Connie Booth | Tellyspotting

Posted November 27, 2021 - No Comment

Sans ‘Fawlty Towers’, Torquay named the 9th worst place to live in the U.K.

Based around an exceedingly chaotic and poorly run seaside hotel in Torquay, Fawlty Towers has not only provided laughter to British comedy fans worldwide for the better part of four decades, it is widely considered to be the best British comedy of all-time. Unfortunately, sans Fawlty Towers, the same cannot be said for the Devonshire seaside town of Torquay where the sitcom was based, which now has the coveted distinction of being named one of the worst places to live in the UK, actually #9 on the list.

Posted March 23, 2021 - No Comment

‘Fawlty Towers’ and Vinyl = ‘Fawlty Towers: For the Record’

Easily the funniest comedy of all-time, the 12 episodes (yes, there were only 12) of Fawlty Towers are nothing short of comedy perfection comprised of brilliant line after brilliant line and unmatched to this day, some 45+ years after its premiere in 1975. Not only is it a masterclass of comedy writing and performance, the series […]

Posted September 20, 2020 - No Comment

Happy belated 45th, ‘Fawlty Towers’!

On Saturday, as Planet Earth quietly celebrated the 45th anniversary of Fawlty Towers, series co-creator/co-writer John Cleese posed a question on Twitter to which the ability to come up with an answer is next to impossible, if not impossible. Easily the funniest comedy of all-time, the 12 episodes (yes, there were only 12) are wall-to-wall […]

Posted September 24, 2016 - No Comment

Did the German version of Fawlty Towers ever ‘mention the war’?

As we celebrated the 41st anniversary this past week of Fawlty Towers, I thought it would fun to take a look back at how the greatest situation comedy of all-time made the leap to German broadcaster RTL. The first ever non-English adaptation of the John Cleese/Connie Booth bit of brilliance occurred in 2001 with a pilot set […]

Posted September 21, 2016 - No Comment

At 41, ‘Fawlty Towers’ is still the greatest sitcom of all-time

September 19, 1975 — a day that will live on in history as the day one of the most brilliant situation comedies of all-time debuted on the BBC. Born out of a seemingly uneventful trip to the Torquay Gleneagles Hotel by the original members of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, Fawlty Towers is comedy greatness that has not seen its […]

Posted September 20, 2013 - No Comment

John Cleese's Romance with a Double Bass

Nearly 40 years ago, in 1974, in the early post-Monty Python’s Flying Circus era, a charming little one-off special, Romance with a Double Bass was written by John Cleese, Connie Booth and Bill Owen. Unfortunately, it is light years apart from the previous Cleese/Booth collaboration of Fawlty Towers opting for a steady diet of physical […]

Posted May 20, 2012 - No Comment

Fawlty Towers Revisited migrates to Tellyspotting

Back in 2005, several of us had the good fortune of producing a special for PBS to celebrate the 30th anniversary of, perhaps, the greatest British comedy of all-time, Fawlty Towers. Hosted by Andrew Sachs, who brilliantly played Manuel, Fawlty Towers Revisited was both an unbelievable joy and a daunting challenge to produce. The daunting […]

Posted October 17, 2010 - 2 Comments

Connie Booth checks out of Fawlty Towers – for good

It’s an old story, but one worth re-telling. You’re an actor/actress targeted for life for a role done a lifetime ago. A legion of fans worldwide don’t want to let go. It’s something that every actor worries about. In the world of British comedy alone, just ask Patricia Routledge (Hyacinth Bucket), John Cleese (Basil Fawlty) […]

Posted March 23, 2010 - No Comment

Book of Minutiae – Chapter 1

From the Tellyspotting book of little known facts….. Next time you feel the need to amaze your friends with some British comedy trivia, here are some great starters that will have them, well, amazed. Guaranteed. Or, if you find yourself at a pub quiz and one of these questions pops up…you can thank me later. […]

Posted January 13, 2010 - No Comment

Carol Cleveland, the 7th Python

When one thinks of the British comedy that started it all, Monty Python, the names of John Cleese, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, Terry Gilliam, Graham Chapman and Eric Idle immediately come to mind. That said, one cannot overlook the contributions of Carol Cleveland, who appeared in 30 of the 45 Python episodes. While Connie Booth, of […]