Connie Booth makes practical intelligence funny, giving Polly Sherman something to do while Basil Fawlty loses control. We value the precision of her acting and the care for character she brought to writing Fawlty Towers.
Fi1m perspective
In Fawlty Towers (1975), Connie Booth’s Polly Sherman attends to the practical difficulty while Basil makes it harder to solve. Booth makes that attention worth watching without competing with John Cleese’s agitation. We laughed at her persistence because she keeps attending to the job when Basil can barely tolerate the people it involves. Playing the sensible person can be a thankless assignment in farce. Booth makes us interested in what Polly is thinking, and her performance is a substantial part of why we recommend the programme so warmly.
Her early screen comedy included appearances in Monty Python’s Flying Circus (1969) and the Witch in Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975). Fawlty Towers, which she co-created and co-wrote as well as acted in, gave her a more substantial opportunity. The programme’s 1975 and 1979 runs remain the clearest reason to seek her out. Later came Mrs Errol in Little Lord Fauntleroy (1980), among her straight dramatic television parts. Her acting work continued through the 1980s and into the early 1990s, but Polly is where her judgement as a performer and a writer can be considered together.
Booth has described developing the plots with Cleese before he wrote the dialogue. That helps explain why her contribution is worth considering beyond Polly’s lines. Their writing keeps the characters consistent as the difficulties multiply, and lets Basil be unpleasant without constantly asking us to forgive him. Polly must belong in the same hotel as Basil, rather than merely stand beside him pointing out his faults. Booth gives her work to get on with, so that her responses follow from a practical need instead of the need to supply a punchline.
Prunella Scales’s steady Sybil and Andrew Sachs’s carefully timed Manuel give Booth equally precise performers to work alongside. The treatment of Manuel can still make us wish a joke had stopped sooner, a reservation that belongs in any account of the writing as well as the performances. Booth and Cleese sometimes ask us to enjoy his discomfort for longer than we care to. Return to Fawlty Towers for Polly, and pay attention to her when Basil is making it difficult to notice anybody else.
Biography
Connie Booth is an American actress and writer. She played Polly Sherman in the BBC sitcom Fawlty Towers (1975 and 1979), which she co-wrote with John Cleese. She also appeared in episodes of Monty Python's Flying Circus (1969–1974) and in the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975).
Booth was born on 2 December 1940 in Indianapolis, Indiana. She began her career in Britain with roles in comedy programmes and films associated with the Monty Python group, including And Now for Something Completely Different (1971). Other credits include Little Lord Fauntleroy (1980) and 84 Charing Cross Road (1987). She left acting in 1995 and trained as a psychotherapist.
