurgated scripts ofFawlty Towersthe most celebrated "Brit-com" of all time, and the show was voted the top UK television series ever by the British Film Institute. The snobbish, manic Basil...his over-coiffeured, domineering wife Sybil...the hopeless but ever-hopeful waiter Manuel...the calm and capable Polly...and of course the steady stream of abused guestsall live again in the pages ofThe Complete Fawlty Towers.Gahan Wilson in theNew York Timeshas called John Cleese "arguably one of the funniest people now living." And as one British periodical (Literary Review) put it, the book is "superbly well written. If you're on a bus and can't see Basil Fawlty thrashing his car with a large branch, it is some compensation to read it happening." Or as one anonymous fan put it on-line: "Yes, it's all here, all the comedy, the frustration, the dead body, even the rat."

John Cleese is a multi-talented actor and author who lists his recreations in Who's Who as "gluttony and sloth." At 6' 4 3/4" he is exactly the same height as Basil Fawlty. Connie Booth, who was formerly married to John Cleese, was an oasis of sanity in Fawlty Towers as Polly.