Fawlty Towers Stage Adaption Will Be More Politically Correct Than Original

The much-anticipated stage adaptation of the beloved 1975 sitcom Fawlty Towers will premiere at London's Apollo Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, "free of racial slurs", confirmed John Cleese, the show’s creator to Variety. Fawlty Towers – The Play is written by John Cleese and Connie Booth, who also co-wrote the original television series. The play adapts three of the show’s episodes, including the controversial "The Germans."

At a press event for the production, Cleese explained the decision to remove offensive content from the play: “Those scenes where the Major used a couple of words you can’t use now, racial slurs they would come under, we took them out.”

Cleese also commented on the challenges of balancing comedy with modern sensibilities: “There’s always a problem with comedy that you deal with the literal-minded,” he said. “Whenever you’re doing comedy you’re up against the literal-minded and the literal-minded don’t understand irony. And that means if you take them seriously, you get rid of a lot of comedy. Because literal-minded people don’t understand metaphor, irony or comic exaggeration. People who are not literal-minded can see there’s various different interpretations, depending on different contexts.”

Notably, "The Germans" episode faced controversy in 2020 when it was temporarily removed from UKTV for containing racial slurs, specifically during a scene involving the character Major Gowen. The episode was reinstated following Cleese's criticism of the decision, which he labeled as "stupid," and his commentary on the revisionist interpretation of historical content amidst the Black Lives Matter discussions.

The play features Adam Jackson-Smith as Basil, Anna-Jane Casey as Sybil, Hemi Yeroham as Manuel, Victoria Fox as Polly, and Paul Nicholas as Major Gowen. Previews are scheduled to begin on May 4.

In addition, John Cleese shared details about the revival of the Fawlty Towers television series at Castle Rock Entertainment. The new series will see Basil Fawlty in the Caribbean, reflecting the original show's 1970s setting. “We never tried to update ‘Fawlty Towers.’ We’re doing it in the 70s because that’s when all those attitudes were,” Cleese remarked.

Fawlty Towers first aired in 1975 and quickly became a critical success, winning multiple BAFTAs and topping a British Film Institute poll as the best British program of all time.