
Connie Booth
Actor · b. 1940 · Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
Constance "Connie" Booth (born 2 December 1940) is an American writer and actress, known for appearances on British television and particularly for her portrayal of Polly Sherman in the popular 1970s television show Fawlty Towers, which she co-wrote with her then husband John Cleese. In 1995, she quit acting and worked as a psychotherapist until her retirement. Booth was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, on December 2, 1940. Her father was a Wall Street stockbroker and her mother was an actress. The family later moved to New York State. Booth entered acting and worked as a Broadway understudy and waitress. She met John Cleese while he was working in New York City; they married on February 20, 1968. Booth secured parts in episodes of Monty Python's Flying Circus (1969–74) and in the Python films And Now for Something Completely Different (1971) and Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975, as a woman accused of being a witch). She also appeared in How to Irritate People (1968), a pre-Monty Python film starring Cleese and other future Monty Python members; a short film titled Romance with a Double Bass (1974) which Cleese adapted from a short story by Anton Chekhov; and The Strange Case of the End of Civilization as We Know It (1977), Cleese's Sherlock Holmes spoof, as Mrs. Hudson Booth and Cleese co-wrote and co-starred in Fawlty Towers (1975 and 1979), in which she played waitress and chambermaid Polly. For thirty years Booth declined to talk about the show until she agreed to participate in a documentary about the series for the digital channel Gold in 2009. Booth played various roles on British television, including Sophie in Dickens of London (1976), Mrs. Errol in a BBC adaptation of Little Lord Fauntleroy (1980) and Miss March in a dramatisation of Edith Wharton's The Buccaneers (1995). She also starred in the lead role of a drama called The Story of Ruth (1981), in which she played the role of the schizophrenic daughter of an abusive father. In 1994, she played a supporting role in "The Culex Experiment", an episode of the children's science fiction TV series The Tomorrow People. Booth also had a stage career, primarily in the London theatre, appearing in 10 productions from the mid-1970s through the mid-1990s, notably starring with John Mills in the 1983–1984 West End production of Little Lies at Wyndham's Theatre
Movies21
Movie7.8AdventureComedyKing Arthur, accompanied by his squire, recruits his Knights of the Round Table, including Sir Bedevere the Wise, Sir Lancelot the Brave, Sir Robin the Not-Quite-So-Brave-As-Sir-Lancelot and Sir Galahad the Pure. On the way, Arthur battles the Black Knight who, despite having had all his limbs chopped off, insists he can still fight. They reach Camelot, but Arthur decides not to enter, as "it is a silly place".
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
1975 · 6.6K votes
Movie5.8FantasyComedyWhen a hotelier attempts to fill the chronic vacancies at his castle by launching an advertising campaign that falsely portrays the property as haunted, two actual ghosts show up and end up falling for two guests.
High Spirits
1988 · 252 votes
Movie7.2ComedyA collection of Monty Python's Flying Circus skits from the first two seasons of their British TV series.
And Now for Something Completely Different
1971 · 602 votes
Movie7.2DramaRomanceWhen a humorous script-reader in her New York apartment sees an ad in the Saturday Review of Literature for a bookstore in London that does mail order, she begins a very special correspondence and friendship with Frank Doel, the bookseller who works at Marks & Co., 84 Charing Cross Road.
84 Charing Cross Road
1987 · 232 votes
Movie7.3FamilyDramaYoung Cedric Errol and his widowed mother live in genteel poverty in 1880s Brooklyn after the death of his father. Cedric's grandfather, the Earl of Dorincourt, has long ago disowned his son for marrying an American. But after the death of the Earl's remaining son, he decides to accept Cedric as his heir.
Little Lord Fauntleroy
1980 · 323 votes
Movie4.8ComedyDocumentaryThe Secret Policeman benefit shows for Amnesty International brought together comedy grand masters - from Python and Beyond the Fringe - and performers then relatively unknown, like Rowan Atkinson. Narrated by Dawn French, the programme includes interviews with many of the comedians and musicians who took part: John Cleese, Stephen Fry, Michael Palin, Sting, Lenny Henry and many more. The shows and their stars had a huge effect on modern British comedy. There are few comics today whose careers have not been heavily influenced by the anarchic and surreal humour of these events.
Remember the Secret Policeman's Ball?
