Frasier finished in 2004 but came back in 2023. What were you looking to do differently this time?

Just a new canvas of relationships for Frasier. He could become something he’s never been before, which is a present dad – more like his dad. The major idea was to always get him and [his son] Freddy back together, and to have them discover the relationship Frasier discovered with his father. The other ideas were just to be current, and also to get Frasier a friend. He had his brother Niles in the old series [played by David Hyde Pierce], but that wasn’t a friend exactly.

You recruited British sitcom legend Nicholas Lyndhurst for that role — why him?

His brain is always working. You can see the wheels turning and you think, “What’s he going to do next?” He’s amazing – one of the great actors in the world. My wife is English, so I knew Only Fools and Horses – I heard her cackling looking at old reruns, and thought “What is going on?” So I got to know “dipstick” and “Rodney”.

I never thought I’d hear Kelsey Grammer say the word dipstick…

Well, for us it’s just part of a car, but in the UK, it means several other things, I think!

How did you two meet?

We met on Man of La Mancha [a 2019 production at the London Coliseum] and we basically fell in love, as two men can sometimes – y’know, “Hail fellow, well met”. We had spent years being fans of one another, and the chief joy of going to do that production was working with Nicholas, and apparently the feeling was mutual, so since then we have blossomed into real comrades.

You have seven children who range in age from eight to 40. Did you draw on your own experiences of being a father for the series?

It comes along for the ride. Frasier’s life and his family history is somewhat different from my own. But if there’s a scene which resonates with me, that tends to rise up. It gives it a kind of genuine, authoritative quality that makes it seem real. But it’s not necessarily plotted out, so I’m not trying to draw any exact parallels.

I knew Only Fools and Horses… So I got to know ‘dipstick’ and ‘Rodney’

In this reboot, was there ever the temptation to have Frasier find love? Or go somewhere other than Boston?

Originally, we had him moving to a whole other city – that’s when we were going to try and do the whole legacy cast and introduce some other characters as well – but that started to be too cumbersome, and David didn’t really fancy being part of it any more. So we took him at his word and we thought, “Well, wait a minute, Frasier has unfinished Boston business.”

Will Frasier ever clash with modern times and become a victim of cancel culture?

We might cover that. He may be accused of something that didn’t happen, and he’d figure out a way for that person to get their comeuppance. That would probably be a righteous expression of something that could have happened at any time.

Things are obviously tumultuous in the USA right now — are you planning on reflecting that?

We do our best to stay away from that stuff, because that is so locked in a present struggle, which is based upon no truth on either side. So, that’s not a road you want to go down, because everything will change in a few weeks. The whole tone of the country will be different: it might be erupting – it could be volcanic – but it’s not going to be the same… so why try to stick with that? It’s a dead end.

What’s next for Frasier?

We’re going to try to get more shows in a season – ten is a little silly. I would say 16 to 18 episodes per season would be really perfect. I’ve got about 100 stories in my head… there’s a whole bunch of things I have in mind that would be really fun to do, but it’s mostly to keep discovering this character and who he is today.

And will he be going to a certain bar where everybody knows his name?

Apparently, that’s been closed. We’re pretty dedicated to the idea that we’re not going [back to Cheers]. We hope to find a character or two that might come visit from that era, though…