John Cleese has hit out at Faulty Towers The Dining Experience, the unofficial homage to the legendary TV series written by Cleese and Connie Booth. In an interview he has talked about taking legal action.

He has described the show, by the Australian company International Interactive Theatre, which has been running around the world since 1997, as “brazen, utterly shameless”.

Writing on Twitter Cleese said:  “I’ve just found out from an Aussie journalist the astonishing financial success of the 'Faulty Towers Rip-Off Dining Experience'. Had no idea.” He added: “Seems they thought that by not asking, and by changing the ‘w’ to a u’, they’d be in the clear! Hilarious.”

Speaking from New Zealand, Cleese said: "If they've been going for 20 years without paying us a penny, they could well owe us a very significant amount.” 

In 2014 the company included the following on the press information: “Faulty Towers The Dining Experience is an affectionate homage to Fawlty Towers the TV series written by John Cleese and Connie Booth. Their original TV scripts are not used in Faulty Towers The Dining Experience. Artistic director and co-creator of the show, Alison Pollard-Mansergh, adds ‘Faulty is spelled that way because when I started this show in 1997, John Cleese, Andrew Sachs and Prunella Scales were still young enough to have done the role. I wanted to be absolutely clear that we were not the original, so I spelled it differently. Happily, Mr Cleese and the BBC know of us and we work often with the BBC.’”

Cleese has said he is considering taking legal action because a major stage version of the classic sitcom is due to open in Sydney in August.