Fawlty Towers script with deleted ‘sex scene’ is up for auction

A FAWLTY Towers script featuring a deleted scene where Basil hides to avoid sex with drunken wife Sybil is up for auction.

The notes, likely to fetch £12,000, were written for the 1979 episode in which Basil (John Cleese) pretends to forget their anniversary.

BBC

In one additional scene, Sybil returns drunk and flirts with Basil in their bedroom – leaving him hanging from wisteria on a window to escape[/caption]

Sybil (Prunella Scales) storms off and Basil urges waitress Polly to dress as his wife and feign illness when their pals arrive.

In the draft script there are about 30 extra pages, or 15 minutes of TV.

In one additional scene, Sybil returns drunk and flirts with Basil in their bedroom.

Basil ends up hanging from wisteria on a window as Sybil asks: “Have you gone off the idea?”. He replies: “No dear, I was just getting some fresh air.”

Only 12 episodes of Fawlty Towers were made and Andrew Stowe, at East Bristol Auctions, said: “To find new material from one of the greatest sitcoms of all time is like finding the Holy Grail.”

He believes the scene was omitted owing to a BBC strike.

The anonymous seller’s scripts are in an online auction until December 30.