The Greatest British sitcom on stage

John Cleese is talking about the runaway success of Fawlty Towers: The Play, having had two sold out West End seasons and a 10 month UK tour which began in September. “To be honest, I was more confident about it than almost anything I’ve ever done. I remember reading the finished script and thinking it was really funny. And the English do love farce. Think Ben Travers. Think Brian Rix and Ray Cooney. Look at the success of Noises Off and One Man, Two Guvnors. Farce is universal.”

For all his quiet confidence that this evening in the theatre would be enthusiastically received, he couldn’t have predicted its rapturous reception. The Daily Mail said it was ‘a fine reproduction of a vintage antique’. The Express deemed it ‘the funniest show in town’ and The Times called it ‘hugely entertaining’.

I sat next to two women, both in their 30s, and not only were they enjoying it, they knew every single word of every sketch written surely before either of them was born.

Cleese doesn’t try to hide his pride in this much-loved classic co-created with first wife, Connie Booth. But he shakes his head in mild wonder at the way in which it seems to have rooted itself in the public consciousness. “I was told not so long ago of a family who have a game where one of them tries to introduce a quote from Fawlty Towers into the conversation without the other three realising. How great a compliment is that? For instance, if anyone says: ‘Don’t mention the war’, everyone knows its origin.”

The show opened at London’s Apollo theatre in May 2024 and he won’t easily forget the reaction of the first night audience. “They were literally rocking with laughter.” But then who could resist the self-delusional Basil, once described so brilliantly by Cleese himself as: “Rude but inefficient”?

The Fawlty stage show, niftily directed by Caroline Jay Ranger who scored a huge hit with the West End musical version of Only Fools and Horses, was a resounding success from the off; its run repeatedly extended until March 2025 when it had to give way to a pre-booked play about the American actor Sidney Poitier.

But it returned to the same theatre (Apollo, Shaftesbury Avenue) before setting off on its current tour, coming to Leeds Grand Theatre from Tue 6 – Sat 10 January 2026.

This ‘new’ production includes some cast changes. Danny Bayne plays the crane-legged Basil with Mia Austen as his acerbic wife, Sybil. Joanne Clifton, winner alongside Ore Oduba in 2016 of the famed Strictly glitterball, takes on the role of Polly, the woman who pretty much single-handedly prevents Fawlty Towers from collapsing like a pack of cards.

It features three of the most cherished sketches, cleverly stitched together (by Cleese himself) with a new finale wrapping up proceedings. Prepare to enjoy yourself all over again.

Miscommunication is the name of the game with a threatened visit by a brace of hotel inspectors followed by a party of German tourists. Then there’s Basil’s ongoing – futile, as it turns out – attempt to keep from Sybil his flutter on the horses with little or no help from Spanish waiter Manuel, played by the excellent Hemi Yeroham.