Fawlty Towers Remastered for DVD

[Si Hunt]

Sunday 10th May at 9pm
To help celebrate its 30th anniversary, G.O.L.D. is throwing open the doors of TV's most famous hotel once more after a lengthy absence.

New and exclusive, Fawlty Towers: Re-opened gathers cast and crew together to retrace the history of the sitcom from a rarely seen insider point of view. The one-off special leaves no English Riviera stone unturned in its search for trivia and nuggets of information from the Fawlty Towers guestbook, together with in-depth interviews with John Cleese, Andrew Sachs and Prunella Scales, as well as Connie Booth talking about her memories from the show for the first time in 30 years. Just don't mention the war.

Plus, on Sunday 17th May at 9pm, we've got another Fawlty Exclusive - Basil's Best Bits - where we look into the Fawlty archives to find some the series' funniest and best-remembered clips.

Reminiscing about these magic moments, cast and crew are joined by Fawlty fanatics and followers like Michael Palin, Terry Jones, David Mitchell, Robert Webb, Eddie Izzard, AA Gill, the Mayor of Torquay and the owners of Gleneagles Hotel (the real-life inspiration for Fawlty Towers).

Stall them! Stall them you stupid girl, tell them some lie!

SORRY! He fainted! Bit of cheese!

What are you two doing down here? Get back to your rooms! I'll send you up a menu with your bread and cheese!

Si.

[Lissa]

He thought Boff was a locale.

These must be the Fawlty Towers things Stephen Fry was voice-overing recently. I assumed it must be yet another boxed set.

Oh a BordEAUX is a claret.

[Andrew Curnow]

Not nice when it's corked though.

[Rob McCow]

Plus, on Sunday 17th May at 9pm, we've got another Fawlty Exclusive - Basil's Best Bits - where we look into the Fawlty archives to find some the series' funniest and best-remembered clips.

Fantastic. That'll be worth tuning in for if you're one of the 8 people who love Fawlty Towers but never bought the DVD box set. Awesome.

Put Cleese and Booth in a room together and film please.

[Si Hunt]

There, I've torn it up, you'll never see it again!

Si.

[Antony Cox]

Would somebody who has G.O.L.D. be able to record this for me, please?

[SiHart]

I should think so Ant.

Si xx

[Si Hunt]

I'll be making a DVD of this, I can easily do extra copies if anyone wants one. As long as you let me know before I delete it off the hard drive!

Si.

[P-Bal]

I watched the complete series recently, which is nice.

I think there's more than a touch of the Sybil Fawlty's about me.

[Pip Madeley]

This is typical. Absolutely typical... of the kind of... ARSE I have to put up with from you people. You ponce in here, expecting to be handwaited on hand and foot while I'm trying to run a hotel here!

Have you any idea of how much there is to do?! Do you ever think of that? Of course not! You're all too busy sticking your noses into every corner, poking around for things to complain about, aren't you?

Well, let me tell you something - this is exactly how Nazi Germany started. A lot of layabouts with nothing better to do than to cause trouble. Well, I've had fifteen years of pandering to the likes of you, and I've had enough. I've had it. Come on, pack your bags and get out!

[Martin Penny]

This is typical. Absolutely typical... of the kind of... ARSE I have to put up with from you people.

I use that in conversation regularly.

[Si Hunt]

The power of FT - I'm still giggling about the quote I remembered earlier. Mr Hutchinson gets the omelette back three times, so Basil tears it up. He actually puts his fingers in and tears up the omlette, and then gives it to the Major, who tucks into it just out of shot! Sheer brilliance!

Would you care for a rat?

Si.

[Pip Madeley]

At work I regularly shout at the photocopier "Start, you vicious bastard!" in homage to the car bashing scene

[Antony Cox]

Thanks for the recording offers!

What I only recently noticed about the car-bashing scene is that because he's so maniacal at this point, when he says something along the lines of "I'm going to give you three chances to start" and then counts "One, two, three...", he doesn't actually turn the key in the ignition at all - he just assumes the car will start itself!

