The lines, the laughs, even the accents and intonations of the greatest British sitcom ever, Fawlty Towers, are present and correct in this efficient and energetic stage adaptation, but it’s an oddly soulless affair.
John Cleese’s ragefully impotent Torquay hotelier Basil Fawlty is uncannily reincarnated by Adam Jackson-Smith. We delight in his barely edited 1970s rudeness, his hubristic comeuppances, his abuse of hapless Catalan waiter Manuel… but it feels like an exercise in zombie nostalgia.
