Reclusive Connie Booth will ‘sneak in’ to watch the Fawlty Towers stage show when it launches in the West End after getting a writing credit from ex-husband John Cleese: ‘She likes to keep a low profile these days’

John Cleese’s ex-wife Connie Booth says she is ‘looking forward’ to a new stage production of iconic TV sitcom Fawlty Towers – but will keep a low profile when it launches in the West End.

Connie, who co-wrote the series with the Basil Fawlty star, plans to sneak in with other members of the public to watch the brand new show featuring Torquay’s most chaotic hotel.

Her second husband, renowned American theater critic John Lahr, told MailOnline: ‘She’s going to see it – probably not on opening night, but she’ll be there.’

The American actress declined to comment on the new production, with Lahr adding: “I understand people are interested – why wouldn’t they be? Connie doesn’t give interviews. Normally she doesn’t do it anymore.’

A source added: ‘She’s looking forward to seeing it, but she likes to keep a low profile and stay out of the spotlight these days.’

Connie, who co-wrote the series, plans to sneak in with other members of the public to watch the brand new show featuring Torquay’s most chaotic hotel (pictured in 2017)

Connie, 83, married comedy legend Cleese in 1968 and the couple went on to write the TV series, which was voted the greatest British sitcom of all time in a 2019 Radio Times poll.

The couple, who have an adult daughter Cynthia, divorced in 1978 before the second and final series of the BBC2 show was shown the following year.

American actress Connie, who played chambermaid Polly in the series, left the industry in 1995 and worked as a psychotherapist until her retirement.

She lives quietly in a £2.5 million terraced house in North London with her second husband, a former acclaimed critic for The New Yorker and son of American actor Bert Lahr who played the Cowardly Lion in the iconic Hollywood film The Wizard or Oz.

Cleese, 84, has adapted three of his favorite episodes from the program for the new production which premieres at the Apollo Theater in the West End on Saturday (May 4).

He says he’s written “one grand finale, bringing together the endings of all three episodes.”

Connie gets joint credit for co-writing the TV series from which the new play is adapted.

In the stage production, Adam Jackson-Smith plays the inimitable Basil, while Anna-Jane Casey takes on the role of Basil’s long-suffering wife Sybil, who is played in the series by Prunella Scales.

From left to right: Connie Booth as Polly, John Cleese as Basil Fawlty, Prunella Scales as Sybil Fawlty and Andrew Sachs (kneeling) as hapless Spanish waiter Manuel in a promotional photo

The former co-stars recreated the shot after reuniting at a Fawlty Towers event in 2009

Victoria Fox will play Polly, while singer and actor Paul Nicholas, who starred in the BBC sitcom Just Good Friends and will play the bumbling Major Cleese, added of the new production: ‘What a thrill to see Fawlty Towers coming to the West End for the first time time – almost 50 years since the show was first recorded in December 1974.’

Last year, Connie said she had no idea Cleese was writing a reboot of the TV show – this time with daughter Camilla Cleese – and that she plans to return as Basil and star alongside Camilla , his daughter with his late second wife, American model and actress Barbara. Trentham.

Connie said: ‘I would have appreciated hearing about the project from John rather than reading about it in the newspaper.

‘Having failed a previous US reboot of Fawlty Towers several years ago, I was surprised to see another one planned.

‘I was even more surprised when I read that John plans to write and perform in it with his daughter Camilla.’

Connie married comedy legend Cleese in 1968. The couple welcomed daughter Cynthia (pictured with her parents) before divorcing in 1978.

But Connie is said to have wished the pair the best of luck with the revival, which will be set in the Caribbean and explore how the hapless Basil manages to navigate the modern world.

It has not been announced on which channel the revival will be shown, but Cleese said last year: ‘I’m not doing it with the BBC because I don’t get the freedom.

‘I was extremely lucky before because I worked for the BBC in the late 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s.

‘That was the best time because the BBC was run by people with real personalities who loved the medium and who operated on trust, which was okay because there wasn’t that much competition.’