https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/news/7185/fawlty-towers-sequel/

Words I never, ever thought I'd type. A new series of Fawlty Towers is on the way. Written by Cleese and his daughter Camilla. It will see Basil find his long lost daughter and they open a boutique hotel.

No it's not April 1st.

I cannot emphasise enough how much of an awful, awful idea this is. Fawlty Towers is one of the few shows in the history of television that can genuinely be called perfect. This screams cash in. Not only that, but Fawlty Towers also half belongs to Connie Booth. I might just have been interested if she was involved, because the two of them actually had a story they needed to tell. But this?

Fawlty Towers worked, essentially, because Basil is terrified of Sybil. Almost every cock up, every lie, came from that fear. Without any of the supporting characters, Basil is just a grumpy git.

Stand by for all the BORES about to drone on and on about how it will be rubbish because "it will be all woke blah blah blahhhh"

Not sure about the woke bit but it does seem like clutching at straws. You can't really imagine Basil having the courage to have an affair. The 2 series were classics and Cleese should've just left it at that. I guess he has bills to pay.

Quote: Sitcomfan64 @ 7th February 2023, 8:30 PM

I cannot emphasise enough how much of an awful, awful idea this is. Fawlty Towers is one of the few shows in the history of television that can genuinely be called perfect. This screams cash in. Not only that, but Fawlty Towers also half belongs to Connie Booth. I might just have been interested if she was involved, because the two of them actually had a story they needed to tell. But this?

Fawlty Towers worked, essentially, because Basil is terrified of Sybil. Almost every cock up, every lie, came from that fear. Without any of the supporting characters, Basil is just a grumpy git.

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Yep, well said. I don't see how it can work without that dynamic. Still, I'm curious to see what it'll be like anyway (though wouldn't be surprised if they end up giving up on the idea).

Quote: lofthouse @ 7th February 2023, 9:06 PM

Stand by for all the BORES about to drone on and on about how it will be rubbish because "it will be all woke blah blah blahhhh"

View original

Cleese has been very critical of 'wokeness' though, so IF this series goes ahead, he might go out of his way to make it openly 'non-woke'.

Maybe he is so appalled by the standard of dire sitcoms spewed out over the last decade or so , that he decided he had no option but to come out of retirement and show how a master does it!

Quote: lofthouse @ 7th February 2023, 9:06 PM

Stand by for all the BORES about to drone on and on about how it will be rubbish because "it will be all woke blah blah blahhhh"

View original

Hasn't Cleese caught a lot of flak for saying politically incorrect things over the last several years?

Quote: lofthouse @ 7th February 2023, 9:18 PM

Maybe he is so appalled by the standard of dire sitcoms spewed out over the last decade or so , that he decided he had no option but to come out of retirement and show how a master does it!

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Given that his idea of a worthwhile modern sitcom script is Hold The Sunset, one of the blandest sitcoms ever made, Connie Booth's absence from the new Fawlty scripts is going to be very, very obvious I fear.

It couldn't be any worse than the dross being passed off as comedy nowadays.

Quote: DaButt @ 7th February 2023, 9:18 PM

Hasn't Cleese caught a lot of flak for saying politically incorrect things over the last several years?

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Yeah, and he's joining GB News this year, where the presenters slag off 'wokeness' every 30 seconds!

Anyway, this new series is being described as a 'reboot', but from what I can gather that term may not be quite accurate - in the same way that the goddawful Green Green Grass of Home wasn't exactly a 'reboot' of Only Fools and Horses, but a new programme that just happened to have some of the same characters. And I would imagine that most fans of Only Fools just ignore Green Green Grass, rather than let it taint their fond memories of Only Fools.

I bet most of us will still watch out of curiosity, though (IF it gets made!)

Weirdly, Fawlty Towers is incredibly almost painfully woke, with the villain being a white middle class xenophobic male and the hero being a young woman.

I personally don't think this is a good idea, although who knows, it might become the Top Gun: Maverick of British sitcoms.

Quote: lofthouse @ 7th February 2023, 9:06 PM

Stand by for all the BORES about to drone on and on about how it will be rubbish because "it will be all woke blah blah blahhhh"

View original

When you say "bores" (in capital letters) you mean people who don't necessarily share the same opinions as yourself.

His daughter will be the woke one.
He'll be raging against the modern world.
It'll just be a soapbox for his views.
He'll play the old "But we're laughing at Basil, not with him" trick that Johnny Speight pulled with Alf Garnett.
Something I never quite believed.
It won't be pretty.

Before seeing one frame - the verdict is in.

It's a prediction.
And if it's anything like I described, I'm sure it'll go down a storm.

I didn't see the 'I think' before the statements.