John Cleese may be planning to reboot his comedy classic Fawlty Towers, but the new version of the show won’t have all the elements familiar to the original show’s millions of fans.
Cleese will be writing the new version with his daughter Camilla, and she has revealed that her father’s totemic character, Basil Fawlty, won’t be engaging in the kind of physical comedy that famously saw him thrash an Austin 1100 car with a tree branch.
Camilla told the UK’s Sun newspaper, “He won’t be doing as much crazy physical, comedic things as before but you never know what you might see him do.”
Both fans and critics have spoken out since it was announced that the 1970s sitcom would be getting a new series 44 years after it ended with only 12 half-hour episodes in the can.
They fear none of the jokes will land as successfully in 2023, but Camilla told the newspaper the revival would “honour the tone” of the original, adding:
“There will be jokes that will be a little bit edgy but we’re not out to get anyone, we don’t dislike any people. That’s not the basis of it. People are a little sensitive nowadays, to put it lightly.
“If anything we’re making fun of the show’s characters and their idiosyncrasies.”
She gave no idea when the show would make its debut, revealing it could be anywhere between three months and three years.