The head science teacher at Dubbo College Senior Campus grew up watching Fawlty Towers with his family.

As a boy he would sit in front of the television screen roaring with laughter while sneaking glances at his equally amused father.

"I noticed how much dad looked like John Cleese (the actor who played Basil Fawlty)," James said.

"It was something about their height, their moustaches and the way they walked and moved.

"In my young mind it seemed that dad and John Cleese had some sort of connection."

As years passed James discovered Monty Python, the British comedy group created by Cleese, Graham Chapman, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin.

Throughout high school he fostered Cleese's mannerisms in day to day nonsense with his friends.

"We were the nerdy, geeky types who acted out what we saw and heard on Python comedy shows," James said.

"We had a lot of fun and enjoyed mucking around together."

Drawn to school theatre productions in Mildura, James got a kick out of being on stage but didn't regard comedy as his forte.

"I remember stepping off stage after a high school play thinking everything had gone really well," he said.

"It was a big surprise when a number of people said how interesting it was that I had decided to portray the role like John Cleese.

"That had not been my intention. I had just been trying to do the piece. Without realising it my body and manner had sort of followed Cleese. It was something I tried to shake for the next 20 or 30 years."

After completing school James went to university in Sydney and took part in a few college reviews.

He didn't reconnect with theatre until moving to Dubbo in 1999 to take up a position as science teacher at the Delroy Campus of Dubbo College (then known as Delroy High School).

"Being part of Wesley Players and later Dubbo Theatre Company has been a great creative outlet," James said.

"I've enjoyed being part of all sorts of shows."

James dug deep into his inner adolescent when the theatre company decided to present three episodes of Fawlty Towers in 2013.

"Tapping into those Cleese mannerisms and movements was great fun and I kind of wished my high school mates were still around to see the show.

"The feedback in 2013 was really positive and we are looking forward to presenting three more Fawlty Towers episodes in July."

James said playing the dysfunctional hotel proprietor was physically demanding on his arms, legs, muscles and voice.

"Basil is a very intense character and that requires a lot of concentration and physicality.

"He is rarely relaxed and it can be quite fatiguing getting him wound up to a crescendo.

"I often have to walk on stage with a lozenge in my mouth so my vocal chords don't burn out.

"I look forward to playing the role but I will still be nervous. I always am. So many people have a personal attachment to Fawlty Towers and I feel a real obligation to be as faithful as possible to the show."

James said it was a tremendous privilege to have met the real John Cleese when the star comedian visited Dubbo last year.

Enjoying a short amount of one-on-one time, he again noticed an uncanny "family resemblance".

"It was as if Cleese could have been my father's brother," James said.

Family support will be strong when the curtain goes up on the 2015 season of Fawlty Towers.

James's wife, Samantha and their three children, aged 11, 9 and 7, will be in the audience along with his parents and siblings.

"They will be travelling from all over the country and overseas," he said.

"Samantha is very supportive and enables all the rehearsals and theatre productions to happen. I love her very much for doing that.

"I am really happy about the decisions that I have made in life. Coming to Dubbo has been a very good thing and it is great to be part of a terrific science faculty.

"I see science not as a subject but more of a process. I like the sense of discovery, teasing out how things work and teaching students how to think scientifically.

"Often there are moments of epiphany when kids discover things for themselves. You see the lights go on in their mind - that is the thrill of science."