Fawlty Towers was only on our screens for 12 half-hour episodes, but it has stayed in our lives ever since. The Major; ‘Don t mention the war!’; ‘He s from Barcelona’; Basil the Rat everyone has a favourite line, moment or character.

In this, the first biography of the show, Graham McCann holds up to the light each of the unpredictable elements – the demented brilliance of John Cleese, his creative partnership with Connie Booth – that added up to an immortal sitcom, beloved all over the world, even in Barcelona.