Fawlty at 50

Don't mention the sitcom! How Torquay survived Basil

- Jamie Grierson

With his abusive and impatient service, ill temper and overt snobbery, Basil Fawlty might not have expected to be a point of reference for bed-and-breakfast owners.

But 50 years after Fawlty Towers first aired on the BBC, B&Bs in Torquay are still fond of the town's association with the sitcom and its eponymous proprietor.

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's real-life encounter with an eccentric hotelier in the seaside town.

Cleese and the Monty Python team stayed at Torquay's Gleneagles hotel in 1970, during which the proprietor and retired naval officer, Donald Sinclair, and his wife, Beatrice, provided the inspiration for two of British comedy's most enduring characters, Basil and Sybil Fawlty.

Sinclair is said to have berated Terry Gilliam for using his knife and fork incorrectly, and threw Eric Idle's bag over a wall believing it contained a bomb, which turned out to be a ticking alarm clock.