Front Row - John Cleese's Fawlty Towers On Stage

FRONT ROW - JOHN CLEESE'S FAWLTY TOWERS ON STAGE (320kbs-m4a/46mb/20mins)
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 15th May 2024

Fawlty Towers arrives on the West End stage nearly 50 years after it first appeared on TV. John Cleese talks about why the sitcom wasn't initially regarded as a great success, his love and appreciation of comedy as an art form, and how a future project will see Basil running a hotel with his daughter.

What's Funny About ... Series 2 - 5. John Cleese On Fawlty Towers

WHAT'S FUNNY ABOUT ... SERIES 2 - 5. JOHN CLEESE ON FAWLTY TOWERS (320kbs-m4a/125mb/55mins)
BBC Radio 4 Extra broadcast: 24th August 2023

Comedy legend John Cleese discusses his BBC TV sitcom masterpiece, Fawlty Towers.

He's sharing the inside story with TV veterans Peter Fincham and Jon Plowman.

John traces the beginnings of Basil Fawlty all the way back to his work on Monty Python ("nice though the abattoir is…"), and talks about the real hotelier who inspired the character.

He tells us about the writing and casting of the show, and discusses some of the challenges of bringing a character like Fawlty to the screen.

And John talks about the doomed American effort to remake Fawlty, but with one tiny change – the leading character Basil was written out!

Producer: Owen Braben

Made for BBC Radio 4 Extra by Expectation Productions, and first broadcast in October 2021.

The Archbishop Interviews - 7. John Cleese

THE ARCHBISHOP INTERVIEWS - 7. JOHN CLEESE (320kbs-m4a/64mb/28mins)
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 4th June 2023

In this series, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has conversations with public figures about their inner lives. What do they believe? How does that shape their values and actions?

This week's guest is the comedy writer and actor, John Cleese.

Producer: Dan Tierney.