Fawlty Towers' John Cleese has issued an apology after backlash to news of a revival for the cult sitcom. The original series aired on BBC between 1975 and 1979 and followed the exploits of highly-strung Torquay hotelier Basil Fawlty, played by Cleese, and his wife Sybil, portrayed by Prunella Scales, as they tried to keep their hotel and marriage afloat.
Earlier this month, it was announced that the 83-year-old comedy legend was developing future episodes with his daughter, Camilla Cleese. You can read more about that here.
The news of the revival was met with backlash by some who claimed the original was of its time and would be "cancelled" if it had been launched today due to its slapstick humour. While others felt the original series should be left untouched.
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In response to criticism, Cleese took to Twitter to issue a statement. It read: "I must apologise I had no idea that the idea of writing a new sitcom with my daughter would cause so much anger and distress. I truly meant no harm. Naively I thought it might be fun.
"But I feel terrible about having released this tide of negative emotion. Please forgive me," he added before being met by several comments of support.
"Please keep going! Ignore the utter nonsense. Whatever you write is always TV gold," wrote one person. While a second said: "Oh we can’t have laughter these days. We must take ourselves very seriously."
Meanwhile, a third simply wrote: "Nostalgia is a thing of the past," and a fourth concluded: "You have nothing to apologise for. You are responsible for one of the characters in British television history. You do you, John. Your legacy will remain for generations."
The new series of Fawlty Towers is set to explore how the dramatic and cynical Basil navigates the modern world. It will also see Basil and a daughter he has just discovered is his, team up to run a boutique hotel. Actor Rob Reiner, his wife and actress Michele Reiner, director and producer Matthew George and Derrick Rossi will act as executive producers on the series.
Aside from Fawlty Towers, Cleese is best known as one of the original members of the Monty Python comedy troupe. The group produced a number of surreal sketch shows and films including Monty Python And The Holy Grail, Monty Python’s Life Of Brian and Monty Python’s The Meaning Of Life. The actor also revealed last year he was joining GB News after being told it is a "free speech channel". Subscribe to our newsletter for more showbiz and television stories here.
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