FAWLTY POWERS

As the iconic BBC comedy turns 50, accompanied by a smash-hit West End stage adaptation and a new UK tour, KAREN ROCKETT reveals 20 fun facts about the toe-curlingly brilliant hijinks at Torquay's worst hotel

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IT LASTED just two series over 12 episodes, but is regarded as the pinnacle of British comedy. Fawlty Towers turned 50 this year and its farcical magnificence shows no signs of ageing.

Key to its popularity was John Cleese's highly strung Torquay hotelier Basil Fawlty. Rude, snobbish and with a tendency towards hysteria, Basil ordered his dysfunctional team around with hilariously chaotic consequences, aided and abetted by his domineering wife Sybil (Prunella Scales), who usually waited to step in just long enough to push him over the comedic edge.

Then husband-and-wife duo Cleese and Connie Booth, who played put-upon waitress Polly (the hotel's only voice of reason), spent more than a fortnight perfecting the script for each episode - and it showed. From the physical comedy to Cleese's caustic comments, nothing was off limits and crucially, despite the constant absurdity, it felt relatably real.

Five decades on and a new stage production has been launched, with huge success. There are even rumours of a remake, although surely the cranky hotelier would have mellowed with age?

We'll just have to wait and see...

1. The much-loved sitcom was first broadcast 50 years ago on BBC Two on September 19, 1975, with the episode A Touch of Class.

2. Fawlty Towers nearly didn't make it to the small screen...

In May 1974, then comedy script editor Iain Main wrote a memo to BBC television's head of comedy and light entertainment, critiquing the pilot script. He wrote: "I'm afraid I thought this one as dire as its title. It's a kind of 'Prince of Denmark' of the hotel world. A collection of clichés and stock characters which I can't see being anything but a disaster."

Luckily, his protest was ignored and overruled.