John Cleese set to write and star in ‘Fawlty Towers’ reboot
Monty Python legend John Cleese has put wheels in motion to reboot the much-loved comedy series Fawlty Towers. Almost 45 years since the last episode of the second and final series aired in 1979, the 83-year-old comedy actor announced that he would revive the show alongside his daughter Camilla Cleese.
The original series aired between 1975 and 1979 and was the brainchild of Cleese and his first wife, Connie Booth, who played the part of Polly Sherman. In the reboot, the new father-daughter team look to “explore how Cleese’s over-the-top, cynical and misanthropic Basil Fawlty navigates the modern world,” according to an early press statement. The plot will focus on Basil Fawlty’s relationship with his daughter as they manage the notorious Torquay hotel together.
The Cleeses are said to be working with esteemed filmmaker Rob Reiner and his team based at Castle Rock. John Cleese has stated that a preliminary meeting with the crew was “one of the best creative sessions I can remember”.
Reiner, who is also working on a sequel for This is Spinal Tap, added: “John Cleese is a comedy legend. Just the idea of working with him makes me laugh.”
In 2019, Fawlty Towers was named the greatest British sitcom of all time in a Radio Times poll. The project helped to further raise Cleese’s profile as one of British comedy’s most prized assets amid the release of the first two Monty Python movies.
While Monty Python was a major hit on both sides of the Atlantic, three American Fawlty Towers reboot attempts have flopped over the past four and a half decades, namely, 1979’s Chateau Snavely, 1983’s Amanda’s, and 1999’s Payne.
In 2009, John Cleese announced that there would never be another episode of Fawlty Towers, despite many fans’ wishes. “I think everyone would be excited if we did it [a new series],” he said. “The problem is, when you do something that is generally accepted as being very good, a horrible problem arises, which is: how do you top it? The expectation of what you will do is so high.”
Watch a classic scene from the original series below.
