Husband-and-wife Fawlty Towers tribute act are facing personal ruin after John Cleese threatens them with legal action over 'copyright breach'
A husband-and-wife who run a Fawlty Towers tribute act say they face personal ruin after lawyers threatened them with legal action.
Michael and Louise Green, who perform across the country with their Basil &Co dinner show, have been accused of breaching the popular BBC show's copyright, which belongs to actor John Cleese and his ex-wife, actress and co-creator Connie Booth.
The scripts to the show, which ran between 1975 and 1979 and achieved phenomenal success with just 12 episodes, are licensed to comic agent Phil McIntyre 'for the purposes of live entertainment'.
Speaking to MailOnline, the Greens said their business, Laughlines, which employs a number of actors for their other parodies which include Only Fools and Horses, Father Ted and 'Allo 'Allo, is now in jeopardy, as theatres have cancelled appearances following the legal threat.
Equity actor Michael, 53, from Harrogate, who plays Basil Fawlty, said: 'Fawlty Towers was my favourite comedy of all time. I am deeply upset that John Cleese has gone for me.
Wife Louise, 49, added: 'The stress of what is happening is horrendous - it has taken over our lives for the past couple of years.
'We have done absolutely nothing wrong, but for some reason they are trying to crush us.
'We use the characters, but not the name 'Fawlty Towers'.
'Perhaps we are being targeted because our comedy dinner shows are a success.
'All we are doing is using the characters from the show. We are not using the Fawlty Towers' scripts.
'It is an original work, a parody. We are not breaching copyright laws.'
JG IP DESK opines : if you want to use somebody's copyrighted work, you have to pay them, just the same as people pay you for your work.
Stop gaining negative popularity , either write your own stuff or pay up.
For more details on copyrights contact us : www.judithattorneys.com or call us on 9731479003
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