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Fawlty Towers: Fawlts and All

The Sunday Times bestselling 50th anniversary celebration of the nation's beloved sitcom

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 At last, here is the ultimate celebration of the nation's beloved sitcom from its legendary creator, John Cleese. Enjoy the behind-the-scenes magic, with stunning on-set photographs from the archives ... and a laugh a page!

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ 'A joy and an education to read. So many memories flooding back. Great stuff.' Goodreads review
⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ 'Amazing detail ... a superb book on my favourite comedy series' Goodreads review
⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ 'So special and had me laughing ... a fantastic book' Goodreads review
⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ 'Wonderful book with lots of insight' Goodreads review

Duck surprise. The car that wouldn't start. The psychiatrists. Those builders... Readers say Fawlts and All is 'guaranteed to make you smile' and 'a must for all fans'!

Fifty years ago Fawlty Towers hit British TV screens for the first time, becoming an instant classic. Now for the first time John Cleese tells his stories from behind the scenes of his favourite moments. From writing scripts that were so carefully planned they were double the length of similar shows', to casting, lighting, how the show was almost cancelled before it started, and other production shenanigans, these are your favourite moments from Fawlty Towers as you've never seen them before. Exploring the how and why of creating classic comedy, there is a laugh on every page, and a dose of nostalgia for vintage TV fans. With gorgeous commissioned illustration and archival imagery, the book revisits such iconic scenes as Basil thrashing his car, a rat appearing in a box of cheese biscuits, and Basil goose-stepping across the dining room to an audience of horrified guests.

Written by and starring Cleese and his then-wife Connie Booth, the first series of Fawlty Towers aired in 1975, with a second series broadcast in 1979. It featured Cleese as the irascible hotel manager Basil Fawlty, Prunella Scales as his sybaritic wife Sybil, Andrew Sachs as the hapless waiter Manuel, and Booth as Polly, an efficient waitress and art student. It won three BAFTAS and, despite having only 12 episodes in total, continues to be regularly voted the best sit-com in British history.

Fawlty Towers: Fawlts and All was a top 10 Sunday Times bestseller in Hardback Non-Fiction, weeks ending 8th and 15th November 2025.©2025 John Cleese Entertainment & Celebrities Entertainment & Performing Arts Film & TV Performing Arts Funny Witty Comedy
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I see a number of other reviews have taken issues with the ostensible laziness and padding out within this title, and it’s hard to disagree. Going into exhaustive detail on every “guest star” (basically everyone else in the cast) adds nothing you wouldn’t get from Wiki or a million similar sources, and I’m frustrated Cleese doesn’t go into more detail on how he found working with some people, not necessarily to muck rake but just to provide some new insight. For instance I’m sure I’ve read elsewhere he was very close to Bruce Boa in Waldorf Salad but he gets but a cursory mention.

I’m also annoyed that up until VERY recently this title was advertised as being read by Cleese himself. Jackson-Smith does no better than a passable job, ironically often fumbling or going too fast on Fawlty’s own lines (that he would say every night in the theatre so really should have a better handle on).

I also think the book js a bit too self-congratulatory about the west end stage version; for me I found. It a pale imitation of the real thing though I’m sure it’s kept Cleese in the style to which his many ex wives have become accustomed

We know that well into his 80s Cleese remains a chippy so and so and his rancour with the BBC shows no signs of stopping, though I would rather the truth of his opinion than the millions of other autobiographies uncritically fawning over the corporation (Hi Richard Dimbleby).

Cleese is generous with his praise both to his ex wife and co-writer Connie Booth but also the core cast, and it’s clear he looks back on the time writing and performing the show fondly. And he doesn’t go overboard on how brilliant the show is (and it really is) and interesting picks at some errors or things he wished they’d done differently, watching it 50 years on, which will make me look out for them when I next watch the shows.

This isn’t an essential book for Fawlty fans. But it’s not bad.

Hmmm

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Everyone already knows, including Cleese himself, that this is one of the greatest TV comedies ever written, but those in search of new insights won’t find them here. Most of this book rehashes what he has already said elsewhere, alongside a great deal of padding in the form of biographies of the participating actors that could easily be gleaned from Wikipedia, and many lengthy quotations from the shows, which the narrator does his best to replicate, but of course without being able to capture the spirit of the original. If only Cleese could have found the energy to write definitively about his and Connie Booth’s masterpiece with a bit more of the energy and insight it took to create it,

A bit lazy

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Fawlty Towers is, in my opinion the funniest comedy ever made. But 75% of it is because of the amazing performance of John Cleese. He is too modest. Mr Cleese I hope you are reading this. You ARE and probably will always be the funniest and cleverest comedian ever. Yes, the other Pythons and the other Fawlty Towers cast are amazing BUT you are the best of them and without you it just wouldn't have been close to as good. No one comes close. Thank you.

Really shows the comic genius of John Cleese.

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I learned the most from Connie who talks for around 2 minutes at the end. What I learned from 5 hours of John talking is that he attended Cambridge (an elitest University) completely free of charge - and when it came to him contributing - he resented paying his share of the tax which enabled this system. He also views humour as revolutionary and freeing - and yet celebrated the collapse of Socialism in Yugoslavia. John is a middle class reactionary who happened to be in the right place at the right time, and incidently made us laugh. What I find ironic about John is that he is always on the prawl ensuring we are laughing in just the right way. Any deviation is met with his stern censure. Finally, I notice he omitted discussing the fact that he physically "jumped" when he first saw the Black doctor - a reaction to the fact he was not White. Why miss this out? The far right was very much on the march in the UK during the 1970s - and that reaction was common. It led to Thatcher - and the cutting of the extent of tax people like Cleese had to pay (I believe Cleese fled abroad at one point to join his fellow tax exiles - Michael Caine and Sean Connery). I am left stunned that it took an American (Boothe) talking for 2 minutes - to actually explain what the point of this otherwise self-indulgent book is actually about. John must have had another unexpected tax bill for this to have been written. Did I laugh? Only in how Audible managed to con me out of yet another credit!

Connie Boothe is At the End!

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OK, but not much new in it. Only for die hard fans I would suggest.

Reads like a Wikipedia article

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