"Fawlty Towers" Reboot in the Works with John Cleese, Camilla Cleese & Rob Reiner’s Castle Rock Entertainment
by Max Goldbart
Feb. 7, 2023


Basil Fawlty is back. A reboot of John Cleese’s British comedy sensation "Fawlty Towers" is in the works and Rob Reiner’s Castle Rock Entertainment is developing.

More than 40 years after the second and final season drew to a close, Monty Python star Cleese is set to write and star alongside daughter Camilla Cleese, in news that will bring joy to a generation of British comedy fans.



The new series will explore how Cleese’s over-the-top, cynical and misanthropic Basil Fawlty navigates the modern world.

Plot details are largely being kept under wraps but the development will bring the story forward to explore Basil’s relationship with a daughter he has just discovered he had, as the pair tempt fate and team up to run a boutique hotel.



Rob Reiner added: “John Cleese is a comedy legend. Just the idea of working with him makes me laugh,” while George described meeting John and Camilla Cleese as “one of the great thrills of my life.”

https://deadline.com/2023/02/fawlty-towers-reboot-john-cleese-camilla-cleese-rob-reiner-castle-rock-entertainment-basil-manuel-1235252175/

John Cleese says "Fawlty Towers" Reboot won’t Be on The BBC & won’t Be an “Anti-Woke Nightmare”
by Jake Kanter
February 9, 2023


John Cleese has said his 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 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.”

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

Yeah, if you're looking for something to be "anti woke", your first choice would be Rob Reiner. :rotflmao:

I followed this news and the reactions it drew on other boards which are devoted to British stuff and which love things like Fawlty Towers.

One or two people thought we should at least give it a chance. The rest all thought it would be awful. For a full half century he stuck to his resolution not to follow with any inferior sequel. (Not that he wrote it alone.) There wasn't, for example, a one-off special in 1981 or something that one could imagine. WHY cave in now, after all this time?

The anti-BBC angle wasn't mentioned everywhere. But from what I hear, American networks try to appeal to as many demographics as possible, so in general, that tends to dull things.


Anyway, John has already tweeted an apology because apparently he does care what others are saying??
I feared the worst too, but I would be totally happy to be proved wrong.