British Comedy Guide

Fawlty Towers Page 23

As said before, I still want to keep an open mind about it especially since Cleese has said they're simply making a new Basil Fawlty sitcom and he doesn't want to make some rant show, which makes it more palatable than I first expected it'd be, haha. Though I suspect he would never have just written a show to rant about 'anti-woke', I don't think he's quite become the guy he used to parody. Yet, anyway, hopefully he doesn't crack, lol.

I do agree with SitcomFan64 that one concern - quality wise - is this time it's without Connie Booth writing with him. That'll be the big test - will Fawlty Towers be good without her? Depends what Cleese still has in the tank, and what Camilla Cleese will bring to the table.

Quote: Feeoree @ 16th May 2023, 2:55 PM

I don't think he's quite become the guy he used to parody.

He's still the same guy; it's what passes for "liberal" and "fascism" that have switched sides.

Quote: Feeoree @ 16th May 2023, 2:55 PM

I do agree with SitcomFan64 that one concern - quality wise - is this time it's without Connie Booth writing with him. That'll be the big test - will Fawlty Towers be good without her? Depends what Cleese still has in the tank, and what Camilla Cleese will bring to the table.

Imo, and no offence to Connie at all, but most of FT's scripting was pure Cleese. I'd say Connie added the 'girlie' touches and was a very good actor, but he'd have made pretty mucg the same thing alone, although it may have taken (even) longer.

Quote: Sitcomfan64 @ 16th May 2023, 10:22 AM

On the plot of the new series, Cleese said "Basil goes to see his daughter because it was all part of a naughty affair that he once had with a guest at the hotel.

I wonder if it was that French woman in The Wedding Party who was all over him?

Or the Aussie maybe.

Not at all, these days they just write about sex. Joke. Well I know I wasn't being sexist if no one else here does. 'Womanly' didn't sound right so I used 'girlie' and in inverted commas, and isn't always meant as demeaning or patronising but unfortunately has been hijacked just for that purpose now, but wasn't used that way here. 'Feminine' was what I meant but doesn't convey the context of female hotel worker in the 1970s environment, which we know was sexist, and was why I plumped for that word, to hopefully convey the context tongue in cheekily. But you can't win these days.

And I'm partly referring to and echoing what has often been written about the balance of the scriptwriting partnership within the work, with Cleese's huge body of work preceding and following FT given, forensically in some cases, as evidence of his dominance in the style or more. I'm not sure there's ever been a delcaration by either refuting or confirming this. I know she came up with some good plot ideas but the general tone of the sitcom and style of dialogue screams Cleese to me (and I believe many others).

But I only said it to suggest there's no great reason why it shouldn't be as good, or nearly as good. Unless age and lack of motivation has dimmed his ability. But I somehow can't see him spending six weeks on each episode script, which is the reason he's been giving for the last 40 years for not co-writing another series of it.

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