Hello everyone! 🙂

Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!

Yes, I know. I’ve talked about ‘Fawlty Towers – The Play’ twice already having seen it twice in the Apollo Theatre in London back in February and August this year. But recently, a special recording of the theatre play was shown on TV via U&Gold, which is pretty amazing.

I managed to see the TV special by chance when U&Gold happened to be available via the Sky Stream box for a time on the Bradley household TV. It’s not available now, which is a shame, but I’m happy I’ve been able to see what it’s like on TV to share more thoughts on the play.

The TV special begins with a specially recorded message by John Cleese, acting all Basil Fawlty-like ( 😀 ), to introduce ‘Fawlty Towers – The Play’ for the benefit of the viewers at home. It was funny when he told the theatre audience to ‘shut up’ during his introduction.

‘Fawlty Towers – The Play’ was released on TV via U&Gold to celebrate the 50th anniversary of ‘Fawlty Towers’ the TV series. Having celebrated ‘Fawlty Towers’ by going to see the play in London twice, it’s quite fair that they should share it in a TV special. And rightly so.

This recording is of the original ‘Fawlty Towers’ cast, featuring Adam Jackson-Smith as Basil, Anna-Jane Casey as Sybil, Hemi Yeroham as Manuel and Victoria Fox as Polly. I assume this was recorded sometime in-between May 2024 to the start of March this year.

Viewing the theatre production on TV was quite the experience. It was good to see close-up shots of the cast performing their lines in the production compared to sitting in a theatre where you had the challenge to take in every detail of the play from a distance in the circle.

Everything in the TV special runs the same as in the theatre production with it being an amalgamation of three episodes including ‘The Hotel Inspectors’, ‘Communication Problems’ and ‘The Germans’. Except there are stops for the advert breaks to put up with.

My thoughts about ‘Fawlty Towers – The Play’ are about the same as when I viewed the actual play in February and August. I don’t consider it a great theatre adaptation of the TV series, despite it being written by John Cleese. It’s mostly okay as a theatre adaptation. 😐

I preferred the St. Fagans and Sophia Gardens versions of ‘Fawlty Towers’ as theatre productions in Cardiff back in 2012 and 2013 where three episodes were told one after the other. Mixing three episodes and telling it as one story over two days isn’t so satisfying.

My Dad got to see ‘Fawlty Towers – The Play’ for the first time on TV and he agrees that it’s not as good as the original ‘Fawlty Towers’ TV series. Maybe if he saw it again and in a theatre such as Bath or Cardiff, he might appreciate it more compared to first seeing it. 😐

The theatre cast also doesn’t exactly match to how I’ve seen the TV cast. No disrespect, but the actor playing Mr. Hutchison in ‘The Hotel Inspectors’ doesn’t match to Bernard Cribbins. Neither does Rachel Izen playing Mrs. Richards in ‘Communication Problems’. 😐

This doesn’t stop me from wanting to see ‘Fawlty Towers – The Play’ again though, especially with it being on tour at present. I’d welcome a chance to see the play again, whether it’d be in Bath or Cardiff. Hopefully, my plans regarding mid-2026 will be sorted out. 🙂

I hope ‘Fawlty Towers – The Play’ the TV special will be available on DVD soon and perhaps it’ll be available on streaming sites like ITVX or My5. Who can say? Maybe it’ll be released for Christmas viewing. I hope so. I’m keen to check out the 2025 Christmas edition of ‘Radio Times’.

Here’s hoping the sequel to ‘Fawlty Towers – The Play’ will happen in London soon. It’ll be interesting how episodes like ‘The Psychiatrist’, ‘The Kipper and the Corpse’ and ‘Basil the Rat’ will be adapted into one theatre production. We’ll have to wait and see to find out. 🙂

I know it isn’t Christmas yet, but I leave you now with a special Christmas greeting from the original ‘Fawlty Towers’ theatre cast when they were performing ‘Fawlty Towers – The Play’ around Christmas time in December 2024. I’m sure that must have been exciting. 🙂

Enjoy!

You know, seeing that video clip makes me wonder why John Cleese didn’t come up with a ‘Fawlty Towers’ Christmas Special at all. That would have been amazing, wouldn’t it? 😀

Thanks for reading and watching!

Bye for now!

Tim 🙂