John Cleese
- 85 years old
- English
- Actor and writer
Press clippings Page 19
TV review: Sun will set fast on John Cleese comeback
Between the sitcom cliches, including jaunty music and folk forever bursting through the back door, characters did things they only ever do in TV comedies, such as repeating themselves.
Alison Rowat, The Herald, 19th February 2018Cleese splutters and trots around like an elderly ostrich with high blood pressure. Fans who were hoping to see a return of Basil Fawlty discovered instead that he has matured into a relative of the mad old Major Gowen, played by Ballard Berkeley. It was inevitable, really.
Hold The Sunset is an old-fashioned sitcom, a cross between One Foot In The Grave and Ronnie Corbett's Sorry. It remains to be seen whether audiences still have an appetite for laboured slapstick where ageing men get into scrapes and women cluck over them.
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail, 19th February 2018It's a classic 80s sitcom set-up: widow Edith (Alison Steadman) has been fending off marriage proposals from boyfriend Phil (John Cleese) for years, but on the day she relents, up pops cuckoo in the nest Roger (Jason Watkins), her 50-year-old man-child son who's left his family. Desperately needs jokes.
Ben Arnold, The Guardian, 18th February 2018Hold the Sunset review
Why do bad things happen to good people? Well, not bad exactly, but decidedly mediocre.
Steve Bennett, Chortle, 18th February 2018Hold the Sunset, BBC One, review - this is an ex-sitcom
John Cleese and Alison Steadman star in the exhumation of long-lost genre.
Jasper Rees, The Arts Desk, 18th February 2018TV review: Hold the Sunset
After 39 years away, John Cleese returns to the sitcom format with a cosy affair.
Brian Donaldson, The List, 16th February 2018Hold The Sunset review
In truth, it's not rip-roaringly, gut-bustingly, eye-wateringly funny. But it is rather lovely. It's wry, and gentle, and old fashioned. It is warm and affectionate and optimistic.
Benjie Goodhart, Saga Magazine, 15th February 2018The return of John Cleese
"If I ever tried to do a Fawlty Towers-type sitcom again, everyone would say, 'It's not as good as Fawlty Towers'."
The Fawlty Towers actor, who is fondly remembered for his role as hotel owner Basil Fawlty, is starring with Alison Steadman in a new BBC sitcom, Hold Tthe Sunset, after a gap of 43 years.
James Rampton, The Independent, 13th February 2018Movies you might have missed: Python's Meaning of Life
The British musical sketch comedy film might have been a disappointment to the Monty Python troupe, but it still contains some of the funniest scenes ever committed to film.
Darren Richman, The Independent, 6th December 2017John Cleese interview
John Cleese on Monty Python, Facebook, bad comedy, great comedy and kids these days.
Jeffrey Lee Puckett, Courier Journal, 7th November 2017