BBC - Comedy Blog - Fawlty Reasoning

Viewers want to see the Cleese sitcom remade.

Fawlty Towers has been named the show the show TV viewers would most like to see remade.

Radio Times readers put game show The Crystal Maze at number two, ahead of another batch of comedies: Drop The Dead Donkey, The Young Ones and Yes, Minister.

And today's magazine came up with some fantasy casts for some of the shows.

They reckoned Jeremy Paxman would make the ideal Basil Fawlty because of his rudeness, and put fellow current affairs presenters as the rest of the cast: Natasha Kaplinsky as the "over-dressed and hard-as-nails" Sybil, Andrew Marr as Manuel and Fiona Bruce as Polly.

Similarly, the Radio Times suggested a cast of politicians for The Young Ones: Tony Blair as "pious, wannabe-radical, smug-looking public schoolboy" Rik, John Prescott as violent Vyvyan, Robert Kilroy-Silk as spivvy Mike and Iain Duncan Smith as loser hippy Neil.

So, what classic comedies would you like to see remade - and who would star?

Send us your comment now. We'll publish the best on this page.

Simonc
It can't be done. How can you remake something perfect.Leave it alone - please.

John Putland
Blakes 7 someone...in these new dr who enriched days i guarantee blakes 7 will score BIG time. Avon and Servalan 25 years on!

Thomas A Evans
Always fancied a new version of Dads Army... with David Jason, and other classic sitcom performers. Like the Two Ronnies, John Cleese, 'Tom' from Waiting For God... Any others??? Now that could really work. Im not saying 'Remake' the show, but more of a sequel...Another home-guard somewhere.

Mark
Oh no! Just leave classics alone. Any attempt would be doomed to failure!

Paul Butler
Why on earth would anyone want to see this classic remade? It beggars belief that in this day and age people don't think that there is enough new material around.

Rob W
If the BBC remake Fawlty Towers, or any other of its classic archive sitcoms, the new version will forever have the stigma of being compared with the original, and probably only remembered as a pale imitation of it as a result; there is no reason to remake something that still works today. Also, the remade foreign versions of Fawlty Towers were said to be failures, showing the original to be the definitive version. Many old sitcoms were perfect for their time, but are unlikely to work in a modern context, either due to a change in their intended audience or content that would be deemed unacceptable in today's society. If the BBC are to remake a sitcom it would be sensible to remake something that would not stand up to modern expectations were they to be repeated, for example black and white series, many of which have missing episodes anyway; the original Likely Lads being an example of this. On the other hand, it seems a shame to overshadow new ideas from writers by remaking old formats – many sitcoms finished because the idea had become tired anyway, such as ‘Allo Allo’.

Krome
If it wasnt for the fact that its the 13th September, I would have sworn this is a practical joke. In an era of bad ideas... this has just made the top ten. Leave the classics alone - invest in new comedy, nuff said!

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Posted by Steve Bennett, Comedy Journo on 13-09-2005
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