50 years on, Fawlty Towers remains the greatest British TV sit-com series. There were two seasons in 1975 and 1979, six episodes in each, twelve in all, starring John Cleese, Prunella Scales, Andrew Sachs and Connie Booth.
Cleese and Booth were inspired to write the series after staying at the Gleneagles Hotel in Torquay and witnessing the appalling rude behaviour of its proprietor, Donald Sinclair.
Cleese has adapted and dovetailed three episodes for the stage: Hotel Inspectors, Communication Problems and The Germans. Liz Ascroft’s set is an exact replica of the one seen on television.
Fawlty Towers – The Play is not really a play. It’s just a series of Cleese’s favourite comic scenes and favourite comic business. There’s no storyline; but that’s not a problem. The audience hasn’t come to see a play; they have come to see the television series on stage exactly as they nostalgically remember it. Carolyn Jay Ranger’s production is perfect pastiche and very enjoyable.
Basil Fawlty is a great comic character; rude, sarcastic, incompetent, manic, he is abusive to staff and guests alike. Cleese’s unforgettable iconic performance is an incredibly hard act to follow, yet Adam Jackson-Smith succeeds completely, giving a brilliant impersonation. He is so right, verbally and physically, he’s a joy to watch, especially when he is trying to convey a racehorse’s name in sign language
The supporting cast is well chosen. Hemi Yerohan is Manuel, the hapless, confused Spanish waiter, Anna-Jane Casey is Basil’s bossy wife Sybil, Paul Nicholas is the senile Major and Rachel Izen is the deaf Mrs Richards.
I have no doubt that many audiences seeing the play, will, like me, come out of the theatre, wanting to see the original television series again. I have just watched The Germans on video, having not seen it for a very long time. Well-constructed, paced and edited, the humour has not diminished at all. The video version is fuller and funnier than the stage adaptation. The fire drill sequence, uncut, is hilarious. When it comes to farce, Cleese and Booth are in the same league as Georges Feydeau, the great French playwright of the Belle Époque.
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