Fawlty Towers: Fawlts and All

John Cleese was born and brought up in Weston-super-Mare. However, he recovered enough to win a place to study science at Cambridge. After sampling the conversation in the Chemistry laboratories, he switched to Law. The success of the 1963 Cambridge Footlights Revue, which played in the West End and on Broadway, saved him from a legal career. He co-founded the legendary Monty Python comedy troupe, writing and performing in the TV series and in films including Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Monty Python’s Life of Brian. In the 1970s Cleese and his first wife, Connie Booth, co-wrote and starred in the now-classic sitcom Fawlty Towers, which won three BAFTAs. Cleese co-wrote and starred in the 1988 smash hit A Fish Called Wanda, for which he won a BAFTA award for acting. He went on to appear in many other films, from James Bond to Harry Potter, and guest-starred in numerous TV shows, including Cheers and Will and Grace. He wrote his first autobiography So Anyway, which was published in 2014 and has sold 600,000 copies worldwide. In 2020, he also penned Creativity: A Short and Cheerful Guide. In his twilight years he passes his time writing film scripts, making speeches to business audiences, doing seminars on creativity and teaching at Cornell University.