John Cleese has admitted he agreed to the West End production of Fawlty Towers due to the financial security it would bring him.
Despite his initial skepticism about revisiting the iconic show, having turned down a musical and TV show, the screenwriter finally accepted an offer in 2015.
Now, after more than 40 years, Fawlty Towers is set to be revived on stage with John admitting it is not something he is excited about, had it been a new script, but that it is a ‘good deal’.
In a candid interview, John, 84, revealed he is doing it for the money so that he no longer has to fly economy.
He told The Times: ‘But this is about getting myself a nest egg, so I can get a place in the sun. Because I have a problem with British weather.
‘And if there’s a crisis, you can throw money at it. That’s the best thing about money.
‘The next stage is to have enough not to have to fly commercial. I’m 6’4” and I find flying absolutely awful.’
The comments come after it was announced last year that the actor is writing a new television show set in the Caribbean, which will see Basil’s daughter who has worked in hotels all her life, embark on a new job and enlist the help of her father.
He is also working on a musical and a non-musical version of Monty Python’s Life of Brian, plus another comedy film about cannibalism.
John wrote BBC Two’s Fawlty Towers – which was broadcast from 1975 to 1979 for two seasons – with his ex-wife Connie Booth, 83.
The 12-episode sitcom is based on a real-life hotel owner, Donald Sinclair, who ran the Gleneagles Hotel in Torquay and the couple became fascinated with his incredibly rude behaviour.
John was married to Ms Booth, 83, from 1968 to 1978 after they both met on the comedy circuit while studying drama in New York.
The couple co-wrote and starred opposite each other in both series of Fawlty Towers with Ms Booth playing the chambermaid Polly Sherman – although they divorced before the second series was finished and aired.
In 2020, the BBC removed an episode of Fawlty Towers from UKTV over ‘racial slurs’.
Titled The Germans, Cleese’s hotelier upsets a German family with constant references to the Nazis.
Despite the controversy, John confirmed the new West End production of the classic 1970s sitcom will include the scene in which a delusional Fawlty, suffering from a head injury, continually brings up the Second World War.
It’s been 50 years since the first show was first recorded at the BBC studios in December 1974.
