Torquay's Hotel Gleneagles used to be owned by Donald Sinclair, a rude hotelier who inspired John Cleese to create the character Basil Fawlty. The Hotel Gleneagles was the basis for Fawlty Towers. Now the hotel has been bought out by fans of the show:
The new owners are a family from Bristol who say they are "big fans" of the comedy, which ran for 12 episodes between 1975 and 1979.
Cleese, who stayed at the hotel with the Monty Python team in 1971, described Sinclair as "the most wonderfully rude man I have ever met".
Sinclair, who died in 1981, is said to have thrown Eric Idle's suitcase out of the window "in case it contained a bomb" and complained about Terry Gilliam's table manners.
(via Kottke)
