From posing as a goose-stepping Nazi in front of German guests to bashing his red Austin car after it wouldn’t start, Basil Fawlty was the most gloriously messy of hotel owners.
The star of hit comedy Fawlty Towers might have seemed like another hilarious creation from the mind of John Cleese.
But the character, as Cleese mentioned above, was actually based almost entirely on Donald Sinclair, the owner of the run-down Gleneagles hotel in Torquay in the 1970s.
Cleese was inspired to create Fawlty Towers after he and the other Monty Python stars stayed there in 1970 and discovered the “wonderfully rude” owner and his wife Beatrice, on whom Basil’s wife Sybil was later based.
Fawlty Towers returns after half a century in the form of a West End play, in which Adam Jackson-Smith plays Basil.
Fellow Python Graham Chapman described Sinclair, who seemed to despise his guests, as “completely round, out of place, out of his tree”.
Other staff at the now-closed Gleneagles inspired more characters on the show.
Spanish waiter Pepe became Manuel, played by Andrew Sachs, and German-Swiss housekeeper Jetty was the basis for Polly, played by Cleese’s then-wife Connie Booth.
Donald Sinclair and his wife Beatrice (left) ran the Gleneagles Hotel in Torquay. They became the inspiration for Basil and Sybil Fawlty in Fawlty Towers after Monty Python’s John Cleese visited the hotel with his co-stars and encountered the “wonderfully rude” Sinclair. Top right: Cleese and Prunella Scales as Basil and Sybil
The Gleneagles Hotel in Torquay, run by Donald Sinclair and his wife Beatrice.
Cleese and the other Pythons checked into Gleneagles for a three-week stay in May 1970 while filming Monty Python’s Flying Circus in nearby Paignton.
Sinclair, a former Merchant Marine officer, scalded Python Terry Gilliam, who was American, for using his knife and fork in a way he believed was incorrect.
He also left Eric Idle’s bag containing his squash equipment by the pool because he thought it might be a bomb.
Most of the Pythons soon became enraged by the cold reception they received and moved to a different hotel.
Cleese later described Sinclair as “the most wonderfully rude man I have ever met.”
She stayed at the hotel with Booth to gather more material on the Sinclairs.
Sinclair’s daughter Helen Cooper previously told the Mail on Sunday that her parents were as strange as the fictional couple Cleese created.
John Cleese as Basil Fawlty, Connie Booth as Polly Sherman and Andrew Sachs as waiter Manuel in Fawlty Towers. Polly and Manuel were formed from real-life German-Swiss housekeeper Jetty and Spanish waiter Pepe at the Gleneagles Hotel.
Basil Fawlty with Major Gowen, played by Ballard Berkeley
However, after seeing Fawlty Towers, they were horrified by the way they had been portrayed.
Cooper said: “Mum and dad were very embarrassed by Fawlty Towers and the way they had been portrayed.
“In some ways it was very unfair, but I can see elements of their personalities in both Basil and Sybil.
‘Dad didn’t suffer fools and could be prone to the most monumental outbursts. Who does that remind you of?
‘His sanctuary was his small office right next to reception.
“He would sit there happily doing his little things, like writing down menus, until Mum would burst in demanding he sort out this, that and the other for her.
“She was the real power behind the throne.”
He added: ‘Dad hated being in the service industry. He had been an officer with his own ordinance and he was used to being waited on hand and foot.
Cleese and his then wife Connie Booth as Basil Fawlty and the maid Polly. Right: Basil with Terry the chef, played by Brian Hall.
Cleese and Andrew Sachs as Basil Fawlty and the hapless waiter Manuel, who was based on the Gleaneage waiter Pepe.
Despite its popularity, Fawlty Towers only ran for 12 episodes, which were spread over two series in 1975 and 1979.
‘I hated being at other people’s beck and call. He was torpedoed three times during the war but survived. That made him a pretty serious man.
On another occasion, Sinclair scalded a young mother who had pressed the button for the night porter service to ask for a thermos of hot water to warm her baby’s bottle.
The hotel owner appeared in his bathrobe and scolded her for dragging him out of bed for a “trivial” request.
When Cleese asked Sinclair to call him a taxi, his initial response was to look surprised and say, “I beg your pardon?”
Finally he said “I guess so” and then reluctantly complied with the request.
Sinclair also told a guest who was having a pre-dinner drink at the bar: “You’d better drink, my wife doesn’t spend her life in the kitchen making good food only to have it spoil because you can’t get there.” on time.’
He also once stopped breakfast service and began questioning guests when a teapot meant for four people was discovered on a table meant for two.
Several guests who had asked in the hotel lounge if sandwiches would be available were turned away by the owner when they asked if sandwiches would be available.
Cleese’s fellow Python star, Graham Chapman, later recalled that Sinclair was “completely twisted, out of his fool, out of his tree.”
Cleese later explained that Manuel became a foreigner because of his experience in British restaurants at the time.
Basil Fawlty talks to guest Hutchinson, played by Bernard Cribbens
Basil Fawlty with Miss Gatsby and Miss Tibbs, portrayed by Renee Roberts and Gilly Flower
He said: “If you went to most restaurants at that time, in the 1970s, you were very, very lucky if you got what you ordered, because hardly any of the waters could understand or speak English.”
“Now that wasn’t their fault, this is very important, it was the fault of the owners who were saving money.”
Other Fawlty Towers characters included Brian Hall’s Terry, the hotel chef, and guests Major Gowen (Ballard Berkeley) and Miss Tibbs and Miss Gatsby, who were played by Gilly Fowler and Renee Roberts.
Despite its popularity, Fawlty Towers only ran for 12 episodes, which were spread over two series in 1975 and 1979.
For the new play, Cleese, now 84, wove together three famous episodes: The Hotel Inspectors, Communication Problems and The Germans.
The latter saw Basil goose-stepping around the hotel after hitting his head and yelling at everyone: “Don’t mention the war!”