Writers: John Cleese and Connie Booth
Director: Caroline Jay Ranger
Nostalgia sells and it sells especially well when the source material is Fawlty Towers, a TV show held so close to the hearts of the UK public that it is frequently voted the greatest British sit-com of all time. John Cleese has taken a trio of his and Connie Booth’s original scripts: The Hotel Inspectors, The Germans and Communication Problems and woven a seamless narrative around the three to create this stage version of the beloved show.
The script is staggeringly close to the original material, with whole portions of dialogue lifted word for word. Indeed, so familiar with the scripts are the audience that the anticipation of the famous punchlines is actually palpable in the auditorium.
The detail throughout the production is exceptional. The hugely talented cast play out the action on Liz Ascroft’s set, which is a star in itself, perfectly recreating the infamous Torquay hotel. The costumes too are exact copies of those seen on screen. However, it is perhaps in this slavish reverence to detail that the production falls a little flat at times. The cast and creatives so obsessed with slavish recreation that they are terrified to veer from the original and disappoint.
The cast are exceptional, each delivering a perfect facsimile of the original. Danny Bayne’s Basil captures the manic knife-edge energy and sardonic asides with aplomb as does an underused Mia Austen as Basil’s shrill wife Sybil. Joanne Clifton is an astonishing carbon copy of Connie Booth as Polly, both physically and vocally and Hemi Yeroham’s Manuel is stunningly familiar, even if the lines he delivers feel very much of their time.
Fawlty Towers aficionados will not be disappointed. This is as close to the original as you could possibly get, the set, the script and the cast are excellent, the only fault is in failing to recreate the thrill of the genre-busting original.
Runs until 17 January 2026 | Image: Hugo Glndinning
