Eighties heart

2024-05-04 14:21:36Classification：travelread(759)

His curly blonde locks and chiselled jawline won him heartthrob status in the 80s during his time on Just Good Friends.

But now more than 40 years later Paul Nicholas is playing a very different role as the bumbling old Major in John Cleese’s stage adaptation of his BBC hit show Fawlty Towers.

The 79-year-old said: ‘Well, I’m at that stage in my life where Peter Pan is no longer an option.

‘I’m at the age where these kinds of roles come up - I played Colonel Pickering recently and that’s not dissimilar.’

His comments come as John Cleese revealed it took twenty minutes for him and his then-wife, Connie Booth, to come up with the concept for Fawlty Towers.

Paul Nicholas was a heartthrob in the early 80s wit his chiseled jaw and curly blonde hair but he's now playing bumbling old Major in John Cleese ’s stage adaptation of Fawlty Towers

John Cleese with the cast of the West End show. Right to Left: Anna-Jane Casey, John Cleese, Hemi Yeroham,  Adam Jackson-Smith and Victoria Fox 

John Cleese with the original cast of Fawlty Towers, the hit BBC sitcom

John Cleese was all smiles as he arrived at the sneak peak of the West End show dressed in a pair of blue jeans with dark brown and grey trainers, a plain black t-shirt, and a light beige jacket 

Adam Jackson-Smith (left) plays Basil Fawlty in the new theatrical adaptation and stars opposite Paul Nicholas

Cleese and Nicholas posing together and smiling despite the gloomy weather. Nicholas donned a smart suit with grey trousers and a black double-breasted jacket with gold buttons to compliment his gold and blue tie

It comes as the West End stage adaptation of the hit BBC series will have its first run on Saturday and Cleese declared, 'It's much better than it was on television.'

READ MORE: John Cleese says Britons should not be frightened to say 'some cultures are superior to others' and that it is 'wrong' for some Muslims to want sharia law enforced in UK
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Reflecting on how the show came about, the 84-year-old said: ‘I had lunch with Jimmy Gilmore, the BBC director and producer, and said I didn’t want to do any more Monty Pythons.

‘I said: “I’d like to do something with my wife because we laugh at the same things and she’s a wonderful actress and great at dialogue.”

‘He told me to go away and talk to her and said he would commission.

‘Connie and I had a chat that lasted about twenty minutes and we agreed we were going to set it in this hotel that we’d stayed in when the Pythons had gone down to Torquay to shoot for the Monty Python show. Connie was in the hotel quite a lot which people forget.'

The 12-episode sitcom is based on a real-life hotel owner, Donald Sinclair, who ran the Gleneagles Hotel in Torquay and the couple became fascinated with his incredibly rude behaviour.

Cleese posing with a poster for his new play which he has adapted for the stage 

Adam and Victoria onstage taking on the roles of chambermaid Polly Sherman and hotel manger Basil Fawlty which were based on real people at a hotel in Torquay

The cast performing the new play based on this hit BBC sitcom. The performance and Q&A is the first real sneak peak of the hotly anticipated show

John Cleese joins the cast for a Q&A following the sneak peak performance. During the live session, Cleese said: 'It's much better than it was on television.'

Cleese and Jackson-Smith posing outside the Apollo Theatre in central London. It’s been 50 years since the first show was recorded at the BBC studios in December 1974

Cleese continued: ‘So I rang Jimmy Gilmore up and I said: “We’d like to set it in a hotel,” to which he said, “Fine”. 

‘And that was how the BBC used to work in those days - Now it would go through three committees none of whom really would have any idea what they were talking about.’

Cleese was married to Ms Booth, 83, from 1968 to 1978 after they both met on the comedy circuit while studying drama in New York.

The couple co-wrote and starred opposite each other in both series of Fawlty Towers with Ms Booth playing the chambermaid Polly Sherman - although they divorced before the second series was finished and aired.

It’s been 50 years since the first show was first recorded at the BBC studios in December 1974.

The new cast of the hit show are the spitting image of the original actors. The play was written by Cleese and his wife Connie Booth although the pair had divorced before the second series had aired

Cleese posing with Anna-Jane Casey who wore the iconic outfit of her character Sybil- a pink suit and white ruffled blouse with her curly hair piled on top of her head

Cleese towers over Anthony who plays bumbling Major in the new play. The duo opted for different outfits with Cleese going for a more relaxed look in contrast to Anthony's formal suit

Cleese with his wife Connie who played Polly in the original BBC show. The pair divorced in 1978 but there are rumour Booth will be sneaking into the West End revival

The original Basil Fawlty posing with he new Polly, Victoria Fox who wore her blonde hair on top of her head in a bun and wore a sky-blue dress as part of her costume for the photocall outside the Apollo Theatre, central London

And now the Monty Python creator has adapted his hit series into a stage show which will have its first run this Saturday at the Apollo Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue in London.

Cleese declared today: 'The stage show is better than it was on television.'

It is reported Ms Booth, who lives in North London with her second husband the renowned American theatre critic John Lahr, will sneak into the West End revival.

Mr Lahr told the Mail: 'She'll be going to see it - probably not on opening night but she'll be there.'

A source added: 'She is looking forward to seeing it but she likes to keep a low profile these days and stay very much out of the limelight.'