Cleese to reboot `Fawlty Towers'
“Fawlty Towers,” the renowned 1970s British sitcom that starred John Cleese as a surly and snobbish hotel owner, will be rebooted with Cleese returning alongside his daughter Camilla Cleese, Castle Rock Entertainment announced Tuesday.
The original show, which Radio Times declared the best British sitcom of all time in 2019 after a survey of comedy experts, ran for two seasons of six episodes each, in 1975 and 1979. Cleese, now 83, played Basil Fawlty, who was forced to contend with disasters and ludicrous situations while displaying all the kindness and hospitality of sandpaper.
In the reboot, Cleese's character will open a boutique hotel with his daughter, whom he has just discovered he had, and deal with a more modern set of problems.
Cleese, an original member of the Monty Python comedy troupe, has recently been dealing with a more modern set of problems in his real life as well.
On social media, he has frequently railed against “cancel culture” and what he has deemed “woke” behaviors. He has signed up to host a show on GB News, a British right-wing television network, in which “no one will be canceled — and no topic will be too controversial for discussion,” the network said.
In 2020, an episode of “Fawlty Towers” was removed from some streaming services because it contained racial slurs. Cleese called the decision “stupid,” telling the newspaper The Age that “if you put nonsense words into the mouth of someone you want to make fun of you're not broadcasting their views, you're making fun of them.”
Some fans have also accused him of transphobia for his comments in support of J.K. Rowling, the author of the “Harry Potter” series.
As with other British series in the 1970s, the original “Fawlty Towers” was shown in the United States on PBS. Despite interest from American broadcasters, the show's small number of episodes and half-hour run time, without commercials, made it unable to fit American TV schedules.
Castle Rock Entertainment did not say where the new series would air.