Cleese 'did Fawlty commentaries for free'

John Cleese has admitted that he was not paid by the BBC for his recent contribution to a Fawlty Towers DVD set.

The 70-year-old actor, who played calamity-prone Basil Fawlty on the '70s sitcom, recorded audio commentaries for all 12 episodes earlier this year.

Cleese is quoted by the Daily Express as saying: "The BBC said to me, 'Would you like to put commentaries on them?' I said, 'I think that might be interesting. What are you going to pay me?' Since I've discovered you need this stuff called money, because you exchange it for food and, you know, clothing.

"And they said, 'Well, we can't pay you, but what we can do is give you a hotel for a few days'. And I said, 'That's a good deal'."

The star's commentaries feature on Fawlty Towers Remastered, which was released earlier this month.