John Cleese’s Fawlty Towers - The Play is at G Live in Guildford until December 20.

Directed by its West End director Caroline Jay Ranger, it stars Danny Bayne as Basil Fawlty, Mia Austen as Sybil, Hemi Yeroham as Manuel, Joanne Clifton as Polly, Paul Nicholas as The Major and Jemma Churchill as Mrs Richards.

Fifty years after Fawlty Towers was first broadcast on BBC2 on September 19, 1975, John Cleese, who co-wrote the sitcom with Connie Booth, has chosen three of his favourite episodes to be acted out on the stage.

He has adapted The Hotel Inspector and The Germans from series one and Communication Problems from series two into a two-hour play - complete with a new finale.

Fawlty Towers is set in a fictional hotel of that name in Torquay. Only 12 half-hour episodes of the television show were ever made.

John Cleese came up with the idea for the character Basil Fawlty when he stayed at Donald Sinclair’s Gleneagles Hotel in Torquay and became fascinated with the owner’s incredibly rude behaviour.

The television show’s many awards include two BAFTAs for Best Situation Comedy. In 2000 it was voted the best British programme of all time in a British Film Institute poll.

The stage show begins following a tip-off that hotel inspectors may be visiting. Eager to impress, Basil attempts to ingratiate himself with guests who he suspects are there to critique the establishment.

The situation is complicated by a party of Germans, and deaf and dotty guest-from-hell Mrs Richards, whose infuriating complaints prevent Basil hiding a gambling win from his ever vigilant and bossy wife Sybil.

Together they run their hotel with help from the unflappable Polly, and very little help from Manuel, the trainee waiter from Barcelona who is the butt of Fawlty’s frustration.