John Cleese may sue Australian company behind Fawlty Towers 'rip-off'

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John Cleese slammed Australian 'rip off' of his BBC show Fawlty Towers
The Faulty Towers Dining Experience's show has angered Cleese
They will perform at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in April
'These people are completely brazen, utterly shameless,' Cleese said

Published: 01:06 EST, 23 March 2016 | Updated: 04:29 EST, 23 March 2016

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John Cleese has slammed an Australian 'rip-off' of his legendary BBC show Fawlty Towers and has threatened to take legal action against the theatre company involved.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Cleese was angered when he was told about The Faulty Towers Dining Experience, which is due to perform at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival from April 12 - and he didn’t feel that imitation was the sincerest form of flattery.

‘I had absolutely no idea this was going on until about a year ago,’ Cleese told Fairfax. ‘I think people will find that very hard to believe, but if people don't tell you, how do you know?

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John Cleese has slammed an Australian rip off of his legendary BBC show Fawlty Towers

'These people are completely brazen, utterly shameless. The awful thing about our society is that shameless people get away with things – look at [Donald] Trump.

'They take our concepts, they take our characters, they take our characters' names and then they change the W to a U and say it's got nothing to do with our show.'

This is just one of nine versions of the show being staged around the world by Interactive Theatre International (ITI).

Cleese said ITI and its associates around the world never tried to get permission to use the characters, situations and name from him, although 'Fawlty' had been changed to Faulty' in the ITI production.

The Faulty Towers Dining Experience by Interactive Theatre International's has angered Cleese

Cleese said he had 'absolutely no idea' the Australian company were doing their own version of Fawlty Towers 'until about a year ago'

The former member of Monty Phyton said ITI and its associates around the world never tried to get permission to use any of the characters from the original Fawlty Towers

Cleese and Andrew Sachs star in a classic scene from the original Fawlty Towers

'These people are completely brazen, utterly shameless,' an angry Cleese said

However, the three characters in the Australian company's live show are even called Basil, Manuel and Sybil - all unmistakably from the TV series Fawlty Towers that was first aired on the BBC in 1975 and 1979 for two seasons.

Despite this Cleese and his co-writer on the Fawlty Towers series, his ex-wife Connie Booth, have not received anything in royalties or compensation.

Cleese also wanted to protect the interests of his investors in the stage version of his show, Fawlty Towers Live. The show is set to have its world premiere in Sydney in August.

In a statement, ITI founder, New Zealander Alison Pollard-Mansergh, defended the theatre company, saying that the shows had been 'running for nearly 20 years' and that Cleese's comments were 'misleading and inaccurate'.