John Cleese has revealed that Fawlty Towers was originally rejected by the BBC for being too clichéd.

As the cast celebrated the show’s 30th anniversary today and at the press event Cleese revealed that when he originally submitted the script to Jimmy Gilbert, then head of comedy at the BBC, it was turned down.

The fellow whose job it was to assess the quality of the writing said ‘This is full of cliched situations, stereotypical characters and I cannot see it being anything other than a disaster’.

Cleese said he had framed the letter. He added: ‘Jimmy himself said “You can’t do the whole thing in the hotel”.

‘Of course it was in the hotel that the whole pressure cooker situation built up. You do realise as you get older that almost nobody knows what they’re talking about.’

Couldn’t have put it better myself.