John Cleese will bring back the Fawlty Towers show with Camilla

After more than 40 years, the comedy sitcom Fawlty Towers will return. Along with his daughter Camilla Cleese, John Cleese, who played Basil Fawlty, will be back to create and perform in the film.

Following the lives of Torquay hotelier Basil and his wife Sybil as they struggled to maintain their business and marriage, the two-series show aired on BBC2 in 1975 and 1979.

Castle Rock Entertainment revealed on Tuesday that it had agreed with Cleese to revive the popular show.

Fawlty Towers is coming back | John Cleese to star opposite his daughter in reboot, 45 years onhttps://t.co/DEMuaOkKo6 pic.twitter.com/gs7lHGh4yk

— Chortle Comedy (@chortle) February 7, 2023

In the new series, the 83-year-old English actor and writer will resume his role as Fawlty, while Camilla, his daughter, will co-star as the hotelier’s recently reunited long-lost daughter.

The new show will examine how Basil, who runs a boutique hotel, navigates the contemporary world while being dramatic and sardonic.

Along with his wife, the actress Michele Reiner, and  Matthew George and Derrick Rossi (the directors and producers),  the actor and filmmaker Rob Reiner will serve as an executive producer on the show.

For Radio Times magazine in 2019, a group of television industry professionals chose Fawlty Towers, the best British sitcom of all time.

John Cleese remarked: “When we initially met, he [Matt] presented an excellent first idea, and then Matt, my daughter Camilla, and I had one of the best creative sessions I can recall.

“By dessert, we had a solid overall idea that, a few days later, Rob and Michele Reiner endorsed. Camilla and I are very excited about the idea of making it a series.”

Meeting John Cleese and his daughter were one of the “big delights” of director George’s life, he claimed, adding that he was “crazy with Fawlty Towers.”

He said, “I had lost count of how many times I had seen the first two seasons.” “I had a fantasy that I would someday take part in the story’s continuance. Now it’s actualized.”

Reiner referred to the Fawlty Towers star as a “comedy legend.” “Just the prospect of working with him makes me giggle.”

Three American remakes of the program—Chateau Snavely in 1979, Amanda’s in 1983, and Payne in 1999—all failed.

John Cleese is most recognized for founding the Monty Python comedy group and his work on Fawlty Towers.

In addition to the Holy Grail,  Monty Python,  Monty Python’s Life of Brian, and Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life, the group also produced otherworldly comedy shows and movies.

Cleese and the BBC clashed in 2020 after the BBC temporarily withdrew a special episode of Fawlty Towers because of “racist insults.”

The Major Gowen character used foul language in the 1975 episode “The Germans,” Basil commanded viewers to “don’t discuss the war.”

“I would already have expected that somebody at the BBC would grasp that there are two ways to make fun of human behavior,” Cleese said in response to the decision.

Streaming service UKTV briefly took the show down while it conducted a review, but it was then put back up with a warning about “offensive content and language.”

John Cleese and Connie Booth wrote the original script for the series.

The Monty Python actor announced in October 2022 that he would host his own GB News TV show.