John Cleese has insisted his Fawlty Towers revival won’t be returning to the BBC.
The 83-year-old actor is bringing back the classic comedy – which initially aired two series of six episodes each on the Beeb in 1975 and 1979 – and he revealed the show will be finding a new home for the Castle Rock Entertainment production.
Asked if he’d work with the BBC on the revival, he told GB News: ‘No, because you wouldn’t get the freedom.’
The former Monty Python star, who is working with his daughter Camilla Cleese on the series, also revealed some details about the story with his character Basil Fawlty moving from Torquay to the Caribbean in a ‘small bijou hotel’ 40 years after the second season.
He explained: ‘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.’
John responded to a headline from The Guardian which suggested the reboot will be ‘an anti-woke nightmare’.
‘They obviously know better than I do what’s going to be in it,’ he said. ‘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 reader.’
He added: ‘The idea that it’s all going to be about wokery hadn’t particularly occurred to me.’
News of the revival was revealed this week, with Matthew George, Rob Reiner, Michele Reiner and Derrick Rossi serving as executive producers.
In a statement, John said: ‘What I like about Matt is that, unlike many producers, he really ‘gets’ the creative process.
‘When we first met, he offered an excellent first idea, and then Matt, my daughter Camilla, and I had one of the best creative sessions I can remember. By dessert we had an overall concept so good that, a few days later, it won the approval of Rob and Michele Reiner.
‘Camilla and I look forward enormously to expanding it into a series.’
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