John Cleese has censored lines from Fawlty Towers for a new stage version of the hit comedy.
Fawlty Towers – The Play will be starting in the West End this month, a lmost five decades since the comedy classic following hotelier Basil Fawlty (John) first hit TV screens in the mid 70s. And it has emerged that some racist terms have been axed from the London production to avoid offending audiences.
The comedy legend, 84, said: “There is a scene where the Major used words that you can’t use now – racial slurs – so we took that out.”
READ MORE: Want more TV? Daily Star has just the thing for you!
READ MORE: John Cleese lashes out at Monty Python co-star he ‘always loathed and despised’
But the TV star was frustrated that editing was necessary. He added: “Whenever you’re doing comedy you’re up against the literal minded.”
“They don’t understand metaphors, they don’t understand irony and they don’t understand comic exaggeration,” said the star. “There are people who are not playing with a full deck.
“They only have one interpretation of what’s being said. If you take them seriously you get rid of a lot of comedy.”
John thinks comedy was better when bigoted behaviour could be mocked. The star loved watching Alf Garnett, who was played by actor Warren Mitchell, being offensive on the show Till Death Do Us Part years ago. He said: “The audiences were laughing at Alf, not with him.”
The first series of John’s hit comedy aired in 1975, following the staff at Fawlty Towers, a hotel in the English seaside town of Torquay in Devon. It starred John as Basil, Prunella Scales as his wife Sybil and Connie Booth as the hotel’s waitress and assistant, Polly.
Actor Andrew Sachs played waiter Manuel and Ballard Berkeley starred as Major Gowen, a permanent resident at the hotel. A second series followed four years later, in 1979.
The Fawlty Towers stage version recreates three episodes of the classic sitcom The Hotel Inspectors, The Germans and Communication Problems. It kicks off a run at London’s Apollo Theatre tomorrow.
“Farce is better played in the theatre than anywhere else,” said screen star John.
For more of the latest showbiz news from Daily Star, make sure you sign up to one of our newsletters here.
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
