After almost 40 years, John Cleese has announced he's returning to the scene of his greatest triumph: BBC television comedy.

The upcoming sitcom, titled Edith, will be Cleese's first leading role on a TV series since Fawlty Towers – featuring his iconic turn as bumbling hotel manager Basil – wrapped in 1979.

The six-episode series – co-starring Alison Steadman, who Cleese worked with in the 1985 film Clockwise – follows the widowed Edith (Steadman) and Phil (Cleese), two longtime neighbours who marry and "plan to follow the sun and move abroad". But their plans are thwarted when Edith's 50-year-old son Roger (Jason Watkins) moves back home after leaving his wife, kids and job.

The series is being penned by writer Charles McKeown, a satellite member of Cleese's Monty Python crew, best known for his Oscar-nominated screenplay for Terry Gilliam's Brazil.