Donald Sinclair (hotel owner): Difference between revisions
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* Fawlty Towers DVD release. |
* Fawlty Towers DVD release. |
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* [http://www.unithistories.com/officers/RNR_officersS.html#Sinclair_DW Royal Naval Reserve (RNR) Officers 1939-1945] |
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Revision as of 19:08, 22 September 2010
 | It has been suggested that this article be merged with Fawlty Towers. (Discuss) Proposed since May 2009. |
Donald Sinclair (10 July 1909 – 1981) was the owner of the Gleneagles Hotel in Torquay, which he had acquired after an extensive career in the Royal Navy. He was the inspiration for the character Basil Fawlty in Fawlty Towers, due to his allegedly stuffy, snobbish and eccentric treatment of his guests, which included John Cleese and other members of the Monty Python cast.
Several of the show's plot lines were partly based on real life events. The episode "The Builders" was inspired by an incident involving several builders who had come to rebuild Sinclair's garden wall. Sinclair witnessed them having a tea break; mistakenly believing they were deliberately slacking, he went into a fit of rage. Sinclair's general dislike of labourers was also briefly depicted in the pilot episode, "A Touch of Class", in which Basil insults O'Reilly over the phone.
Sinclair was also known for his mistreatment of foreigners as depicted in "Waldorf Salad", which was based upon Sinclair's reaction to the "clearly American" table manners of Terry Gilliam. The excuse of 'we've had a bomb scare'—depicted in the series finale, "Basil the Rat"—was used by Sinclair when he flung Eric Idle's rucksack over the hotel wall. Sinclair really did employ cheap labour (à la Manuel) in the form of foreigners, many of whom allegedly suffered abusive treatment under his employment. Cleese, who played Basil Fawlty, played an eccentric hotel casino owner named Donald Sinclair in the 2001 film Rat Race.
Opinions are divided on how closely Sinclair resembled Basil Fawlty. Former staff and visitors have remembered actual events there that were allegedly as ludicrous as those depicted in the programmes.[1][2] However Sinclair's wife and daughters are adamant that Fawlty was an inaccurate caricature of Sinclair.[3]
However, the publication of Michael Palin's diaries in 2006 (Diaries 1969-1979 - The Python Years) supported John Cleese's assessment of Mr Sinclair - and of Mrs Sinclair as well. In the entries for Monday 11th and Tuesday 12 May 1970, it was observed that Mr Sinclair saw the Pythons as a "colossal inconvenience" and when Michael Palin and Graham Chapman decided to leave after one night, Mrs Sinclair gave them a bill for two weeks.
Sinclair died in England in 1981; he was survived by his two daughters and his wife, Beatrice, who died in September 2010.[4]
References
- ^ Richard Saville (2002-05-17). "Fawlty hotelier was bonkers, says waitress". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 2008-08-28.
- ^ Yvonne Swann (2008-07-01). "Paula Wilcox's heaven and hell". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 2008-07-01.
- ^ Richard Saville (2002-05-10). "My husband was not like Basil". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 2008-08-28.
- ^ "Beatrice Sinclair (Obituary)". The Daily Telegraph. 2010-09-16. Retrieved 2010-09-16.
- Fawlty Towers DVD release.
External links
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