Fawlty Towers- Nottingham Royal Theatre

Enjoying the soubriquet ‘Greatest British Sitcom of All Time’ (Radio Times), Fawlty Towers is back is back – this time on stage! 50 years since it first graced our TV screens, it morphs into a brand-new stage play adapted by comedy legend John Cleese, who wrote and starred in the original as Basil Fawlty and directed by Caroline Jay Ranger.

It is a greatest hits mash up of the best bits of the show but with many segments presented in their entirety. As was traditional, at the interval the hotel sign was rearranged. Inevitably gems from the series were truncated or culled in their entirety, most notably the Rat episode. Manuel’s naming of the rat as Basil and declaring “ees not rat is hamster” lives in in our memoriesif not in this production.

 Basil (Danny Bayne)  is still raging at the world as part of a large 18 strong cast ably assisted by the ensemble.,with sharp wit, chaos, and calamity abound! Polly (Joanne Clifton), is a delight, Mia Austenhas a lot of fun as Sybil the  dragon. Paul Nichols is unrecognisable and outstanding as the bumbling Major. The cast on stage aren’t simply doing impressions of their screen predecessors they give them a new identity- the show is all the better for it.

The split level set, designed by Liz Ascroft, is painfully accurate and took me back to 1970s seaside family holidays. Its multi room design is fully exploited for the glorious fire drill finale- the upper level less so.

The packed matinee performance on a Thursday afternoon bears testament to the Series’ enduring popularity. The audience was staunchly aficionados , the cognoscenti scrutinising every word, and every element- the show was not found wanting and drew rousing warm applause at its finale.

The German’s scene is of its time, and Basil’s casual misogyny would have Jess Phillips apoplectic- but Basil wouldn’t care- and nether did the audience.

Intriguingly, despite its one hour 40 minute show time there was enough left out- for an entirely new reworked show. Here’s hoping!