The site of the Gleneagles hotel (inspiration for Fawlty Towers)

Whenever you mention Torquay to anyone they probably think of the television series Fawlty Towers. Though the external scenes were filmed at Woodburn Grange Country Club in Hertfordshire (which burnt down one night in March 1991) the inspiration came from John Cleese’s stay at the Gleneagles hotel in Torquay. I decided to visit the location despite the building being demolished.

One morning after breakfast I put a Dick Francis audio book on my mp3 player, had a stroll around the harbour and then set off on the road that takes you up to Babccombe. Though the 30-minute uphill walk passes handsome Victorian hotels and houses Asheldon Road where I arrived was residential. I had photos of the Gleneagles hotel as it was in the 1970s and was expecting to see an expanse of land where it once stood – perhaps a car park full of puddles and rusty supermarket trollies - but I found a block of Churchill retirement apartments being built. A small sales office contained a lady who I hoped was getting double time as it was a Sunday. I tried to get round the rear of the building but high fences and sheeting blocked my inquisitive nature.

Basil Fawlty, the irascible hotel owner, was based on Donald Sinclair who owned and ran the Gleneagles hotel that stood here. He had helped manage the place after a long career in the navy. In the television series Basil and Sybil are married and run the hotel. In real life Donald had married Beatrice Ritchie in Glasgow during the war (she’d moved to Torquay to live with an aunt and avoid the German bombing of Glasgow.) Beatrice had opened a hotel in Torquay and it did so well she a big private house in 1964 and transformed into the Gleneagles hotel (named after her favourite area of Scotland.) By this time Donald joined her but with some reluctance as he loved being at sea. They had two daughters.

Donald alleged appalling treatment of his guests spurred the whole programme. In 1970 the Monty Python cast were filming in Paignton and they needed somewhere to stay. They tried the Gleneagles hotel and even though it was out-of-season Donald was against it. His wife persuaded him to accommodate them as it meant three weeks money. Donald took against Terry Gilliam's non-English table manners and threw Eric Idle's briefcase out of a window. They all moved out in disgust except Eric Idle, John Cleese and Connie Booth. John Cleese was so intrigued he stayed to observe Donald’s odd mannerisms and later described him as “the rudest man I’ve ever come across.” He observed Donald throwing a timetable at a guest who asked when the next bus to town would arrive. Several of the show's plot lines are alleged to be partly based on what he saw.

How accurately Basil Fawlty represented Donald is debatable. Though Donald was subordinate to his wife as in the show former staff say he wasn’t madcap, tense or irascible. Perhaps John Cleese spotted that Donald resented being subordinate to this wife’s thumb or harboured mild disdain at the guests cosseted lives (he’d fought in World War Two and been on two ships as they were sinking.) Donald died in 1981 aged 72 from a heart attack apparently brought on when some workmen he’d upset painted his patio furniture and car gunmetal grey during the night. His wife died 29 years later.

I took a few photographs of the apartment block and got talking to a local lady who was walking passed with a Schnauzer. She said the place was going to be Sachs Court after Andrew Sachs (Manwell.) When she’d gone I stood across the road and thought how odd it was how an extremely successful television series (there are just 12 episodes) sprang from a random stay in a hotel 40+ years ago. In 2000 Fawlty Towers was voted Number 1 on a list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes drawn up by the British Film Institute. John Cleese and Connie Booth (Poll the maid in the show) who created and wrote both shows were married when the first series was filmed and divorced when the second series was filmed. It’s still pretty funny now.

I’ll revisit this place in a few years and see if it will be the towering triumph of blandness it promises to be.

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Heading up here toward Babbacombe to find the site of the Gleneagles hotel…