John Cleese has brought bonkers hotelier Basil Fawlty back to life.

His first new appearance onscreen nearly 37 years after the last BBC series of Fawlty Towers aired in 1979 will be in a new Specsavers advert which will air in January.

In the advert Cleese recreates the famous scene in which he gives his broken-down car a "damn good thrashing". Except that due to his lack of efficient glasses he gives the wrong car a damn good thrashing.

Cleese says that it was the concept of the ad that initially attracted him: "A lot of people have sent me Fawlty Towers scripts, or Basil scripts, and they were always absolutely awful. But these people had an idea, and I have to say, I met them and they were all very nice, and within 20 minutes we'd written the script. Because it was kind of obvious. And I looked at that, and I thought, no I think that will work and it's genuinely funny."

He continued: "A lot of people spot there's elements of Basil's behaviour that's exactly like they behave. And there are other people, I think, that don't want to admit that. So they kind of look at Basil and say: 'Look at that fellow over there!' But actually, there's a bit of Basil in most people if they are sufficiently stressed."

It has not been revealed how much Cleese has been paid for the ad campaign.

Watch the advert here.