John Cleese has said that “racial slurs” have been removed from Fawlty Towers: The Play, to reflect changing perceptions within society.
Cleese revealed this at the launch of his stage adaption of the much loved British comedy from the 1970s.
The play will be based on episodes from the sitcom, including Communication Problems, The Hotel Inspector and The Germans, an episode which features Major Gowen using offensive language about the West Indies cricket team.
In fact, this episode was briefly cut from the UKTV streaming service which is owned by BBC Studios. They cited “racial slurs”, before later reinstating the episode with added guidance and warnings on the “potentially offensive content and language”.
The original sitcom was written by Cleese and former wife Connie Booth, running from 1975 to 1979 on BBC Two.
“the literal minded”
At a press event yesterday, John Cleese cited “literal-minded” viewers as a huge problem when it comes to creating comedy, as he feels that they “don’t understand metaphor, irony, and comic exaggeration”.
“I think there was a scene where Major (Gowen) used a couple of words you can’t use now, racial slurs they would come under, so we took that out”, Cleese said. “You see, there is always a problem with comedy that you deal with the literal-minded”.
On the challenges of writing comedy, John Cleese also added, “Whenever you’re doing comedy, you’re up against the literal-minded, and the literal-minded don’t understand irony”.
“And that means if you take them seriously, you get rid of a lot of comedy because the literal-minded people don’t understand metaphor, they don’t understand irony, and they don’t understand comic exaggeration”, he continued.
“The result is, if you listen to them, these are people who are not, as far as understanding what other human beings are saying and doing, they’re not playing with a full deck”.
Cleese also defended Alf Garnett, a central character from within the 1960s comedy, Til Death Do Us Part, who made offensive remarks.
He said that viewers were “roaring with laughter at him, not with him”, but also accepted that some were saying, “Thank God these things are being said at last”.
This new Fawlty Towers play will see Adam Jackson-Smith play Basil Fawlty, and Anna-Jane Casey portray his wife Sybil. Victoria Fox will play waitress Polly, Hemi Yeroham as Spanish waiter Manuel, and Paul Nicholas as Major Gowen.
Jackson-Smith performed two scenes at the show’s preview during the launch, with previews taking place at the Apollo Theatre Shaftesbury Avenue on Saturday.