2004 · 3 votes
Movie6.5HorrorCrimeWhen a nobleman is threatened by a family curse on his newly inherited estate, detective Sherlock Holmes is hired to investigate.
The Hound of the Baskervilles
1983 · 49 votes
Movie6.0MysteryTV MovieSherlock Holmes is brought back to life by Watson's female descendant after being cryogenically frozen for eighty years.
The Return of Sherlock Holmes
1987 · 6 votes
Movie6.7ThrillerTV MovieThis intriguing story is set in the 1930s at a country house, where two amateur sleuths, Bobby Jones and Lady Frankie Derwent, try to unravel the mystery behind a tale of murder, suspense and false identities. And the only clues the two have to go on are the puzzling last words of a dying man. Featuring characters created by Agatha Christie, Why Didn't They Ask Evans is a classic crime thriller sure to please murder-mystery fans.
Why Didn't They Ask Evans?
1980 · 18 votes
- Movie6.5Comedy
Movie with some of the greatest brittish comedians such as Rowan Atkinson, John Cleese.
The Funny Blokes of British Comedy
2005 · 2 votes
Movie6.6ComedyTV MovieA pre-Monty Python mockumentary, written by and presented by John Cleese, that provides tips on learning how to irritate people.
How to Irritate People
1969 · 45 votes
Movie6.3ThrillerComedyJohn Cleese is hilarious as the descendant of Sherlock Holmes in this modern detective drama of international power politics and intrigue. Unlike his illustrious grandfather however, he only succeeds in bungling every job he organizes. Also stars Arthur Lowe as the "bionic" grandson of Dr. Watson, Stratford Johns as the Commissioner of Police, and Connie Booth as Mrs. Hudson.
The Strange Case of the End of Civilization as We Know It
1977 · 16 votes
Movie6.3ComedyRomanceFrancis Ashby, a senior Oxford don on holiday alone in the Alps, meets holidaying American Caroline and her companion Elinor, the blossoming Irish-American girl she adopted many years before. Ashby finds he enjoys their company, particularly that of Elinor, and both the women are drawn to him. Back at Oxford he is nevertheless taken aback when they arrive unannounced. Women are not allowed in the College grounds, let alone the rooms. Indeed any liaison, however innocent, is frowned on by the upstanding Fellows.
American Friends
1991 · 12 votes
MovieTV MovieDrama67 year-old Victor is forced to move into an old people's home but he prefers to grow old disgracefully.
Past Caring
1986
Movie8.4DocumentaryComedy30 years after Fawlty Towers (1975) ended, Stephen Fry narrates a documentary about the making of this classic sitcom.
Fawlty Towers: Re-Opened
2009 · 5 votes
Movie5.4ComedyAn irreverent comedy is set in motion when Leon Geller, a sensitive Jewish boy from London, accidentally learns that his is the product of artificial insemination.
Leon the Pig Farmer
1993 · 17 votes
Movie10.0TV MovieIn 1938 New York City, a dentist finds his business and marriage failing as he embarks on a love affair with a young dental assistant.
Rocket to the Moon
1986 · 1 votes
Movie5.7DramaComedyTwo terminally ill patients in a hospital yearn for relief from their predicament. With little or no friends, they form an uneasy alliance and plot an escape for one last wild time.
Hawks
1988 · 20 votes
Movie7.0RomanceDramaAdaptation of the Helene Hanff memoir, presented as part of Play for Today.
84 Charing Cross Road
1975 · 2 votes
Movie6.0ComedyDocumentaryJohn Cleese, Michael Palin and Terry Jones celebrate the Guinness Book of World Records.
Is This a Record?
1973 · 1 votes
Movie6.1ComedyRomanceA bassist shows up early for the betrothal ball of a beautiful princess, and whiles away the time having a dip in the river. The princess is doing the same, unbeknownst to the bass player, but when someone steals their clothes, the bass player helps the princess to preserve her dignity by transporting her back to the castle in his bass case, and along the way they discover they have feelings for each other. Based on a short story by Anton Chekhov.
Romance with a Double Bass
1974 · 13 votes
Series16
TV6.6DramaPlay for Today is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original television plays, and adaptations of stage plays and novels, were transmitted. The individual episodes were between fifty and a hundred minutes in duration.
