EXCLUSIVEJokes about the Germans, goose-stepping - it's all still in the modern-day reboot of Fawlty Towers, 明らかにする／漏らすs John Cleese. But there is one 不快な／攻撃 scene that he had to 削減（する）...
‘Don’t について言及する the war!’ Basil is 支援する after half a century, but as Fawlty Towers comes to the West End 行う／開催する／段階 it’s not John Cleese?barking out his best lines as the manic hotelier.?
‘Good heavens no, I’m much too old,’ says the 84-year-old comedy legend. ‘I had to be pretty fit to play Basil in the 70s because it’s a very high-intensity character. You have to have 集まりs of energy to play a 役割 like that. I couldn’t かもしれない manage that now. It would kill me.’
That’s probably wise from a man who recently 明らかにする／漏らすd he spends £17,000 a year on 明言する／公表する-of-the-art スイスの 茎・取り除く-独房 科学（工学）技術 in a 企て，努力，提案 to 反抗する the ageing 過程. Instead John Cleese is 手渡すing care of his most famous 創造 to a 命令（する）ing young actor called Adam Jackson-Smith.
‘I think the main danger is that people will think his 業績／成果 is better than 地雷. Adam has 驚くべき／特命の／臨時の natural タイミング and I was surprised to find myself laughing out loud during his audition,’ says Cleese 温かく, although he can’t resist slipping in a little compliment to himself.?
‘His タイミング is almost 同一の to 地雷 and he seems to experience playing the character almost 正確に／まさに as I did. It’s almost spooky.’
Fawlty Towers: The Play 星／主役にするs?Adam Jackson-Smith as Basil (centre, 支援する),?Anna-Jane Casey as Sybil (権利),?Hemi Yeroham as Manuel (centre, 前線) and?Victoria Fox as Polly (left)
That’s fair enough, given that Basil has been 投票（する）d one of the most popular comic characters of all time. Fawlty Towers is also 広範囲にわたって regarded as the perfect sitcom, not least because it only ran for 12 expertly （手先の）技術d episodes 支援する in 1975 and 1979 so never had the chance to go off the boil.
Cleese has woven together three of those episodes ? The Hotel 視察官s, Communication Problems and The Germans ? to make a new play. The latter sees Basil goose-stepping around the hotel after a bang on the 長，率いる and yelling at everyone not to について言及する the war (which was still a living memory in those days) while making a Hitler moustache and a Nazi salute and 運動ing his guests to 涙／ほころびs.
Cleese has earned やめる a 評判 as an anti-woke 軍人 in his old age, 激怒（する）ing against political correctness, so it’s no surprise the war stuff has been kept in; but there was one 削減（する） he could not 避ける making.
‘We had to change very little really. In the episode called The Germans ? to which no German has ever had 反対s ? there was a s peech by the Major, which was making fun of his outdated 態度s. Since it 含む／封じ込めるd the N-word, we 簡単に 削減（する） it.’?
That scene is indeed shocking to modern ears, as the doddery Major says the outrageous word three times in a rambling yarn about cricketers.
Paul Nicholas plays the Major. ‘There are 確かな words you can’t say any more because people are very 極度の慎重さを要する to those things these days, which is a good thing,’ says the West End 退役軍人 who was once a cheeky TV heartthrob in Just Good Friends.?
‘You can’t just bandy words about that people find 不快な／攻撃. But the 残り／休憩（する） of what we have is so brilliant you don’t need that stuff to make the play work.’
What about the 暴力／激しさ? Some 極度の慎重さを要する younger members of the audience may be squeamish about how often Basil takes his 失望／欲求不満s out on the hapless Spanish waiter Manuel (played by Andrew Sachs in the 初めの, and by Turkish-born Hemi Yeroham on 行う／開催する／段階), but Cleese is 反抗的な.?
‘If you go 支援する to the 広大な／多数の／重要な originators of film comedy like Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and the Three Stooges, there was always a lot of slapstick. But people who watch programmes like Fawlty Towers understand there’s a 風刺漫画 element to what’s going on. Only the literal-minded are bothered, because literal-minded people have 広大な／多数の／重要な difficulty understanding 状況s.’
The ending for this 行う／開催する／段階 play is the first new Fawlty Towers 構成要素 in five １０年間s, so was it hard to get 支援する into that mindset??
