| Synopsis: |
A few weeks before Kristallnacht in November 1938, Andrew Sachs looked on as Nazi officers arrested his father while the family was eating in a restaurant. The son of a Jewish father and a lapsed Catholic mother, a few days later he watched as the Nazis burned and looted Jewish shops on the streets of Berlin. The boy who witnessed these events before he and his family escaped to London would later become famous for being the butt of comic cruelties in Fawlty Towers. However, the journey to Torquay, where the iconic series was set, was a long and unexpected one. I Know Nothing recounts anecdotes of a bizarre adolescence, the author's often hilarious struggle to come to terms with all things English, including the food, the schools and the perils of the language (rude words especially!), his early days in rep, and later working with a galaxy of stars including Rex Harrison, Norman Wisdom, Noel Coward, Alec Guinness, Richard Burton, Peter Sellers and Dame Edith Evans.It tells of how he eventually came to team up with John Cleese on the show that would make him famous as the hapless waiter from Barcelona, and tells the true story of how the classic series was made and the personalities involved in its creation. Always a private man, Sachs was deeply upset by the intrusion into the private life of his family prompted by Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross's infamous prank phone calls in October 2008. The outpouring of public support and his own dignified response to what became known as "Sachsgate", covered in this book, only serve to enhance his reputation as a national treasure. Charming, laugh-out-loud funny and utterly compelling, I Know Nothing is the rich life story of one of Britain's best-loved character actors. |