‘I’ve replaced John Cleese as Basil Fawlty but don’t call me an impersonator’-Kitty Chrisp-Entertainment – Metro

Adam Jackson-Smith is playing Basil Fawlty in the new Fawlty Towers stage play written by John Cleese (Picture: Guy Bell/Shutterstock)

Adam Jackson-Smith is the man tasked with reinventing the iconic role of stress-head hotel manager Basil Fawlty for the stage. 

Five decades since goose-stepping, wildly incompetent Basil was first introduced to audiences by John Cleese in 1975 as the protagonist in BBC series Fawlty Towers, and he’s coming back to life in a West End stage play written by the Monty Python star. 

No pressure, then. 

‘Working with John has been a real gift. You’d be surprised, because you would assume someone that’s written the material would be quite precious about it, but he’s not been at all,’ Adam told Metro.co.uk in an exclusive chat, admitting he’s not usually starstruck by people – but meeting the original Basil Fawlty was an exception. 

‘He’s been very good at putting space into the performance. It’s such a full on experience, it’s really nice that he slows things down, pauses it and says, “Actually you don’t need to do anything,”’ he explained. 

At the press day ahead of opening night, John told Metro.co.uk and other outlets that the magic comedy moments will happen in June when the cast know where the laughs are, and when they are comfortable enough in their roles to begin playing around within the scenes.

John is passing the Basil baton onto Adam – no pressure (Picture: Ian West/PA Wire)

The play is showing at the Apollo Theatre in London (Picture: Ian West/PA Wire)

It appears this too might be Adam’s time to make the household name that is Basil Fawlty his own, as when plucking out well-known episodes from the the TV show – The Hotel Inspector, The Germans and Communication Problems – and putting them on stage, it’s naturally difficult to stray too far away from the Basil we all know.

‘I am not John. I’m an actor not an impersonator,’ he says. ‘I approached it from the inside out, that’s how I approach every character.’

Adam researched Torquay hotel owner Donald Sinclair – the real life man behind the character of Basil Fawlty – and worked from there.

John came across Sinclair – who died in 1981 – at the Gleneagles Hotel while filming Monty Python, and Fawlty Towers was born. Little did he know it would go on to be more successful than the legendary comedy troupe.

While Adam is reinventing the character from the ‘inside’ it is hard to disassociate completely from John’s Basil.

‘I grew up as a kid having seen Fawlty Towers, I think it’s part of most people’s cultural conscience. I was very aware of what John did with Basil and what John’s Basil was. But I am definitely not doing an impersonation of that. It’s all me,’ he says.

Talking of working from the inside-out, how night after night Adam is going to conjure up the chaotic energy that is practically bursting out of Basil pores, he isn’t sure.

‘It is very physical,’ he says. ‘I just have to make sure I eat enough I think.’

Like a marathon runner, perhaps Adam may have to do some serious carbohydrate loading to get up to Basil’s constant state of pandemonium. 

Does Adam think Basil is… okay?

The character of Basil was based off a real life hotel owner called Donald Sinclair (Picture: Alamy Stock Photo)

He laughs, before establishing that actually Basil is mentally well – but is just a British man living in the 1970s.

‘He’s just incredibly English and incredibly repressed, and he’s fighting every urge to tear his shirt open and scream. But he has to sit on it at all times,’ Adam explains. 

‘It’s funny because in 1975 when this was first done society was a particular way. But I still think Basil Fawlty is very relevant in 2024. Most people I think have an inner Basil that they need to sit on and squash. They would love to unleash him but I’m not quite sure they would know what he’d do if they did.’ 

Like many actors devoted to a role, Adam does like Basil – contrary to what others may think of him. 

‘I think this is really important actually,’ Adam says. ‘I think a lot of people remember Fawlty Towers or Basil as being not a very nice person.

‘I actually think a lot of his decisions come from a good place of genuinely trying to help, or he’s trying to understand, or he’s trying to look after someone, but he’s just terrible at it. 

‘He’s just not a very good hotel manager in any way shape or form. He’s perhaps not in the nicest of marriages but at some point Basil and Sybil would have been in love and they would have been a nice match. Perhaps something happened over time and that’s no longer the case.

‘I think he generally tries to operate from a good place. He’s just not very good at it.’  

Anna-Jane Casey is the new Sybil, Hemi Yeroham is Manuel, Victoria Fox is Polly and Paul Nicholas is the Major (Picture: REUTERS)

Perhaps he should have been a librarian, Adam thinks, so he could have very little contact with the general public. (I think this sounds like a stressful place to read.) A farmer? No, he would probably hate animals, Adam says.

The revival of Fawlty Towers for stage has stirred up conversations surrounding racial slurs which were previously removed from scenes – in particular in The Germans, which is an episode John chose to be featured in the play. 

‘John has been very clear it is a period piece,’ Adam says when asked about how the original series is being adapted for a modern audience.

‘It’s set in the 1970s but we would be foolish not to make changes for a modern audience. You just would,’ he explains.

‘So there have been some lines that we’ve removed, things that we’ve changed. But the essence of the original series was very much on stage. You will see a lot of popular iconic scenes that you recognise from TV.’  

As for Adam, he normally plays a murderer so playing a repressed Englishman on the verge of explosion is actually a ‘blessed relief’.

Fawlty Towers is now showing at the Apollo Theatre in London. Get tickets here.

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