{"id":153762,"date":"2025-09-19T06:21:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T06:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/153762\/"},"modified":"2025-09-19T06:21:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T06:21:08","slug":"torquay-hoteliers-on-50-years-of-fawlty-towers-and-why-basil-wouldnt-survive-in-world-of-online-reviews-devon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/153762\/","title":{"rendered":"Torquay hoteliers on 50 years of Fawlty Towers, and why Basil wouldn\u2019t survive in world of online reviews | Devon"},"content":{"rendered":"

With his abusive and impatient service, ill temper and overt snobbery, Basil Fawlty might not have expected to be a point of reference<\/a> forbed-and-breakfast owners.<\/p>\n

But 50 years after Fawlty Towers first aired on the BBC<\/a>, B&Bs in Torquay are still fond of the town\u2019s association with the sitcom and its eponymous proprietor.<\/p>\n

While the beloved show was never filmed in the Devon town or the surrounding English Riviera, it was chosen as the setting after the writer and star John Cleese\u2019s real-life encounter with an eccentric hotelier in the seaside town.<\/p>\n

Cleese and the Monty Python team stayed at Torquay\u2019s Gleneagles hotel in 1970, during which the proprietor and retired naval officer, Donald Sinclair, and his wife, Beatrice, provided the inspiration for two of UK comedy\u2019s most enduring characters, Basil and Sybil Fawlty.<\/p>\n

Sinclair is said to have berated Terry Gilliam for using his knife and fork incorrectly, and threw Eric Idle\u2019s bag over a wall believing it contained a bomb, which turned out to be a ticking alarm clock.<\/p>\n

Julian Banner-Price, owner of 25 Boutique, says Fawlty Towers would not have survived in today\u2019s world of online reviews. Photograph: Karen Robinson\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Julian Banner-Price, the owner of the lauded 25 Boutique B&B, says the town and the hospitality industry have long moved on from the days of Sinclair and Fawlty, allowing them to look back with affection for the Bafta-winning show<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost people look on it with fond memories,\u201d Banner-Price, 52, says from the drawing room. \u201cWe\u2019re grateful that it still puts us on the map. I don\u2019t think anyone comes back thinking that Torquay is like that any more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the occasional nod \u2013 there\u2019s a mannequin lamp dressed in a pink feather boa in one of the suites named Manuel, after the fictional hotel\u2019s poorly treated Spanish waiter<\/a> \u2013 Fawlty Towers could not be further removed from 25 Boutique. The vibrant, individually designed rooms with their hi-tech comforts have earned Banner-Price and his co-owner husband, Andy, a host of awards from VisitEngland, AA and TripAdvisor.<\/p>\n

Fawlty would not survive in the world of online reviews, Banner-Price says. \u201cBack in the old days of Fawlty Towers, guests would write to the manager and complain,\u201d he says. \u201cThose days are gone now, because people can just put their opinion out there for everybody to read. Every business now has got an online reputation<\/a>, and that drives most of our business.\u201d<\/p>\n

Julie-Ann Afrin says visitors\u2019 interest in Fawlty Towers has waned. Photograph: Karen Robinson\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Just up the road, Julie-Ann Afrin and her husband, Charlie, run Briarfields, another award-winning B&B, and are happy to occasionally lean into the town\u2019s association with Fawlty.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a guest who loves to call my husband Charlie \u2018Basil\u2019, and he plays up to it a bit by kind of being pseudo-rude to them \u2013 but they are regular guests and he doesn\u2019t do that to anyone who walks in,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

But Afrin perceives that the interest in the sitcom among guests and visitors to the town is waning in part because of generational interest and what some have argued is outdated humour.<\/p>\n

A few years ago, a row erupted over the removal of an episode of Fawlty Towers<\/a> from a BBC-owned streaming service over use of racial slurs. At the time, Cleese called the move \u201ccowardly and gutless and contemptible\u201d.<\/p>\n

Sachs Lodge, previously Gleneagles hotel. Photograph: Karen Robinson\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

But guests still come to the town because of their love for the show. And despite one of the show\u2019s most famous scenes touching on the sensitive subject of the second world war \u2013 coining the enduring catchphrase \u201cDon\u2019t mention the war!\u201d \u2013 Afrin says a notable proportion of Fawlty Towers tourists are Germans.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a double-edged sword,\u201d Afrin, 60, says. \u201cOn one hand, the town embraces it; on the other hand, it tries to distance itself from having B&B owners like Basil Fawlty.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sitcom\u2019s links to the town are not exactly evident along its seafront. There are few reminders and little merchandise available, although a Fawlty Towers walking tour continues to take place, and one hotel \u2013 the Osborne \u2013 is marking the 50th anniversary on 19 September with a live-action dining experience.<\/p>\n

Gleneagles hotel, demolished in 2016, is memorialised by a blue plaque on the retirement home that took its place.<\/p>\n

\u2018There\u2019s nothing to make anyone aware that Fawlty Towers is 50 years,\u2019 says Kia Zarezadeh, a Torquay souvenir shop owner. Photograph: Karen Robinson\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

The absence of Fawlty Towers is in stark contrast to the ever-presence of its, perhaps, more palatable daughter, Agatha Christie<\/a>, who has a statue on the harbourside, part of the so-called Agatha Christie mile.<\/p>\n

The owner of the souvenir shop Print On Me on Victoria Parade believes the council should be making more of the town\u2019s association with Fawlty Towers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe council aren\u2019t doing anything about it,\u201d said Kia Zarezadeh, 64, who has lived in Torquay for 49 years. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing to make anyone aware that Fawlty Towers is 50 years. They associate themselves with Agatha Christie but not Fawlty Towers. I think it might be too late now \u2013 the younger generations are not as interested.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With his abusive and impatient service, ill temper and overt snobbery, Basil Fawlty might not have expected to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":153763,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[64,63,134,427],"class_list":{"0":"post-153762","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153762\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}