Fawlty Towers to return with John Clees

[cakeorwine]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-64563839

John Cleese, who played Basil Fawlty, will be returning to write and star alongside his daughter Camilla Cleese.
The new series will explore how the dramatic and cynical Basil navigates the modern world.
Castle Rock Entertainment announced on Tuesday it had closed a deal with Cleese to bring back the television series.
The revival will also see Basil and a daughter he has just discovered is his, team up to run a boutique hotel.

Interesting to see how it is - I can see lots of potential targets for him, lots of misunderstandings..and maybe a potential audience.

The original was a classic - maybe classics should be left alone.

I wonder who the target audience will be - and who we are supposed to feel sympathy with?

Will he have issues with gay couples, trans people, bureaucracy, taxes? Will there be potential racism? Xenophobia?

I am sure there are a lot of potential plot lines.

It'll be cringe and embarrassing and possibly very mediocre depending on who the script writers are.

If he needs money he should get a job in Tesco or something.

Why was it awful, did the major upset you?

Tricky one. Prunella Scales is still going but has a bit of dementia and is unlikely to be resuming her role. You never know, though. Maybe his daughter will be taking on the long-suffering part. But a lot of FT was farce and very well done at that - running around, being manic, misunderstandings. I can't see an 83 year old being able to do that physical comedy, plus Cleese was massively overweight the last time I noticed so he isn't that same character physically.

There was something English about the quiet despair of a bloke in his late 30s or 40s trying to make it in life and getting unnecessarily worked up over minor things, I suppose Fawlty could be in Victor Meldrew territory. Like most classic characters, the thing about Basil Fawlty was sometimes you were laughing at him and other times laughing with him.

I agree I tried to watch an episode last year or so and couldn't get through it.

What We Do In The Shadows, Our Flag Means Death, People Just Do Nothing, Our Country...I wouldn't call any of them sterile.
I think Our Flag Means Death in particular is an example of a comedy which is joyfully diverse and inclusive, and very funny.
Although the Guardian doesn't like it...
I loved Fawlty Towers but think it should be left well alone.

Some of the stories write themselves.

I hope there is a student who is their "Polly" - who is very up to date with how people expect to be treated.

Basil gets confused when "Polly" keeps referring to "they" when talking about a non binary person. "They need a single room". He keeps looking for the extra person

Issues with allergies, dietary needs. Someone wants something and needs to make sure it is nut free. Or vegan and nut free.

Issues with regulations. Polly or another worker raises a HR issue.

The episodes can write themselves - whether they will be amusing is another thing.

Basil gets a negative review on Tripadvisor and spends the day trying to find out who it was.