Bring back Basil

Viewers want Fawlty Towers remake

TV viewers have voted Fawlty Towers the show they would most like to see remade.

John Cleese’s seminal sitcom topped a poll of Radio Times readers, with Drop The Dead Donkey, The Young Ones and Yes, Minister also in the top five.

Perhaps more unexpectedly, game show The Crystal Maze came in second place.

And the magazine dreamt up new casts for some of the shows.

They reckoned Jeremy Paxman would make the ideal Basil Fawlty because of his rudeness, and put fellow current affairs presenters as the rest of the cast: Natasha Kaplinsky as the "over-dressed and hard-as-nails" Sybil, Andrew Marr as Manuel and Fiona Bruce as Polly the waitress.

Similarly, they thought The Young Ones might star politicians: Tony Blair as ‘pious, wannabe-radical, smug-looking public schoolboy’ Rik, John Prescott as violent Vyvyan, Robert Kilroy-Silk as spivvy Mike and Iain Duncan Smith as loser hippie Neil.

The feature in today’s edition was prompted by Ant and Dec's revival of some of ITV’s best-loved game shows, including Bullseye and Sale of the Century, to the network's 50th anniversary.

The full top ten of remakes viewers most want to see is: