Connie Booth

Fawlty Towers is a sitcom that needs no introduction for those familiar with British comedy, and yet it only lasted for two short series with a total of 12 episodes. Created by comedy legends John Cleese and Connie Booth, the show quickly became iconic after its first series in 1975. Basil Fawlty, the hotel owner with a short fuse, and his chaotic attempts to run a Torquay hotel, captivated millions. The series reached heights of popularity few shows at the time could rival. So, why does the show only exist in a re-cut, sanitised, edited form, with some of the original scenes deleted? In this programme, we explore these controversies, peeling back the layers of Fawlty Towers and examining its sometimes uncomfortable place in today's world. Through unearthed deleted scenes and archival interviews, we piece together the story of how a sitcom that seemed untouchable in the 1970s came to be viewed through a more critical lens.

A celebration of John Cleese and Connie Booth's acclaimed sitcom following the misadventures of Torquay hotel owner Basil Fawlty. The programme explores its phenomenal success, with a selection of its finest moments, and contributions from fans, experts and supporting cast members.

This special one-hour documentary reflects on Michael Palin's fascinating career as a BAFTA-winning actor, writer and presenter.

This is the story of a man's bravery to cover the world at war, and what it takes to get images published for the world to see. This is Jason P. Howe's story of survival and change.

30 years after Fawlty Towers (1975) ended, Stephen Fry narrates a documentary about the making of this classic sitcom.

Movie with some of the greatest brittish comedians such as Rowan Atkinson, John Cleese.

The Secret Policeman benefit shows for Amnesty International brought together comedy grand masters - from Python and Beyond the Fringe - and performers then relatively unknown, like Rowan Atkinson. Narrated by Dawn French, the programme includes interviews with many of the comedians and musicians who took part: John Cleese, Stephen Fry, Michael Palin, Sting, Lenny Henry and many more. The shows and their stars had a huge effect on modern British comedy. There are few comics today whose careers have not been heavily influenced by the anarchic and surreal humour of these events.

Compilation of the best Sketches of the first series of Monty Python's Flying Circus, which ran from 5 October 1969 to 11 January 1970. Memorable moments include: 'The 127th Upperclass Twit of the Year Competition from Hurlingham Park'; 'Bicycle Repair Man'; 'Vicious Gangs of Old Ladies - the Layabouts in Lace'; 'The Man with Three Buttocks'; 'The Lumberjack Song'; 'Vocational Guidance Councillor'; and 'The Joke That Kills People'. Oh, and a sketch about a dead parrot.

All the best sketches from the third and fourth series of the ground-breaking comedy. Memorable moments include: 'The Finals of the All-England Summarise Proust Competition'; 'Stand and Deliver! It's That Highwayman Dennis Moore'; 'Thrust: A Quite Controversial Look at the World Around Us'; 'Whicker's Island'; and 'The Fifteenth Ideal Loon Competition'. Originally broadcast from 19 October 1972 to 18 January 1973, and 31 October to 5 December 1974.

All the best sketches from the second series of the ground-breaking comedy. Memorable moments include: 'It's in the Mind'; 'The New Cooker Sketch'; 'Nobody Expects the Spanish Inquisition'; and 'The Ministry for Silly Walks'. Originally Broadcast from 15 September to 22 December 1970

Fawlty Towers Revisited features the 80-minute, 30th anniversary retrospective TV special on one of the world’s funniest and best-loved comedies, as well as an additional 10 minutes of behind-the-scenes stories and recollections from recent interviews with Fawlty Towers’ cast and crew.

Francis Ashby, a senior Oxford don on holiday alone in the Alps, meets holidaying American Caroline and her companion Elinor, the blossoming Irish-American girl she adopted many years before. Ashby finds he enjoys their company, particularly that of Elinor, and both the women are drawn to him. Back at Oxford he is nevertheless taken aback when they arrive unannounced. Women are not allowed in the College grounds, let alone the rooms. Indeed any liaison, however innocent, is frowned on by the upstanding Fellows.

With a drug-addled lifestyle and a prison sentence firmly behind him, Abel is determined to go straight and stay clean... as soon as he's seen to one final heist. In the house that he burgles he comes across Elizabeth - rich, desperate, hopelessly addicted to a heroin and unconscious. Saving her from the clutched of an overdose, Abel stays out of compassion which eventually evolves into attraction. But when Abel takes on Elizabeth he also takes on her family. His resolution to go straight has to go on the back burner while he struggles against a drugs conspiracy that stretched from the slums of the East End to the Houses of Parliament.

An irreverent comedy is set in motion when Leon Geller, a sensitive Jewish boy from London, accidentally learns that his is the product of artificial insemination.

The story behind how the comedy sketch group Monty Python formed in 1969, and lead to four very series, and four very funny films that are still has funny today as when they were released.

