More than 40 years after the BBC series Fawlty Towers ended, John Cleese and his daughter Camilla Cleese have revealed that they are working on a revival.
While some are delighted to see the actor resume his role as Basil Fawlty all these years later, others are less enthusiastic about the thought of resurrecting a classic, fearing that it would ruin the show’s history.
The original programme, which ran in the 1970s and was scripted by Cleese and his ex-wife Connie Booth, followed Basil as he struggled to maintain both his hotel company and his marriage.
Prunella Scales played the protagonist character’s wife, Sybil Fawlty, while Booth played Polly Sherman, a waitress and general assistant at the hotel.
So, who else was in the cast, how many episodes were there, and where can you find them now? Here’s what you should know.
Who was in the cast of the original Fawlty Towers?
Along with Cleese, Booth, and Scales, other original cast members were Andrew Sachs as waiter Manuel and Brian Hall as hotel chef Terry Hughes.
Major Gowen, a regular hotel resident, was likewise portrayed by Ballard Berkeley, while Miss Tibbs and Miss Gatsby were played by Gilly Flower and Renee Roberts, respectively.
How many episodes of Fawlty Towers are there?
Despite Fawlty Towers’ continuing impact, the programme was only adapted into two seasons.
The two series each included six episodes, thus a total of 12 were produced.
When was Fawlty Towers first on TV?
The first episode aired in September 1975, followed by a second series four years later, which ran from February through the conclusion on October 25, 1979.
Cleese appeared to rule out a revival of Fawlty Towers in 2009, claiming that the cast was “too old and exhausted” to return.
‘It took so much energy to do that show. I think everyone would be excited if we did it,’ he said at the time, according to BBC News.
‘The problem is, when you do do something that is generally accepted as being very good, a horrible problem arises which is, how do you top it? The expectation of what you will do is so high.’
Given the announcement of the planned Fawlty Towers revival, it appears that this is no longer a concern for Cleese.
Where to watch the original Fawlty Towers
While the episodes of Fawlty Towers were formerly accessible on BBC iPlayer, they are no longer available on the streaming service.
The show is not accessible on Netflix or Amazon Prime Video in the UK, although the episodes are now available on the video-sharing network Dailymotion.