Including Torquay!

The stage version of Fawlty Towers is to tour the UK for 10 months from next September.

Producers have announced a 36-city tour of the show – which merges three of the TV episodes and gives a new finale – to follow the West End run, which ends on March 1.

Co-creator John Cleese said: ‘When we came up with the idea of bringing Fawlty Towers to the stage, I never thought it would get the reception that it has. 

‘On December 23, it will be 50 years to the day since we recorded the pilot at BBC Television Centre and I’m delighted that the audiences we’ve had in the West End still think it’s as funny as ever. The announcement of the tour means many more people will now have the chance to laugh themselves helpless.’

The London version starred  Adam Jackson-Smith as Basil, Anna-Jane Casey as the Sybil, and Paul Nicholas as the bumbling Major, heading an 18-strong cast – but the cast of the touring version is yet to be announced.

The tour includes a run in the show’s spiritual home of Torquay in April 2026. The sitcom is based on a real-life hotel owner, Donald Sinclair, who ran the  Gleneagles Hotel in the city, and Cleese chose to set the fictional version there too

Cleese weaved three of the scripts he originally wrote with Connie Booth into the stage version: The Hotel Inspector, The Germans and Communication Problems.

» John Cleese’s Fawlty Towers - The Play tour dates

Published: 2 Dec 2024