[Si Hunt]

Here's a photo you don't see every day:

Monty Python legend John Cleese staged a rare public reunion with his former wife and cast members of classic sitcom "Fawlty Towers" on Wednesday -- and recalled how little money he made from it.

The 69-year-old, who co-wrote the comedy with Connie Booth when they were married in the 1970s, before making millions and moving to California, added that they would be mad to try to revive the show.

"We're too old and tired now," he said at the launch of a documentary about the series, which only ran for 12 episodes but made "Don't mention the war" a catchphrase among generations of fans.

"The real problem is that, when you've done something that people think is really good, the bar is almost unattainably high. So I think it would be a mistake to do it," added Cleese, who played manic hotel keeper Basil.

Cleese, who started in Monty Python and went via "Fawlty Towers" to success on the big screen including "A Fish Called Wanda," recalled how, for the first series of "Fawlty Towers" he was paid only 6,000 pounds for 43 weeks' work.

"That took so much energy to do, that show," he said, standing next to Booth -- who played chambermaid Polly -- Prunella Scales (his wife Sybil) and Andrew Sachs (the long-suffering Spanish waiter Manuel.)

Fans of the show, which is regularly repeated on cable and satellite television channels, often argue about the best episode, with favourites including The Germans, Waldorf Salad or the Hotel Inspectors.

Cleese, now a multi-millionnaire recently divorced from his third wife, US psychotherapist Alyce Faye Eichelberger, was also downbeat about modern British comedy.

"I don't think the writers work as hard as they used to, and I think they may lack experience because I don't think the writing is as good as it used to be," he said.

"But I do proudly say that in the 60s, 70s and 80s we did have the least bad television in the world, and that's quite a claim."

[Si Hunt]

Fans of the show, which is regularly repeated on cable and satellite television channels, often argue about the best episode

PS gatherings in particular regularly threaten to end in a bloodbath, with Ant Cox putting his "Kipper" forward against my "Waldorf" and Jonno's "Rat".

Si.

[Antony Cox]

PS gatherings in particular regularly threaten to end in a bloodbath, with Ant Cox putting his "Kipper" forward

I don't remember that - did I put it away again afterwards?

[Si Hunt]

It was slippery and reeked.

Si.

[Pip Madeley]

Here's a photo you don't see every day:

Connie doesn't look pleased to be there!

[Captain Tancredi]

Cleese, now a multi-millionnaire recently divorced from his third wife, US psychotherapist Alyce Faye Eichelberger

A multi-millionaire divorcee? Now that's genius...

[SiHart]

It's been good, but the presentation by GOLD tonight has been really sloppy.

Si xx

[Jason Thompson]

Loved Cleese's idea of Basil being on a hijacked plane and saving the day by his manic rage at the inconvenience of being hijacked.

[Si Hunt]

Not watched it all yet, but so far it's managed to be quite dissapointing which is no mean feat when you have practically the whole cast lining up to be interviewed, some for the first time in 30 years.

But it's just appalling, considering. There's adverts and an irritating repeating trailer for next weeks clips show about every ten minutes; it all looks stretched into some kind of not-quite widescreen, and the whole thing is a jittery and giddy melting pot of soundbytes and snatches of poorly edited talking heads, some which are interupted mid-sentence by more adverts. The end promises an intriguing "rumoured lost episode" (which I've never heard of) followed by clips of everyone involved stating there is no such thing.

Nasty.

Si.

[Rob McCow]

It didn't look that bad to me. John Cleese has become foreign with his bizarre Canadian/Cambridge accent and Connie Booth has had it all done.

I agree the add breaks were annoying, but I did like some of the behind-the-scenes snippits.

Although putting up 10 seconds of black-screen was appalling!

[Si Hunt]

I put it on DVD today and the original recording was two hours long, by the time I had edited out all the commercials and trailers it was only four minutes long.

Si.