Mum
COMEDY BBC2 HD, 10pm (NI, 11.15pm) Recently widowed Cathy (Lesley Manville) is preparing to celebrate her 60th birthday while still patiently dealing with family demands as the bittersweet comedy returns.
JOHN CLEESE returns to TV comedy as a lovesick widower
NEARLY 40 YEARS after the last Fawlty Towers, comedy legend John Cleese stars in a new sitcom this week when he joins Alison Steadman to play two pensioners rekindling an old romance after the deaths of their spouses.
In BBC1’S Hold the Sunset, Cleese plays Phil, who wants to marry Edith (Steadman) and whisk her away to Spain for the good life. But his plans are scuppered when
Edith’s grown-up son Roger (Jason Watkins) announces he’s getting a divorce – and moving back home.
Here Cleese, 78 and Steadman, 71 reveal all about the six-part series…
CAN YOU DESCRIBE PHIL AND EDITH? STEADMAN Edith’s a widow living on her own, Phil lives opposite and pops over for coffee. They’ve formed a really good relationship. CLEESE Phil’s like me – he sits around making sarcastic remarks! He’s really in love with Edith, but when Roger returns, Phil starts to get worried. Suddenly, there’s a chance that the relationship with Edith might not work – that scares the heck out of him. STEADMAN That’s because Edith’s a doting mum. She adores Roger even though he is an eccentric nutter.
WHY DID YOU SAY YES TO
Hold the Sunset?
CLEESE It was the best script I’d read in a hundred years. I loved it, so I said yes immediately. I’ve known the producer, Humphrey Barclay, since 1961 when we were in Cambridge Footlights, and it’s written by Charles Mckeown, who played Mr Ingrams in Fawlty Towers. STEADMAN I love how gentle it is. It’s not a mad comedy, and it’s a different move for me. Pam in Gavin & Stacey was loud and
OTT but Edith is a quiet woman who knows what she wants and is no pushover.
YOU BOTH
WORKED ON
THE 1986 FILM
Clockwise, SO
WAS THIS A
FUN REUNION?
STEADMAN We hadn’t seen each other for all those years, but I knew we were going to have fun straight away. John and
I both love cats so we’d miaow and purr at each other when we were happy with how scenes had gone.we’re both bonkers! CLEESE There has been more laughing here than on any other set I have been on, even Monty Python.
DO YOU WORRY ABOUT Hold the Sunset LIVING UP TO Fawlty Towers? CLEESE No, because I’m not writing this. I come to it just as an actor. It hasn’t been my creation. STEADMAN People mustn’t expect Fawlty Towers. It’s a different show, and we’ll see another side of John. Phil is a very different character – Edith would never go for a man like Basil!