Meatloaf introduces a look back at Python's use of music. Included interviews with the team, André Jacquemin and other conspirators.

Alex Conway is an actor who plays the part of 'Eddie Weary', a sympathetic, down-at-heel, shabby, Northern, working-class private detective, in a TV show. Except Conway is actually a complete idiot in real-life: stuck up, pretentious and selfish, the constant focus of tabloid interest for his bad, usually drunken behaviour. But then he discovers he gets truckloads of mail from fans who think he really is Eddie Weary, asking for his help, so he decides to help them - with the aid of his assistant, Birdie.

When a humorous script-reader in her New York apartment sees an ad in the Saturday Review of Literature for a bookstore in London that does mail order, she begins a very special correspondence and friendship with Frank Doel, the bookseller who works at Marks & Co., 84 Charing Cross Road.

When a hotelier attempts to fill the chronic vacancies at his castle by launching an advertising campaign that falsely portrays the property as haunted, two actual ghosts show up and end up falling for two guests.

Young Cedric Errol and his widowed mother live in genteel poverty in 1880s Brooklyn after the death of his father. Cedric's grandfather, the Earl of Dorincourt, has long ago disowned his son for marrying an American. But after the death of the Earl's remaining son, he decides to accept Cedric as his heir.

When a nobleman is threatened by a family curse on his newly inherited estate, detective Sherlock Holmes is hired to investigate.

This intriguing story is set in the 1930s at a country house, where two amateur sleuths, Bobby Jones and Lady Frankie Derwent, try to unravel the mystery behind a tale of murder, suspense and false identities. And the only clues the two have to go on are the puzzling last words of a dying man. Featuring characters created by Agatha Christie, Why Didn't They Ask Evans is a classic crime thriller sure to please murder-mystery fans.

A former green beret is hired by the Kenyan government to stop increasingly bold and violent poachers. As if that wasn't hard enough, he has to deal with his estranged father, now a safari guide, and with the woman they both love.

Sherlock Holmes is brought back to life by Watson's female descendant after being cryogenically frozen for eighty years.

67 year-old Victor is forced to move into an old people's home but he prefers to grow old disgracefully.

In 1938 New York City, a dentist finds his business and marriage failing as he embarks on a love affair with a young dental assistant.

Two terminally ill patients in a hospital yearn for relief from their predicament. With little or no friends, they form an uneasy alliance and plot an escape for one last wild time.

The nightmare experience of a young American housewife, confronted by a dark secret from her childhood.

Several criminal lawyers reunite every year in the Swiss mountains to entertain themselves with fake trials and murder mysteries. At one year's party, an unwitting American becomes part of the game.

King Arthur, accompanied by his squire, recruits his Knights of the Round Table, including Sir Bedevere the Wise, Sir Lancelot the Brave, Sir Robin the Not-Quite-So-Brave-As-Sir-Lancelot and Sir Galahad the Pure. On the way, Arthur battles the Black Knight who, despite having had all his limbs chopped off, insists he can still fight. They reach Camelot, but Arthur decides not to enter, as "it is a silly place".

A collection of Monty Python's Flying Circus skits from the first two seasons of their British TV series.

John Cleese is hilarious as the descendant of Sherlock Holmes in this modern detective drama of international power politics and intrigue. Unlike his illustrious grandfather however, he only succeeds in bungling every job he organizes. Also stars Arthur Lowe as the "bionic" grandson of Dr. Watson, Stratford Johns as the Commissioner of Police, and Connie Booth as Mrs. Hudson.

Adaptation of the Helene Hanff memoir, presented as part of Play for Today.

A bassist shows up early for the betrothal ball of a beautiful princess, and whiles away the time having a dip in the river. The princess is doing the same, unbeknownst to the bass player, but when someone steals their clothes, the bass player helps the princess to preserve her dignity by transporting her back to the castle in his bass case, and along the way they discover they have feelings for each other. Based on a short story by Anton Chekhov.

Vice-Chancellor Bartley Humbolt has problems. His young university is almost bankrupt, his wife is threatening to leave him, his protege professor from industry is threatening to overshadow him, and his prestigious professor of history is threatening to resign. But Bartley is a born manipulator. And when he gives a dinner party, he has something very special in mind - for afters.

John Cleese, Michael Palin and Terry Jones celebrate the Guinness Book of World Records.

TV play by Jim Hawkins based on real events in Russia and the USA just after the Bolshevik Revolution.

In May 1977 a second Amnesty benefit was held to build on the success of the first show and with the intent of developing momentum for a regularly-scheduled benefit show.

A waiter hurrying from table to table in a crowded Italian restaurant picks up titbits of conversation from the varied clientele.

A pre-Monty Python mockumentary, written by and presented by John Cleese, that provides tips on learning how to irritate people.