The ending for the West End 行う／開催する／段階 play is the first new Fawlty Towers 構成要素 in five １０年間s
‘No, not at all. I remember how easily the finale （機の）カム together. いつかs writers are just lucky! Other times, for no 明らかな 推論する／理由, writers can’t seem to find a good ending. Think of The 宗教上の Grail!’
The Monty Python movie about 中世 knights on a 追求（する），探索（する） through the countryside ends with the sudden arrival of a modern police car. 明確に, Cleese thinks they could have done better.?
He was famously 奮起させるd to 令状 Fawlty Towers during a Monty Python stay at the ramshackle Gleneagles Hotel in Torquay 支援する in the 早期に 1970s.?
The man in 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金, Donald Sinclair, appeared to despise his guests and Cleese, 令状ing with his then wife Connie Booth who played the waitress, chambermaid and 軍隊 for good Polly, turned the owner’s rude, 積極的な antics into comedy gold.
‘I didn’t feel at all daunted about bringing Fawlty Towers to the 行う／開催する／段階 because the 質 of the 初めの script is so high, it’s hard to see that we could really mess it up 不正に,’ 主張するs Cleese confidently.?
‘Connie and I used to spend six weeks 令状ing each episode. Nobody in the history of comedy has spent more than ten days 令状ing a sitcom epi sode. If you give yourself enough time you’re rewarded with more ideas and more funny 商売／仕事.’
The couple 離婚d before the second series 空気／公表するd, but didn’t tell anyone at the time. Booth later やめる 事実上の／代理 to train as a psychotherapist. She 辞退するd to talk about Fawlty Towers for many years but 認める to 存在 upset last year when there were 報告（する）／憶測s that Cleese was working on an update of the series for American tele?見通し, which has yet to see the light of day. She would rather have heard from him 直接／まっすぐに than read it in the papers. So what about the 行う／開催する／段階 見解／翻訳／版?
‘She’s 伴う／関わるd,’ says the director Caroline Jay 特別奇襲隊員, known as CJ, who first worked with Cleese during Monty Python’s return to live 業績／成果 at the O2 a １０年間 ago.?
‘Connie is spoken about 高度に by John all the time. She’s very supportive of the show. We’ve just had a lovely email from her wishing us luck with it. She has her 権利s [to Fawlty Towers] with John. I don’t think there are any problems with Connie.’
CJ believes Connie’s 関与 is one of the 推論する／理由s Fawlty Towers has 現実に lasted so 井戸／弁護士席.?
‘I think she was 重要な to the 令状ing, because you can feel the 女性（の） attention to 詳細（に述べる） in the script. I know it was a very equal piece of work. I think she’ll wait for things to settle and then she’ll choose her day when she wants to come and see the play. We’ll be looking 今後 to that.’
John Cleese married again, to the American actress Barbara Trentham in 1981. They had a daughter called Camilla three years later but 離婚d in 1990. By then he had written and starred with Kevin Kline and Jamie 物陰／風下 Curtis in the Hollywood blockbuster A Fish Called Wanda and was living in Los Angeles.?
His third marriage, to the American psychotherapist Alyce 妖精／密着させる Eichelberger, ended in 2008 after 16 years and resulted in a 報告（する）／憶測d £12 million 解決／入植地. ‘I got off lightly,’ said Cleese with 激しい irony later. ‘Think what I’d have had to 支払う／賃金 Alyce if she had 与える／捧げるd anything to the 関係 such as children, or a conversation.’
The 初めの Basil, John Cleese (pictured), has woven together three Fawlty Towers episodes ? The Hotel 視察官s, Communication Problems and The Germans ? to make a new play
He has been happily married to the English jewellery designer Jennifer Wade since 2012, but （人命などを）奪う，主張するs to still be reeling financially from the 離婚 解決／入植地, so continues to work very hard, 含むing a long run of 単独の 行う／開催する／段階 業績／成果s and a 最近の 雑談（する） show on GB News.
Cleese’s new Polly, actor and singer Victoria Fox, was 設立する by 事故 around a dinner （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する in LA. ‘I was travelling around the world and I had the 広大な／多数の／重要な fortune of 会合 this ギャング（団） of friends in LA and one of the guys was dating John’s daughter Camilla,’ she explains.?
‘When I went 支援する to visit them in 2019 she 招待するd me to dinner and said, “Oh, my dad will be there.” John and I sat next to each other and we got on very 井戸／弁護士席.’
