Posted on 02/18/2023 10:54:32 AM PST by nickcarraway
John Cleese has said his surprise revival of Fawlty Towers won’t be returning to its original home on the BBC because the UK broadcaster would not give him sufficient editorial freedom.
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.”
GB News presenter Dan Wootton read Cleese a headline from The Guardian, which said the Fawlty Towers reboot would be “an anti-woke nightmare.”
Cleese responded: “They obviously know better than I do what’s going to be in it. Maybe they should write an episode for me that they would find acceptable. Might not be very funny, but I’m sure it would really please some of their readers.”
He added: “The idea that it’s all going to be about wokery hadn’t particularly occurred to me.”
Although it only ran for two seasons, finishing in 1979, Fawlty Towers has ranked No. 1 on numerous best all-time British comedy lists.
Written by Cleese and Connie Booth, the show followed hapless hotel manager Fawlty and a cast of characters that included Spanish waiter Manuel (Andrew Sachs), Cleese’s bossy wife Sybil (Prunella Scales) and their chambermaid Polly (Booth).
Don’t mention the war.
The Falklands?
Interesting that Deadline has to spin Cleese’ statement and imply that he’s denying he’s “anti-Woke” - when he refused the BBC because they wanted him to make it woke and is responding only to an article that claims his new show will be anti-woke by effecticaly pulling a Trump and saying “fake news”.
Rob Reiner? Liked Fawlty Towers, but no thanks.
There was also a short-lived show with Harvey Korman playing the Fawlty character.
That's cause for concern right there.
Yes, it’s hard to believe Reiner’s company won’t apply the ‘woke’ sauce!
The BBC removed the scene with The Major talking about “N____s” and “W___s”, without realizing the whole point was to make The Major look bad.
I watched parts of the first season of “The White Lotus”, and basically the main character was a gay Basil Fawlty.
Some things are better left alone.
Yup.
I mean its not like people are rabidly tearing down the doors demanding another series of this show. Or even mildly phoning in for another season.
Cleese is a liberal. But he’s a rare liberal in that he truly understands the oppressive natural of today’s woke culture.
Now here’s the interesting thing. Cleese doesn’t want to work with the BBC because of the “editorial freedom” thing. So he decided to work with Rob Reiner instead. Out of the frying pan and into the fire, Mr. Cleese.
Yes, and how do they work in the transgender and pedophile angles?
Could be the Reiner actually gets that the characters on Fawlty Towers were really making fun of conservatives by making them look ridiculous.
The Germans episode is the perfect example, where the Germans are actually the reasonable ones, while Fawlty looked silly.
Actually the “Builders” episode is the one people should have had an issue with, because of the Irish stereotypes portrayed in it.
This is a mistake trying to do a Fawlty Towers remake.
The original series is a landmark of comedy brilliance.
Leave it alone.
Basil Fawlty: “They're tourists Major.’’
The Major: “That's what the Frenchies said when they were stomping down the Champs Elysee!’’.
"Japanese,is it"? No,Major...Canadian I think". "I..I..I didn't know the Canadians were as clever as all that".
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