From the Daily Mail, Monday 29th March 1976:

Return of Fawlty Towers

A NEW series of 'Fawlty Towers,' television's comedy hit of the year, will be shown on BBC in 18 months' time.

John Cleese, who plays a maniacal hotelier in the series, said yesterday: 'We intend to do another. But I can't see us all being able to record it before the summer of next year.'

The first series - shown on BBC 2 - may be repeated on BBC 1

Mr Cleese said: 'It took my wife Connie and I eight months to write the first series.

'I want to do another seven, but I'm off to America to appear in Monty Python on stage, then I'm writing a Python film and a history book.'

Mr Cleese made £6,000 from the first series and his wife £4,000. They have turned down an offer from American TV to write 39 shows a year for five years.

Next month Mr Cleese will appear with other comedy stars in aid of Amnesty International - the organisation dedicated to Human Rights and the release of non-violent political prisoners throughout the world.

From Television Today, Thursday 14th October 1976:
Strange chorus of praise for poor comedy

MANY programmes are liked or disliked as a matter of personal or even regional taste: such is the nature of a medium that tries to appeal to everyone. In no area does taste play a more major role than it does in comedy, for comedy has to endear itself to an audience. The comedy that some find too brash and almost vulgar is enjoyed by others because it seems vital and real: the comedy that some find incomprehensible and unfunny is held by others to be subtle and skilful in using the written word. In any discussion on comedy, therefore, taste must be accepted as a major factor and every professional broadcaster allows for it to be so. One of the most perplexing instances of a poor comedy series. receiving acclaim that is incomprehensible to professional broadcasters is BBC-1's Fawlty Towers. Here is a programme about which nobody writing in the national press seems to have a bad word but yet is devoid of everything that makes good modern comedy. The programme is reminiscent of the post-war university drama society production. Part at least of the audience for such amateur productions has goodwill to the cast, which is just as well, for the cast and writer can get carried away when it comes to farce because of a lack of professional experience and direction.

The idea behind Fawlty Towers had the makings of one good sketch for John Cleese, who has in the past been shown to such good effect in original sketch material. The series, however, has over-acting and exaggeration on his part which is embarrassing to watch, writing that has no vestige of wit or skill about it and set pieces that are protracted and neither funny nor slapstick; the whole is pervaded by ill-humour. There is no warmth, no vulnerability of characters, no pathos, no visual cleverness, no funny lines. It is an amalgam of everything that does not reach out to an audience and is the epitome of self indulgence by those concerned. One funny walk and a shouting, bullying tone do not make a comedy series; it is twenty-five years too late for that.

It would be a pity if a performer who thinks and cares about his work were to be misled by the praise of critics who are perhaps harking back to their adolescence and to the spectacle of intelligent people trying to be amusing. Perhaps these critics are also being too sympathetic to the actor to judge the series on the levels they reserve for others whose start in the business was more traditional. Mr Cleese has to learn (if he has not already done so) not to be deluded by applauding critics just as he must observe those who do not applaud. Fawlty Towers is a try and there have to be many in comedy. But when the try has been made it is time to move on, to change and adapt, bearing the lessons in mind: the most important being a growing awareness of what one is good at doing and what is out of reach of one's ability and personal attributes.

From the Evening Standard, Friday 4th March 1977:
Cleese bans cuts - loses thousands

ACTOR John Cleese, creator and star of the hit BBC comedy series Fawlty Towers, has sacrificed thousands of pounds over a matter of principle.

He has refused to allow the programme to be cut, thus wrecking chances of a profitable sale to a U.S. television network.

Instead, the series, which was made by the BBC, has been sold to public broadcasting stations which pay a fraction of what one of the big three American networks would pay.

Because the U.S. networks have to make room for advertising to get a sale, Cleese would have had to agree to about five minutes being cut out. He refused.

The BBC has scored a hit with its Friday night comedy hour which links two of its most successful series, Porridge and Are You Being Served?

Porridge came top of the ten most popular TV shows in the London area last week.

3, This Is Your Life (ITV) and the Benny Hill Show (ITV); 5, Robin's Nest (ITV); 6, Coronation Street on Wednesday (ITV) and Thunderball (ITV); 8, Six Million Dollar Man (ITV); 9, Coronation Street on Monday (ITV), Oh No, It's Selwyn Froggitt (ITV) and This Year, Next Year (ITV).

From the Daily Express, Saturday 13th May 1978:
The Big Turn On

THE MONTREUX T.V. FESTIVAL in Switzerland is the place where British T.V. bosses often reveal their plans in the hope of picking up foreign sales.

Here are some of the juiciest morsels we can expect on our T.V. screens soon.

GOOD NEWS for fans of Fawlty Towers, the brilliantly funny misadventures of the lanky John Cleese as the owner of a small hotel.

After two years Mr Cleese has delivered the first two scripts of a follow-up series.

It will star Basil Fawlty, his waspish wife, Sybil (Prunella Scales) and the accident-prone Spanish waiter, Manuel (Andrew Sachs).

Producer John Howard Davies told me: "I took the scripts home and quite literally fell out of bed reading them. I made so much noise that I woke our baby."

Thames Light Entertainment boss, Phillip Jones, has an expensive package of shows coming up in the summer and autumn, boosted by a large lump of the £20 million which Thames are spending on programmes in the next year.

New shows include a Kenny Everett pop and comedy Monday night series.

Special

For older audiences Ken Dodd, Tommy Cooper, Max Bygraves, Benny Hill and Bernie Winters will also have series. The first Morecambe and Wise Special will also be ready for the autumn. They will make another for Christmas.

And for Stanley Baxter fans there is news from London Weekend that he will be back in the studios next month to prepare a Christmas Special.