Classic British sitcom Fawlty Towers is running at Sunderland Empire all this week. Rob Mason went along to see how it translates on the stage.

It is over 50 years since Fawlty Towers first hit TV screens and more than quarter of a century since the programme was voted the best British programme ever in a British Film Institute millennium year poll.

Mia Austen and Danny Bayne. | Hugo Glendinning

placeholder image — Mia Austen and Danny Bayne. | Hugo Glendinning

The paying public at the opening night of John Cleese’s ‘Fawlty Towers, the Play’ were evidently mainly devotees of the show.

A bit like a footballer diving for a penalty when they see a challenge about to be made the audience started laughing a second or two before most of the jokes and punch-lines they saw coming in this tribute to the legendary show.

The stage version is based on three of the 12 TV episodes, ‘The Hotel Inspectors.’ ‘The Germans’ and ‘Communication Problems.’

With the best lines being so well known it was difficult for the cast to make the script sparkle, but it was a performance fans seemed to enjoy nonetheless.

Danny Bayne held the production together as ‘Basil Fawlty,’ the stressed and strident hotel manager battling his many irritations, the biggest of those being his wife Sybil, accurately played by Mia Austen.

The performances are all competent and professional if not stunning. Joanne Clifton was as efficient as Polly – perhaps the only main character who is not having some sort of crisis – as Connie Booth was in the original.

Danny Bayne and Hemi Yeroham | Hugo Glendinning.

Booth was the co-writer of the TV series, along with her then husband John Cleese.

‘The Major’ is a bumbling fool who facilitates much of the confusion on which many of the Fawlty Towers storylines depend. Played here by Neil Stewart, standing in for Paul Nicholas whose top-class career stretches even further back than the TV programme, the Major helped the show to become increasingly farcical.

When it was first broadcast, ‘The Germans’ was considered truly hilarious. At the time it was barely three decades since World War Two but now over 80 years since the days of Adolf Hitler some scenes can seem horribly dated.

If you loved ‘Fawlty Towers’ in its heyday you’ll enjoy seeing it brought to life, but don’t mention it’s impossible to be as good as the original. “I mentioned it once, but I think I got away with it.”

Review by Rob Mason.

Fawlty Towers – The Play is at the Sunderland Empire until Saturday 7 February 2026. Tickets on sale now at ATGTickets.com/ Sunderland