MovieChat Forums > Fawlty Towers (1975) Discussion > John Cleese Says ‘Fawlty Towers’ Reboot ...

John Cleese Says ‘Fawlty Towers’ Reboot Won’t Be On The BBC & Won’t Be An “Anti-Woke Nightmare”

posted 2 years ago by Satan2016 (26149)
5 replies | jump to latest

https://deadline.com/2023/02/fawlty-towers-john-cleese-bbc-caribbean-1235255256/

The 83-year-old British comedy icon said the revived series, which is in the works at Rob Reiner’s Castle Rock Entertainment, would find a new home as he writes scripts with his daughter Camilla Cleese.

Asked if he wanted to work with the BBC, he said: “No, because you wouldn’t get the freedom.”

He told GB News, the right-leaning British news channel, that the series will take the central character of Basil Fawlty and transport him from his hotel in Torquay to the Caribbean.

Set 40 years after the second season, Cleese said a “small bijou hotel” on a Caribbean island would provide the perfect backdrop for a modern Fawlty.

“If you put it in the Caribbean, it becomes very multi-racial. People in the hotel business come from everywhere, so you can bring lots of different people together. The characteristic of Fawlty Towers was the pressure cooker atmosphere created in the hotel.”

[–] HarveyManFredSin (4877) 2 years ago

Although I have my qualms about a Fawlty Towers reboot (better to let sleeping dogs lie, and, moreover, one of the reasons the original show is so well-regarded, is that Cleese and co decided to call it quits when it was still at its peak and hadn't descended into mediocrity), and I think Cleese is wrong about the BBC, I also believe him when he says the reboot 'won't be an anti-woke nightmare'. Rob Reiners is a staunch progressive liberal/a vocal Democrat, and I doubt he'd be interested in working on a virulently right-wing/reactionary show (which is not to say that the reboot won't end up *accidentally* and *inadvertently* offending people with clueless and ignorant material, but I doubt Cleese and his collaborators will consciously set-out to be offensive to minority groups).

[–] [deleted] 2 years ago

It just won't work. Basil Fawlty was a very physically-demanding role for John Cleese over 40 years ago; like Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones, they're both not cut out for their physical roles anymore.

What's Cleese's "elderly" Basil going to do instead? Just offer up a bunch of whiny insults?

What is wrong with these people? I know they want a bit more of that sweet, sweet fame they enjoyed in their youth, but as the other poster said, "let sleeping dogs lie".

[–] capuchin (3358) 2 years ago

Indeed. A lot of the best stuff in Fawlty Towers is the physical comedy, which Cleese clearly won't be able to replicate.

I've no idea why people can't leave things alone. It used to be a disease of the mainstream American entertainment industry. We used to laugh about and shake our heads over unnecessary cash-grab sequels and other shamelessly commercial endeavours. We used to take some pride in not milking these things for everything they were worth, in not becoming the I Didn't Do It Kid. The audience thinks it wants more of the same? So what? Move on, do something else.

'Oh, we may lack the American entrepreneurial instinct, but we've got class and artistic integrity,' we thought. And one of the great exemplars of our British approach was... Fawlty Towers and its 12 perfectly-crafted episodes.

*Sigh*

[–] TandyMan (11327) 2 years ago

The Caribbean isn't funny. What was funny about the show is how unbelievably British it was.

[–] Ace_Spade (9654) a year ago

See, while I think that the new series is a bad idea (even Cleese has pointed out in the past how foolish it would be to try it; he should listen to himself!) I do think that adding Basil to anywhere foreign is funny because he will drag his particular brand of stodgy Britishness with him. Imagine Basil setting out to relax in the Caribbean and not being able to and then throwing a tantrum and criticising the weather because it isn't "Bracing," and that's what's making everybody around him incompetent or something like that. Could be very funny. Basil is funny, not just the setting.

All that said, the likelihood of the new series living up to half of what FT was is a long shot. It's been too long, Connie Booth isn't involved, heck - none of the main cast, and to top it all off, even if the new show is pretty good, it'll suffer by comparison to the superlative existing seasons.