1970’s, British comedy farce Fawlty Towers was a staple Saturday night VHS tape we would watch when I was growing up.

Only twelve episodes were ever made but that never stopped us from watching them every weekend. Written by Monty Python’s John Cleese (along with then wife Connie Booth who also starred in the show), the comedy programme was based around a real experience John had encountered at a hotel in Torquay, Devon, when filming Monty Python. The manager of the hotel was so awful and unprofessional that John Cleese thought it would make for good television.

Now, fifty years later, John Cleese has adapted Fawlty Towers into a West End Play, currently selling out night after night at London’s Apollo Theatre.

Based on three of the original TV episodes – ‘The Hotel Inspector’, ‘The Germans’ and ‘Communication Problems’, the play centres around some gossip that Sybil has heard on the telephone, that there are three hotel inspectors in town and Basil is determined to uncover if anyone checking in to Fawlty Towers could be one of them. Throw in some german tourists, a deaf and dotty guest who refuses to turn on her hearing aid (because it runs the battery down) and a wife who leaves her husband in charge for one night whilst she has an ingrowing toe nail removed and you’re all set for two hours of pure fun.

The character portrayals in this play are top notch with Basil played perfectly by Danny Bayne with equal amounts stupidity and naivety. Polly is played to perfection by Victoria Fox, who manages to sound like an American doing a terrible English accent (as Connie Booth so beautifully did in the original TV show). Anna-Jane Casey has Sybil’s grating laugh on point but it is a shame to see her not have a bigger storyline within the show. Spanish waiter Manuel gets some of the biggest laughs on the night with his iconic lines quoted to perfection by Hemi Yeroham and Mrs Richards is played wonderfully by Rachel Izen.

I’m not sure what someone who has never seen the TV show would make of this piece of theatre. It is dated and some of the content hasn’t aged well but for fans of the show, this is a gorgeously truthful homage to celebrate fifty years of comedy genius.

★★★★

Reviewed by West End Wilma