Fawlty Towers sequel in development
- A sequel to Fawlty Towers is in development
- John Cleese and his daughter Camilla Cleese are writing the comedy
- It is set to see Basil meet a long-lost daughter and the pair open a boutique hotel together
John Cleese is developing a Fawlty Towers sequel.
American production company Castle Rock Entertainment, run by actor Rob Reiner, is backing the project.
Cleese is writing and will star in the comedy with his daughter and fellow comic, Camilla Cleese.
US trade publications report: "The new series will explore how Cleese's over-the-top, cynical and misanthropic Basil Fawlty navigates the modern world. Plot details are largely being kept under wraps but the development will bring the story forward to explore Basil's relationship with a daughter he has just discovered he had, as the pair tempt fate and team up to run a boutique hotel."
Rob Reiner, Michele Reiner, Derrick Rossi and Matthew George are executive producing the project.
Director Matthew George says: "Meeting John and Camilla was one of the great thrills of my life. I'm obsessed with Fawlty Towers and the legendary characters he created. I've watched the first two seasons so many times I have lost count. I dreamed of one day being involved in a continuation of the story. Now it's come true."
Cleese, talking about George, added: "What I like about Matt is that, unlike many producers, he really 'gets' the creative process. When we first met, he offered an excellent first idea, and then Matt, my daughter Camilla, and I had one of the best creative sessions I can remember. By dessert we had an overall concept so good that, a few days later, it won the approval of Rob and Michele Reiner. Camilla and I look forward enormously to expanding it into a series."
Fawlty Towers regularly nears the top of charts of British television's favourite sitcoms. It ran for two series on BBC Two from 1975, across just twelve episodes.
The programmes were written by Cleese with his then-wife and co-star, Connie Booth, who now works as a psychotherapist. Camilla is Cleese's second child, through his second marriage, to Barbara Trentham.
A potential home for the new programme has yet to be revealed, but the original's legacy and Cleese's star status mean that if developed to the point of production, it is likely to provoke a bidding war that only major US-owned streaming platforms can afford to triumph in.
10th February update
Speaking to GB News last night, Cleese revealed that the new series will see Basil running a bijou hotel in the Caribbean, and that it will not air on the BBC "because you wouldn't get the [necessary creative] freedom".
He told presenter Dan Wootton: "Yes, it is [true that it's coming back], but in a very, very different form. People have often said 'well, why don't you do another Fawlty Towers and I've said, 'because people will say "oh it's quite good but it wasn't as good as [the original]"'.
"Then my daughter knew a guy ... and we had dinner and we suddenly realised, if we do a sequel, first of all it's interesting, and secondly it does not rely upon [the rest of the characters] ... all these wonderful English character actors who aren't with us anymore. If the only continuing character is Basil, my daughter and I - we've been writing together for sixteen years, which people don't know - we thought we could come up with something quite surprising.
"We thought 'but where?', and we thought no, not in a small English town: much more fun and much more different if it's, say, a Caribbean island or somewhere like that, with a small bijou hotel, but with a few very rich people coming to stay and demanding [service].
"If you put it in the Caribbean it becomes very, very multi-racial. People in the hotel business, they're just from everywhere. ... Austria, Kenya, Nepal - so you can bring lots of different people together."
Responding to commentary in publications on the news of the sequel, he added: "Do you really know what it's going to be like? The idea that it's all going to be about wokery hadn't particularly occurred to me. ... They are assuming, with no evidence at all, that they know what the show is going to be like, and condemning it for that - and that is neither criticism nor journalism."
In a wide-ranging interview, he also spoke about his forthcoming work with the news and topical discussion broadcaster, as well as editorial interference in television programming and how the opposite culture at the BBC of the 1960s allowed the creation of Monty Python's Flying Circus.
Fawlty Towers: The Story Of Britain's Favourite Sitcom
Fawlty Towers was only on our screens for 12 half-hour episodes, but it has stayed in our lives ever since. The Major; 'Don't mention the war!'; 'He's from Barcelona'; Basil the Rat - everyone has a favourite line, moment or character.
In this, the first biography of the show, Graham McCann holds up to the light each of the unpredictable elements - the demented brilliance of John Cleese, his creative partnership with Prunella Scales - that added up to an immortal sitcom, beloved all over the world, even in Barcelona.
First published: Thursday 18th October 2007
- Published: Thursday 21st August 2008
- Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
- Pages: 352
- Catalogue: 9780340898130
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- Published: Thursday 15th March 2012
- Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
- Download: 0.74mb
BCG may earn commission on sales generated through the links above.
- Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
- Pages: 352
- Catalogue: 9780340898116
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Fawlty Towers - The Complete Collection
Every episode of the classic BBC BAFTA-winning sitcom, remastered and upscaled to high definition for the first time ever.
Basil Fawlty is a much put-upon, hard-working hotel manager whose life is plagued by dead guests, hotel inspectors and riff-raff. Of course his biggest headache is his 'little nest of vipers' - his nagging wife Sibyl. Together they run their hotel, Fawlty Towers, with a little help from the unflappable Polly, and Manuel, the trainee waiter from Barcelona with marginally more intelligence than a monkey.
First released: Monday 18th November 2019
Blu-ray- Distributor: BBC
- Discs: 3
- Minutes: 370
- Subtitles: English
- Catalogue: BBCBD0494
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Fawlty Towers: For The Record
For the first time ever, a complete vinyl LP collection of the audio versions of all twelve Fawlty Towers TV episodes - with an exclusive frameable print signed by the legendary John Cleese. This is strictly limited to just 1,500 copies!
Four decades on from its original BBC TV broadcast, Fawlty Towers continues to shine as a masterclass in comedy writing and performance. Now the original four BBC vinyl albums - Fawlty Towers, Second Sitting, At Your Service and A La Carte - are joined by two newly created collections, Plat du Jour and Enjoy Your Stay, to form a box set of all 12 TV episodes. Much of the special linking narration - supplied by hapless waiter Manuel (Andrew Sachs) - is unique to the vinyl versions and hasn't been available since their original pressings.
All episodes star John Cleese as harassed hotelier Basil Fawlty, with Prunella Scales as Sybil, Connie Booth as Polly and Andrew Sachs as Manuel. Among the guest cast checking in for the night are Bernard Cribbins, Joan Sanderson, Geoffrey Palmer, Ballard Berkeley, Nicky Henson, Ken Campbell and Una Stubbs.
Each of the six 140g white vinyl LPs is presented in an all-new artwork cover, inside which is a facsimile of the original BBC Records & Cassettes cover (plus 'faux' period covers for Plat du Jour and Enjoy Your Stay). A four-page booklet details the development of Fawlty Towers, plus a history of the original LP releases, by Tim Worthington, author of Top of the Box - a guide to every single released by BBC Records And Tapes. A 12" frameable art print of Basil, which John Cleese has signed exclusively for this limited edition run, is also included in the attractive rigid box with lift-off lid.
Features the original BBC Records LP edits.
First released: Friday 28th May 2021
- Distributor: Demon Records
- Discs: 6
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