I’m not sure about this. It has been reported that John Cleese and his daughter Camilla are working on a ‘reboot’ of Fawlty Towers. Big shoes to fill, even if they were your own. Consistently being voted amongst the best and often the best TV comedy in history, one might think would be enough. The new show will be set in the Caribbean with a small boutique hotel being run by Basil Fawlty and his daughter.
My initial reaction to this news was: Fatty Owls stands on sacred ground in my memory, and any attempt to revisit it must surely end in disaster.
I’ve done a bit of reading on this and opinion is divided. More or less evenly as it happens, between those who think it a terrible idea and those who say it’s the best news they have heard in forty years.
I read a millennial’s ‘reaction’ to viewing the ‘Don’t mention the war’ episode for the first time. If you measure anything from the 1970s by today’s standards you will come up short. Do you remember a programme called ‘Love Thy Neighbour’? The millennial concerned missed this consideration entirely and condemned Farty Towels for everything it would rightly be condemned for had it been made today.
I have long been of the opinion that people should stop doing whatever it is they have done successfully in the past before it becomes unseemly. Ageing rock stars tottering on stage to render their once classic compositions in pastel shades of their erstwhile incendiary originals is a case in point.
I remember seeing Led Zeppelin perform Stairway to Heaven at Live Aid in Philadelphia in1985. Robert Plant struggled with the vocals and I recall thinking that perhaps he was a bit past it. You can forgive me for that though – I was only 23 at the time. Robert Plant is still going strong.
David Coverdale, front man for Whitesnake, should probably consider giving it a miss though. In the 1980s he was, to my mind and many others, the coolest man on the planet with all the accoutrements of the day:
Hot cars, hot girlfriends, aamaaayyzing voice, and articulate to boot. However, having seen a clip of a recent performance of his, I can’t help thinking he just looks and sounds a bit, well – old. And he’s only 71.
Of course it’s not for me to suggest that anyone should stop doing what they love, and if others enjoy it, more power to them all. Who am I to say that the talents of the man responsible, at least in part, for such comedic and satirical genius as Flowery Twats and Life of Brian should be denied to the new world in which we now live.
On this subject John Cleese himself said:
“I want to deal with subjects that get people upset but I want to get sensible people with a sense of humour who will listen to each other and who will trade arguments instead of simply making speeches.”
