As a tall man with a moustache and a tendency to get a little manic at times, Edmond Wells had earned a reputation of being a bit of a Basil Fawlty – something he says he took in his stride.

Working as a project manager for an interior design company, he had a hectic job with more than its share of comedic moments as things inevitably went wrong on builds.

But his physical and occasional behavioural resemblance to the hotelier played by John Cleese were little more than a recurring joke, until Mr Wells, who now lives in Beccles, happened to watch a late-night TV show 20 years ago.

'I had a rather strong curry one evening and that gave me indigestion,' he said. 'I was up at 3.30 in the morning watching TV and then this guy came on from a lookalike agency. I had never heard of it before.

'He said, 'If anyone thinks they look like a celebrity, give us a call'. So I contacted him the next day.'

The agency was thrilled. Having already lined up a Manuel, they were just missing their Basil for the full Fawlty Towers act.

'I have always been known for having a good sense of humour,' he said. 'And I know I had got a bit of Basil in me, but it just opened up a whole different world.'

And his first real test came when he was booked to entertain a small group of brewery chief executives in Holland.

Nerves kicking in, under pressure because of the intimate nature of their dinner, a genius idea suddenly struck.

Armed with some old crockery, Mr Wells improvised a Fawlty-esque scene in the kitchen, out of sight of the diners but well within earshot.

Fully believing their dinners had been dropped on the floor and then scraped back on to new plates, the execs fell for it 'hook, line and sinker', said Mr Wells, with one of them even standing and rolling his sleeves up.

'Then they realised they had been taken in,' he said. 'And they just lost it. It took five minutes for them to stop crying with laughter, they were just howling. And I thought, well, if I can have this much fun and get paid silly amounts of money for doing it... this is the road for me!'

At first it was just Friday work, but about four years into his new career, Mr Wells had become successful enough to go full time, and has taken on other characters, including Jaws from the James Bond Films and Hagrid from Harry Potter.

And he teams up with Manuel and Sybil lookalikes from around the country, including Eddie Portsmouth from Metfield in Suffolk.

But Basil Fawlty is still Mr Wells' go-to character, with events, weddings and private bookings taking him around the world to Dubai, Muscat, France, Norway and more.

'I've been to 16 different countries, mainly as Basil,' he said. 'And the beauty of it is with something like Fawlty Towers, 85 per cent of it is improvised, you just have to improvise in a Basil Fawlty manner.

'If the audience say something totally wild, I laugh with them. As long as they are all having fun.'

And with 2015 being the 40th anniversary since Fawlty Towers graced our screens, Mr Wells' act is still going strong.

'This year it has been a very good year,' he said. 'It's the genius of John Cleese for finding out what's funny. There's inner struggles between different characters and that's what people can relate to.'

For more on Mr Wells, visit fawltytowersevents.co.uk