N. F. Simpson which no episodes survive. His final series for television was the unsuccessful "Charley’s Grants" (1970), co-written with John Fortune and John Wells, starring Hattie Jacques, and produced by Ian MacNaughton (who produced "Monty Python’s Flying Circus"), which is also entirely lost. Plays followed, including a satire on advertising, "Thank You Very Much" (1971), and an effective three-hander for ITV, "Silver Wedding" (1974), directed by Mike Newell. Simpson’s highest-profile production for television was "Elementary, My Dear Watson" (1973), a Sherlock Holmes parody for BBC One’s "Comedy Playhouse" starring John Cleese and Willie Rushton. It has been screened several times at the
John Cleese ("... he's from Barcelona"), and Booth as waitress Polly, the series' voice of sanity. Cleese based Basil Fawlty on a real person, Donald Sinclair, whom he had encountered in 1970 while the Monty Python team were staying at the Gleneagles Hotel in Torquay while filming inserts for their television series. Reportedly, Cleese was inspired by Sinclair's mantra, "I could run this hotel just fine if it weren't for the guests." He later described Sinclair as "the most wonderfully rude man I have ever met," although Sinclair's widow has said her husband was totally misrepresented in the series. During the Pythons'