The Daily Telegraph - Saturday
Basil Fawlty goose steps to the West End 50 years after debut
JOHN CLEESE has revealed that a stage adaptation of Fawlty Towers will premiere on the West End this year.
The actor and comedian, who co-wrote the 1970s sitcom in which he starred as the hotelier Basil Fawlty, has written a two-hour play that will be performed nearly half a century after the first episode was recorded at the BBC.
Cleese, 84, said his adaptation was based on his three favourite episodes,
The Hotel Inspectors and The Germans from season one and Communication Problems from the second and final
series. The Telegraph understands that the play will remain true to the original episodes but with a finale that promises to join together all three plots.
Cleese said: “What a thrill to be bringing Fawlty Towers to the West End for the first time – nearly 50 years since the show was first recorded in December 1974.” The production will debut at London’s Apollo Theatre on May 15 with Basil played by Adam Jackson-Smith.
Cleese added: “We’ve been involved in the casting process for some time, being constantly reminded of what a wealth of acting talent we have in Britain – sorting the very, very, very good from the merely very, very good.
“Finally, we assembled a top-class group of comedy actors who will bring the show to the Apollo Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue. I do hope some of you will come to the Apollo to laugh together. And laugh. And laugh.”
Referring to where the show was set, Cleese said: “All the way from Torquay,
‘This show has gone all the way from Torquay, via the old BBC Television Centre, to the West End’
via the old BBC Television Centre, to the West End.”
Meanwhile, the new series of the sitcom starring Cleese and his daughter Camilla, which the actor announced last year, is still in development, according to sources close to him.
Cleese suggested last February that the sequel could be set in a hotel in the Caribbean as “somewhere more fun and much more different … with a small bijou hotel and a few rich, demanding people coming to stay”.
The original Fawlty Towers TV programme, written by Cleese and Connie Booth, ran on BBC Two for 12 episodes between 1975 and 1979.
It followed the unfortunate exploits of Basil, played by Cleese, and his wife, Sybil, played by Prunella Scales, as they tried to keep afloat their hotel and marriage.
The director Caroline Jay Ranger, from Only Fools and Horses, The Musical and Monty Python Live, will bring the Apollo production to life.
The merging of the three episodes will see Basil attempting to ingratiate himself with guests who he suspects are there to critique the hotel after he receives a tip-off about inspectors, as seen in The Hotel Inspectors. Basil will be further plagued by a party of Germans at the hotel, as depicted in The Germans episode in which Basil cannot keep himself from mentioning the war.
The play will then see Basil deal with “infuriating complaints” from demanding and hard of hearing guest Mrs Richards, as debuted in Communication Problems.
Tickets for the show will go on sale on Wednesday at 10am.