Fawlty Towers – The Play Tickets

The production is based on three of the 12-part series’ most popular episodes: “The Hotel Inspectors” (in which Basil goes berserk trying to work out which guest is there undercover) “Communication Problems” (in which Basil meets his match in imperious, hearing-impaired guest Mrs Richards) and “The Germans” (no introduction necessary). Prepare to laugh your socks off, but don’t mention the war!

Adam Jackson-Smith (The Girl on the Train, The 39 Steps) plays Cleese’s role of the snobbish, misanthropic Basil. Anna-Jane Casey (Cabaret, Billy Elliot) adopts Prunella Scales’s perm as Basil’s more level-headed but nosey wife Sybil. They are joined by Hemi Yeroham (La Cage aux Folles) as lovable Spanish waiter Manuel (originally played by the unforgettable Andrew Sachs) and Victoria Fox as sensible chambermaid Polly (co-creator Connie Booth’s role). The supporting cast includes Paul Nicholas (Just Good Friends) as the gaffe-prone long-term resident The Major, and Rachel Izen (Funny Girl) as Mrs Richards.

The production is directed by Caroline Jay Ranger, whose talent for comedy has previously been showcased in Only Fools and Horses – The Musical, Steve Coogan Live, and Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse’s Legends Live Tour.

What to watch for

• Only 12 episodes of Fawlty Towers were made as Cleese and Booth were perfectionists who didn’t want the show to dilute in quality, with each scene undergoing an intense editing process. It’s fair to say that every episode has become a classic.
• Fawlty Towers is more than a comedy classic—in 2000, a British Film Institute poll voted it the best British TV programme of all time.
• Basil Fawlty is based on Donald Sinclair, the proprietor of the Gleneagles Hotel in Torquay where Cleese and the Monty Python troupe stayed in 1970s. Cleese described Sinclair as “the rudest man I've ever come across in my life.”
• Cleese made guest appearances in American sitcoms 3rd Rock from the Sun and Cheers, both of which cite Fawlty Towers as an influence on their depiction of dysfunctional workplace “families.”
• Cleese reprised his role as Basil in 2006 in an unofficial England 2006 World Cup song "Don't Mention the World Cup.”