Prunella Scales’ husband Timothy West has criticised John Cleese for cashing in on the classic sitcom for a Specsavers advert.
Cleese, who co-wrote the series, resurrected his beloved character Basil Fawlty in the ad.
It’s inspired by a scene from the 1970s comedy which sees the irate hotel owner attack a car with a tree branch.
But actor West, 81, whose wife Prunella, 83, played Basil’s long-suffering wife Sybil, accused Cleese of doing it for money to pay for his three divorces.
He told the Mirror: “I felt very sad that John pinched that very good scene from the show.
“To do it again it shows he is a bit pushed I think. He has the divorce and now he has got the new one.
“I think he has lost his way.”
After divorcing his third wife, Alice Faye Eichelberger, a US psychotherapist, in 2008, Cleese, 76, was ordered to pay her £12 million, including an annual payment of £600,000 for seven years.
The comedian has complained bitterly about the settlement, even naming a tour of live performances his Alimony Tour.
His Monty Python co-stars have even have joked that he was persuaded to take part in their 2014 live reunion show because he needed to finance his divorce.
Cleese, who married his fourth wife Jennifer Wade in 2012, defended his decision to do the advert.
Read more: Timothy West’s sorrow at wife Prunella’s dementia
He said: “A lot of people have sent me Fawlty Towers scripts or Basil scripts and they were always absolutely awful.
“But these people Specsavers had an idea and I met them and they were all very nice and within 20 minutes we had written the script. It was kind of obvious and I thought, ‘This will work’.
“I think it is genuinely funny.”
He added: “I can’t tell you how many times I said no because most people trying to write it did not know how to write it.
“They started with Basil being angry, but if you watch the shows, Basil becomes angry during the course of the show. He does not start angry. It is quite a slow process.”