John Cleese returning to sitcom
John Cleese to make his long-awaited return to sitcom after Fawlty Towers in 1979.
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John Cleese is returning to sitcom, starring in a new series, Edith, alongside Alison Steadman.
The six part BBC comedy by writer Charles McKeown (Brazil, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus) sees Cleese starring as Phil, an old boyfriend of widower and neighbour Edith. Her children live locally and drop by regularly, and she enjoys daily visits from Phil
who dreams of marrying Edith.
But after months of turning him down, on the happy day Edith finally says “yes”, there’s a knock on the door – and there on the step, with a large suitcase, is her 50 year old son Roger (Jason Watkins) whose marriage is in disarray.
“I’m thrilled to be in Edith and working with such an amazing cast,” said Alison Steadman.
John Cleese said: “These are the most enjoyable scripts I’ve been sent in the last 100 years. It will also be particularly nice to work with Alison again since we joined forces in Clockwise all that time ago.”
Shane Allen, Controller, Comedy Commissioning says: “If you had carte blanche on your fantasy BBC One comedy cast then you’d not be far off the Edith line-up. It’s also a huge pleasure to welcome John Cleese back to the land of BBC sitcom – his last one did alright. This is the cream of British talent giving the BBC One audience the very best comedy on television.”
Edith marks Cleese’s long-awaited return to sitcom after the iconic Fawlty Towers in 1979.
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3 Responses
Assume it means one he is star of . Agree he was great in Will and Grace and also remember him doing 3rd Rock from the Sun . Looking at his bio he won guest star Emmys for Will and Grace and for an episode of Cheers
Oh my – he was brilliant in both Will and Grace and Cheers. Loved the wedding episode with Karen (Megan Mulhally). The shortest ever marriage in sitcom history. And his scenes with Sam (Ted Danson) and Diane (Shelly Long) were hilarious too. He deservedly won the emmys for those episodes. Shame there aren’t any sitcoms like those 2 anymore.
I thought his turn in “will and Grace” would have been deemed a return to sitcoms? He was great in that.