Hello everyone! 🙂

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

Yes! Once again, I’ve seen the London West End smash hit stage production of the BBC comedy series ‘Fawlty Towers’ – ‘Fawlty Towers – The Play’! 🙂 And I saw it at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff where I live! I saw the production on Wednesday 24th of June.

Last year, I saw ‘Fawlty Towers – The Play’ thrice. First, it was at the Apollo Theatre in London in February during its original West End run from May 2024 to March 2025. Next, it was at the Apollo Theatre in London again in August. And third, on the TV in October. 🙂

I’m amazed I’ve been able to see ‘Fawlty Towers – The Play’ a fourth time at the Wales Millenium Centre in Cardiff this year. And it was during a heatwave! Fortunately, the air-conditioning in the Donald Gordon Theatre at the WMC was on when revisiting the stage play.

I’ve made it no secret that I had mixed feelings about ‘Fawlty Towers – The Play’ since I first saw it back in February 2025. But any opportunity to see the production again is always welcome for me, as ‘Fawlty Towers’ remains one of my favourite TV sitcom series.

And it comes full circle for me considering I saw stage productions of ‘Fawlty Towers’ in Cardiff years ago – first at St. Fagans back in 2012 and at Sophia Gardens back in 2013. I still prefer those productions compared to seeing the recent ‘Fawlty Towers – The Play’. 🙂

The issue I have with ‘Fawlty Towers – The Play’ is that it’s three episodes blended into one storyline – ‘The Hotel Inspectors’, ‘Communication Problems’ and ‘The Germans’. I would’ve preferred it if they were all presented separately instead of being showin as one story.

This is especially when lines of dialogue are omitted in the production itself – although certain lines of dialogue are necessary to omit like the Major’s racial slurs in ‘The Germans’. Honestly, that wouldn’t be a huge problem if the ending of the production was entirely satisfying for me.

Everything went so fast for me with the rat making an appearance (which I missed again 😀 ) and the Major using a gun to shoot it before Basil screams, realising he has hotel inspectors in the hotel. It just felt so abrupt and sudden, and I wish it was paced better. 😐

I also think it would’ve been better to end the play with Manuel saying, “Oh, he hit me on the head!” with the Moose’s head on him before the Major went, “No, you hit him on the head! You naughty moose!” before one of the Germans asks, “How ever did they win?” 😀

I know that a theatre production needs to stand on its own and for the most part, ‘Fawlty Towers – The Play’ is entertaining enough. But the ending remains unsatisfying, which is a shame, as it doesn’t match to what I’ve seen in previous ‘Fawlty Towers’ stage productions.

Most of the cast featured in ‘Fawlty Towers – The Play’ are continuations of the cast from the production I saw in August 2025. 🙂 There’s Danny Bayne as Basil, Mia Austen as Sybil, Hemi Yeroham as Manuel, Joanne Clifton as Polly and Paul Nicholas as Major Gowen. 😀

A new cast member in this production of ‘Fawlty Towers – The Play’ is Jemma Churchill as Mrs. Richards. I enjoyed Jemma Churchill, having heard her in some Big Finish audios of ‘Doctor Who’ including ‘Creatures of Beauty’ and ‘Breaking Bubbles and Other Stories’. 🙂

She’s also been in ‘The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot’ with Peter Davison and in the episode ‘Village of the Angels’ in the six-part ‘Doctor Who’ TV story called ‘Flux’. She’s really into the role of Mrs. Richard and almost sounds like how Joan Sanderson would’ve played her. 🙂

There’s Greg Haiste as Mr. Hutchison and Wilhelm, Emily Winter as Miss Tibbs, Dawn Buckland as Miss Gatsby, John Hasler as Mr. Thurston and Günter, Adam Elliot as Mr. Walt, and Neil Stewart gets to play the Taxi Driver as well as Mr. Firkins, Mr. Keer and Mr. Sharp.

Josie Brightwell plays Liz and Johanna, Ashleigh Harvey plays Debbie, Ben Jacobson plays Ken, Matthew Gordon plays Mr. Dale and Raymond Rose plays Phillip. All are great in this ‘Fawlty Towers’ stage production. I can’t fault the acting when watching the play. 🙂

If you wish to see ‘Fawlty Towers – The Play’, there are still UK and Ireland tour dates for the production until the start of August 2026, including Newcastle, Bath, Oxford, Canterbury and Dublin. Please check out the above link to find more details of the tour dates. 🙂

Apparently, a sequel to ‘Fawlty Towers – The Play’ by John Cleese is in the works. I hope I’ll get to see the sequel, as I’ve enjoyed checking out ‘Fawlty Towers – The Play’ four times over the past couple of years. I imagine it’ll be shown at the Apollo Theatre in London first.

The episodes being mentioned for adaptation in the sequel include ‘The Psychiatrist’, ‘The Kipper and the Corpse’ and ‘Basil the Rat’. No doubt they’ll all be merged into one storyline as opposed to three separate episodes. How that will all work out, I don’t know.

I doubt the original ‘Fawlty Towers – The Play’ production will return to London’s West End, as the sequel will likely take its place for that. I’d like to think the TV special of ‘Fawlty Towers – The Play’ streaming on U&Gold will get a DVD release someday. 🙂 Here’s hoping!

Regardless, I’m very pleased to have seen ‘Fawlty Towers – The Play’ again at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff recently. I’m glad and feel very lucky that I saw the production a fourth time and close to where I live in Cardiff, even during a heatwave. 🙂

I’m currently thinking about doing a novelization of my ‘Doctor Who’ story ‘The Space Hotel’, which has a ‘Doctor Who’ meets ‘Fawlty Towers’ crossover to it. 😀

Thanks for reading!

Bye for now

Tim 🙂