The Monty Python star said the new series will open with the death of Basil Fawlty’s wife Sybil.
·Contributor
Tue, 16 May 2023 at 8:09 am BST
John Cleese has revealed the plot details for his Fawlty Towers reboot – which will open with the death of Sybil Fawlty.
The Monty Python star announced in February that he will be reviving his hotel manager character Basil Fawlty in a new series of the hit 70s comedy with When Harry Met Sally director Rob Reiner at the helm and set in the Caribbean.
Cleese has now told The Sun: “The new one starts with Sybil’s death and Basil’s daughter getting a text message from her father saying, ‘Sybil did’.
“She texts back, ‘Sybil did what?’. Basil is about to deliver the eulogy and says what an absolutely wonderful woman Sybil was.
“And then the camera pans around and you see that behind his back he has his fingers crossed.”
The actor and writer has revealed he is writing the reboot with his 38-year-old Camilla Cleese, his child with second wife Barbara Trentham. She will also star in the show.
He added: “Sybil dies and Basil goes to see his daughter because it was all part of a naughty affair that he once had with a guest at the hotel.
“My daughter will probably be a hotelier who’s running this small hotel.
“It’s going to be a sort of slightly posh boutique hotel in the Caribbean with a multicultural staff because that’s the world of hotels.
“And there’ll be no one in except Basil.”
Prunella Scales starred in the BBC sitcom – which ran for just 12 episodes in the 1970s – as Basil’s wife Sybil.
Scales, 90, announced her retirement from acting in 2020 having been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.
Cleese co-wrote Fawlty Towers with ex-wife Connie Booth, who starred alongside him as waitress Polly.
The 82-year-old psychotherapist divorced Cleese in 1978, in the midst of making the hit sitcom.
She revealed that Cleese had not informer her of his plans to reboot the show.
The original series also starred the late Andrew Sachs as Spanish waiter Manuel. Sachs died in 2016 at the age of 86.
Fawlty Towers originally aired for two six-episode seasons in 1975 and 1979.
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