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John Cleese needs to rediscover his sense of humour, says Nick Robinson

John Cleese Fawlty Towers BBC comedy Radio 4 Today programme - BBC/Pete Dadds
John Cleese Fawlty Towers BBC comedy Radio 4 Today programme - BBC/Pete Dadds

The BBC’s Nick Robinson has suggested that John Cleese will have to rediscover his sense of humour if he is to bring back Fawlty Towers.

The comedian has made several testy appearances on Radio 4’s Today programme over the years.

Discussing reports that Cleese is in talks to write and star in a remake of Fawlty Towers, Robinson told Today listeners: “He’ll have to discover some humour because he’s been very cross, John Cleese, the last few times we’ve talked to him on this programme.

“No doubt he can be funny still. We’ll see.”

Cleese last graced the programme in Oct 2022, when he claimed that he would be “cancelled or censored” if he appeared on the BBC.

He also complained about “the appalling debate on Brexit, when I thought this country had sunk to the lowest intellectual level I can ever remember”, and the Tory government, which he described as “progressively more and more disastrous”.

Nick Robinson BBC Radio 4 Today programme John Cleese Fawlty Towers - David Rose for The Telegraph
Nick Robinson BBC Radio 4 Today programme John Cleese Fawlty Towers - David Rose for The Telegraph

During a 2018 interview on the programme, Cleese was criticised for using the word “p--f” to describe Graham Chapman, his late Monty Python colleague.

In 2021, Cleese complained that an interviewer on BBC World Asia had tried to portray him as “old-fashioned, uncaring and basically harmful” for his views on cancel culture.

Cleese, 83, is making the new series of Fawlty Towers with his daughter, Camilla. It will be produced by Castle Rock Entertainment, the production company founded by Hollywood director Rob Reiner, and will see Fawlty open a boutique hotel.

Fawlty Towers has always been held up as a perfect example of a show that retained its quality because it was limited to 12 episodes.

Matthew George, one of its new producers, said: “I’ve watched the first two seasons so many times I have lost count. I dreamed of one day being involved in a continuation of the story. Now it’s come true.”