Play for Today
1970 · 10 votes
TV6.6DramaComedyAmerican Playhouse is an anthology television series periodically broadcast by Public Broadcasting Service in the United States.
American Playhouse
1982 · 8 votes
TV7.0DramaJim Bergerac is a detective sergeant in The Foreigners Office who likes to do things his own way. While dealing with his own personal demons Bergerac has a knack of finding trouble, and sometimes causing it.
Bergerac
1981 · 25 votes
- TV5.1
The BBC's flagship cinema review TV program featuring reviews of new releases, news items and interviews. The title of the program changes each year to incorporate the year of broadcast.
Film '72
1971 · 8 votes
TV7.0Anthology series of dramatic works.
ITV Saturday Night Theatre
1969 · 3 votes
TV8.3ComedyA British sketch comedy series with the shows being composed of surreality, risqué or innuendo-laden humour, sight gags and observational sketches without punchlines.
Monty Python's Flying Circus
1969 · 743 votes
TV8.3ComedyOwner Basil Fawlty, his wife Sybil, a chambermaid Polly, and Spanish waiter Manuel attempt to run their hotel amidst farcical situations and an array of demanding guests.
Fawlty Towers
1975 · 846 votes
TV5.0ComedyA series of benefit shows staged initially in the United Kingdom to raise funds for the human rights organisation Amnesty International. The shows started in 1976 featuring popular British comedians but later included leading musicians and actors. The Secret Policeman's Ball shows are credited by many prominent entertainers with having galvanised them to become involved with Amnesty and other social and political causes in succeeding years.
The Secret Policeman's Ball
1976 · 1 votes
TV6.2KidsSci-Fi & FantasyWorzel Gummidge is a children's comedy series, produced by Southern Television for ITV, based on the books by Barbara Euphan Todd. Starting in 1979, the programme starred Jon Pertwee in the title role and ran for four series in the UK until 1981. Channel 4 reprised the show in 1987 as Worzel Gummidge Down Under, which was set in New Zealand.
Worzel Gummidge
1979 · 13 votes
TV6.0DramaBecause of their "new money" background, four American girls have difficulty breaking into the upper-crust society of New York. Laura Testvalley, the governess of one of the girls, suggests a London season and thus the young women set sail for England and the unsuspecting English aristocracy. In England, all the girls soon find eligible husbands and the youngest girl, Nan, seems to land the best husband of them all: the handsome and very wealthy Julius, Duke of Trevennick. The girls soon discover that English upper-class men are not at all what they expected and hoped for.
The Buccaneers
1995 · 21 votes
TV8.0DocumentaryRealityDocumentary series that celebrates the incredible careers of the best of British talent.
A Life on Screen
2014 · 1 votes
TV7.3DramaA 13-episode miniseries from Yorkshire Television, about Charles Dickens, by now an internationally renowned novelist, during an 1869 tour of America, looking back over his life.
Dickens of London
1976 · 3 votes
TV5.8DramaSci-Fi & FantasyWorlds Beyond is a British television anthology broadcast on ITV from 1986 to 1988, based on real-life supernatural experiences described in archival documents from the Society for Psychical Research. A book was also released to accompany the series.
Worlds Beyond
1986 · 5 votes
TV9.0CrimeDramaFor the Greater Good is a three-part 1991 BBC Two television drama serial written by G.F. Newman and directed by Danny Boyle. It centres on three politicians attempting to reform the British prison system. However, their efforts are undermined when the tabloid press exposes their private lives.
For the Greater Good
1991 · 1 votes
TV9.5DramaMichael Gambon stars in this high-tension thriller of political corruption and international intrigue. Peter Moreton, a high-ranking government official, scrambles to keep his secret lifestyle hidden from the world when his daughter purposely leaks his affair to a reporter she is dating. Nick Simon is the reporter caught between his love for Moreton’s daughter Polly and his desperation to keep his job and land the biggest story of his career.
Faith
1994 · 2 votes
TV7.6ComedyMonty Python's Fliegender Zirkus consisted of two 45-minute Monty Python German television comedy specials produced by WDR for West German television. The two episodes were first broadcast in January and December 1972 and were shot entirely on film and mostly on location in Bavaria, with the first episode recorded in German and the second recorded in English and then dubbed into German.
Monty Python's Fliegender Zirkus
1972 · 14 votes