PAYNE

An American remake of the classic British TV show, "Fawlty Towers". Personally I'd read bad things about this so never bothered searching for a release, but accidentaly I recently found it so have added it here. It's not as good as the original but it's Ok if you don't compare it to Mr Cleese's masterpiece.

The main character is Major Payne (pun intended - ironically the original Major character is missing) and he and his wife run a beachside hotel. As I say, I'd read online it was a pale imitation and that later they even got rid of the 'Basil' character claiming he wasn't funny, but in the 9 episodes I have here, he's in everyone.

However if you watch it as a US comedy it's quite good. Just don't compare it to the real thing as there is little resemblance. A few of the episodes have similar themes, but not many and are hardly recognisable as such.

For a start there's no animosity between Payne and his wife, again, there's no Major Gowen character, the 2 old spinsters smoke cannabis supposedly on medical grounds, Manuel's character is from possibly South America, and Polly's counterpart is a virgin and proud of it.

The story lines (nor episode titles) are the same and there's 9 in the first series instead of the original 6, and I don't think there is a second series.