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Fawlty Towers: 30 years on.. and still nothing comes close
There are few comedy characters that stand the test of time like Basil Fawlty. Albertina Lloyd meets up with his creators at a special gathering
At the 30-year reunion of comedy show Fawlty Towers, the tallest of the original cast is delighted to be home.
Beaming uncontrollably, Cleese, who now lives in California, stands with his arms around Connie Booth, Prunella Scales and Andrew Sachs like an proud, overbearing father.
"It's lovely to see the gang again," laughs the comedian.
Gathered together in London's In and Out club, a Manuel lookalike waiter serves Fawlty-themed breakfast canaps, including kippers on toast and Waldorf salad blinis.
This is one of the few times the old gang have been together since the show ended, according to Cleese.
The Cambridge University Foot-lights star who shot to fame as part of Monty Python's Flying Circus, and who only returns to Britain when the "weather is safe", can hardly wait for the formal speeches – or "marketing" – to be over so he can take the spotlight once again.
"I came across marketing for the first time about 25 years ago," he says. "I was staying at the Atlantic hotel in Weston-super-Mare and said I needed a lunchbox. Eventually they provided me with a small white cardboard box with an apple, a banana and sandwiches made out of pre-sliced ham, cheese and bread and a small plastic pot of English mustard. They said: 'Here you are Mr Cleese, here is your carriage hamper'.
"So that's what the essence of marketing is – organised lying."
Everyone laughs at the joke; Cleese perhaps loudest of all.
Quick to stem rumours of another series of Fawlty Towers, the 69-year-old actor explains he has no desire to fail.
"When you do something which is generally accepted as being good, the horrible problem arises of how to top it.
"Poor old Orson Welles, who produced that wonderful masterpiece when he was 25. All you'd hear for the rest of your life is, 'Yes, that was jolly good Orson, but not as good as Citizen Kane'."
Cleese had his own "Orson" moment after receiving a best screenplay Oscar nomination for A Fish Called Wanda, and rather harsh criticism for its follow-up, Fierce Creatures.
When Cleese and his wife Connie Booth first came up with the idea for Fawlty Towers in 1974, nobody believed it would work.
"The fellow whose job it was to assess the quality of the writing said: 'This is full of cliched situations and stereotypical characters. I cannot see it being anything other than a disaster'."
But such had been the success of Monty Python, Cleese was given the freedom to fail.
"Four BBC producers were overheard at the bar, saying: 'Have you seen this new script of Cleese's? How embarrassing. Fancy him leaving Monty Python to do that.'"
As with Monty Python, audiences took a little while to accept Fawlty Towers.
"The initial response to it was kind of puzzled. I remember the Daily Mirror said: 'Long John short on jokes'.
"It was the same with Python. The reviews for Python in the early days, almost nobody said: 'This is very good.'
"They didn't know whether it was good, it was too strange."
So would Cleese ever consider selling the rights to Fawlty Towers and letting it be remade? "Yeah, let 'em try," he says challengingly, leaning back in his chair with an air of a confidence that says it will never happen.
"Americans tried three times but they couldn't get it right."
Cleese believes that Fawlty Towers would not get made now.
"We were so lucky to be working in television when we did. There wasn't the fear. The moment people get anxious, they want figures to tell them whether to do things.
"What works is when people who know what they're doing are allowed to trust their gut – that's interesting television."
Fawlty Exclusive: Basil's Best Bits is on digital and satellite TV channel G.O.L.D. on Sunday.
Comment
How it all started
John Cleese studied law at Downing College, Cambridge and began his acting career in the Cambridge Footlights, where he met fellow Monty Python members Graham Chapman and Eric Idle.
Cleese went on tour with the Cambridge Footlights to Broadway where he met Python's Terry Gilliam and first wife Connie Booth.
Monty Python's Flying Circus ran on BBC1 for four series from 1969.
Fawlty Towers is based on the Gleneagles Hotel in Torquay where Cleese, Booth and the Monty Python cast stayed while filming. The proprietor, Donald Sinclair, inspired the character of Basil Fawlty for being, Cleese claims, "the most marvellously rude man I've ever met".
Only 12 episodes of Fawlty Towers were made, the first series in 1975 and the second in 1979.
It was not very well received initially but soon became one of the nation's favourite sitcoms. It came top in the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes drawn up by the British Film Institute in 2000.
The reviews for Python in the early days, almost nobody said: ‘This is very good.’
“They didn’t know whether it was good, it was too strange.”
So would Cleese ever consider selling the rights to Fawlty Towers and letting it be remade? “Yeah, let ’em try,” he says challengingly, leaning back in his chair with an air of a confidence that says it will never happen.
“Americans tried three times but they couldn’t get it right.”
Cleese believes that Fawlty Towers would not get made now.
“We were so lucky to be working in television when we did. There wasn’t the fear. The moment people get anxious, they want figures to tell them whether to do things.
“What works is when people who know what they’re doing are allowed to trust their gut – that’s interesting television.”
l Fawlty Exclusive: Basil’s Best Bits is on digital and satellite TV channel G.O.L.D. on Sunday.
l Comment: Page 12
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