Then something strange happened. ‘I’ve worked in hotels, I’ve been a waitress, I’ve done every 肉親，親類d of 職業 Polly has done. He turned to me and he said, “You are her. You really are Polly.” He kept 説 it. I was thrilled.’?
Was the smooth old dog trying to be charming? ‘No, it wasn’t a 雑談（する）-up line at all! He’s so much more than what is written about him.’
CJ says something 類似の when I ask if Cleese is as grumpy to work with as his 評判 示唆するs. ‘絶対 the opposite. He’s got such an intellect and carries the 負わせる of having this big personality and yet he hasn’t lost his sense of play, like a child in the playground at an 幼児s school.’
Adam Jackson-Smith, the new Basil, says, ‘When we first met John this time he was very keen for us to be playful, not to be too constricted by the TV show or what we’ve seen before.’?
Playing the whirling madman on 行う／開催する／段階 is an 激しい physical challenge though. ‘You can get 攻撃する，衝突する on the 長，率いる by a moose in 前線 of the TV cameras once and you’re probably 承認する, but having it happen in eight shows a week for eight months is a very different proposition. I’ll have to find a way to make it endurable.’
Sybil is played by Anna-Jane Casey, who has appeared in 死傷者, 載冠（式）／即位（式） Street and E ast?Enders but spent the thrust of her career in musical theatre. ‘Farce has rhythm,’ she says. ‘There’s a music to the text and a dance to the movement of all 14 of us on 行う／開催する／段階, so my background does help.’
She’s worked with actor Sam West and hopes that his mother Prunella 規模s, the 初めの Sybil, may be 井戸／弁護士席 enough to come and see the play, although at 91 she’s living with dementia. ‘It would be wonderful if she could come but it might be 圧倒的な. Having worked on this 構成要素, I 屈服する 負かす／撃墜する to her genius.’
週末 has seen rehearsals and while all the 広大な／多数の／重要な elements of Fawlty Towers are 堅固に in place ? the pratfalls, the sight gags, the zinging one-liners ? there’s also a surprisingly tender undercurrent to this 見解／翻訳／版, 特に in the bitter love between Basil and Sybil. ‘These are real people. There is realism in the farce,’ says Anna-Jane.
Fawlty Towers ran for 12 episodes in 1975 and 1979 and starred: John Cleese as Basil (centre, 支援する); Prunella 規模s as Sybil (権利), Andrew Sachs as Manuel (centre, 前線) and Connie Booth as Polly (left)
Far from not について言及するing the war, CJ says it’s 現実に 重要な to what’s going on under the surface. Basil was modelled on a man struggling with grief in the 70s, the angry real hotelier Donald Sinclair.?
‘Donald lost friends, as boys, when ships went 負かす／撃墜する during the war. 支援する then there was no mental healthcare. You go through that and 結局最後にはーなる returning to work at a hotel where people are continually coming at you with very small （民事の）告訴s. There’s no excuse for his behaviour, but what made this man? We all knew those people. We still do.’
In the end though, Fawlty Towers is all about the laughs. ‘I 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑う there are 最高の-fans who know every line from every programme. It’s 驚くべき／特命の／臨時の,’ says John Cleese. What if they don’t like the play? ‘If they don’t, I don’t see what I can do about it. But I’m hoping people will be laughing more than they would if they were watching it on television.’
How will he feel on 開始 night? ‘I’ll be very 静める. It will be nice not to have the 圧力 of 成し遂げるing. I know the cast are very good, so I don’t know what I’ll have to get anxious about, unless it’s the thought that Adam might be funnier than me...’
John Cleese 会談 with the growl of someone who has been laughed at, listened to and にわか雨d with 賞賛する all his working life. ‘I don’t feel I’ve anything left to 証明する. I don’t think there’s any way that our new Fawlty Towers is going to be a 災害, although when Connie and I 手渡すd in the first script a BBC comedy editor wrote, “I cannot see this 存在 anything other than a total 災害 .”’
Half a century later, as Fawlty Towers returns to theatres 十分な of love and laughter, it’s 安全な to say he knew nothing.
- Fawlty Towers: The Play is showing now at London’s Apollo Theatre Shaftesbury Avenue. For tickets visit FawltyTowersWestEnd.com.
