John Cleese pays tribute to Andrew Sachs

John Cleese has paid tribute to the 'brilliant farceur' Andrew Sachs, after he died at the age of 86.

The Fawlty Towers co-creator said it was an 'absolute shock' to learn that the actor who will forever be known as his Manuel had passed away.

He said he knew Sachs had memory problems, as Sach's wife Melody told hm at a meal to celebrate Cleese's 75th birthday a couple a years ago. Although the former Python said he 'had no idea that [Sach's] life was in danger' from dementia.

He died in Denham Hall, a private care home for actors, last week and was buried yesterday.

Speaking on Radio 4's Today programme this morning, Cleese paid his respects to his 'quiet, poised and thoughtful' co-star, who could transform himself into one of comedy's most enduring stooges.

'He was one of the easiest to work with, not just in the sense that he was totally agreeable – he was a very nice, sweet man – but he just was a brilliant farceur and it was so easy for us to work out all the physical business,' Cleese said.

'Farce, I think, is the hardest form of acting. A lot of actors who are good at straight stuff but not at comedy and there are a lot who are good at comedy but not farce. He was just a delight.

'If you met him you would never for a moment think he was a comedian. You'd think he was a very cultivated bank manager, possibly retired, because he was quite quiet and poised and thoughtful and then you stuck that moustache on him and he turned into a completely different human being. He was wonderful.'

Cleese – who first saw Sachs in Alan Bennett's farce Habeas Corpus in 1973 before casting him as the hapless Spanish waiter – said he had the same innate rapport with his Fawlty Towers co-star as he did with his Monty Python colleague Michael Palin or Eric Idle, which made the comedy flow.

'It comes from the very deepest part of yourself,' the 77-year-old said. 'You can work on it but in our case we never had to work on it - it all happened so easily.

Cleese said his favourite moment was 'something to do with that dead body - I think that was some of our best physical comedy. And working out all that stuff about getting the body into the basked tn then getting it out again was so much fun.

'Occasionally you come across someone who loves physical comedy and although he was of such a quiet demeanour, Andy absolutely loved it.

'He was a sweet, sweet man and it's an absolute shock. He was very special.'

Samuel West, whose mother Prunella Scales played Sybil in Fawlty Towers, also paid his tribute.

He said that Sachs was the 'creator of one of our most beloved EU migrants. Such warmth and wit; [it's] impossible to think of him without smiling.'

Here is Cleese speaking on the Today programme:

Published: 2 Dec 2016