This lengthy film interview with John Cleese was made to go with a boxed set of the "Fawlty Towers" BBC TV series. It's all about his involvement in creating this great classic British comedy. I think "Fawlty Towers" is the funniest, wittiest, most farcical and best comedy ever put on film. So, naturally I was interested in what Cleese had to say. And this interview isn't a let down at all.
Cleese, himself one of the best comedy actors of the 20th century (there has been so little good comedy written or performed so far in the 21st century), tells of the inspiration for the new series. He's fun to watch and listen to as he tells how he and Connie Booth came up with the idea for Fawlty Towers while they were shooting some of "Monty Pythons Flying Circus." At the time, they were staying at a hotel in the seaside town of Torquay on the "English Riviera" (the SW shores of England on the English Channel). The year was 1971, and the Monty Python crew had booked in at the Gleneagles Hotel. It was a 41-room hotel owned and run by Donald Sinclair and his wife, Beatrice. Sinclair was so rude that he drove clients away, including most of the Monty Python crew. But Cleese and Booth, who were married at the time, stayed on and began to take notes.
Cleese said that Sinclair was the "most wonderfully rude man" he had ever met. And the hotel couple became the models for Basil and Sybil Fawlty. Some of the stories Cleese tells about their 1971 stay at the hotel in Torquay are so funny, one wonders why they didn't actually use some of those incidents in the TV series. One of their crew members was an American, and when they were eating dinner one night, Sinclair came to the table and scolded him in front of everyone because he didn't eat with his fork in the correct hand. Another incident was one of the crew returning to find a bag missing. Sinclair had put it outside a garden wall because he thought it might contain a bomb. When the crew member asked who would want to bomb his hotel, Sinclair said they had been having a lot of staff problems of late.
Cleese said that in the beginning, "I wrote most of Basil and most of Manuel, and Connie wrote most of Sybil and most of Polly. But gradually, I started writing more of Sybil and she started writing more of Basil and we just started to mix and collaborate more and more." Cleese said, "The one character the two of us loved the most was the major. We had this guy who was in his own world, who never quite understood what was going on, but always added his own insane interpretation of it." Cleese said he was "hugely fond" of Ballard Berkeley who played Major Gowen.
"It was a very happy group," Cleese said of the Fawlty Towers troupe. "Everybody was very pleased with what they had to do. Nobody was trying to hold their part up. Everyone was happy." As to the character of Basil, Cleese said, "He was always trying to hide something for Basil. He has no interest in other people as human beings at all. He's an awful human being. The key to Basil is his snobbery." Cleese shared his love for comedy. "I've always had a tremendous love for farce. And I think what I like to do more than anything else is to really laugh. You don't do it so much as you get older, but in your teenage years, there are some times when you just laugh and you laugh so hard that it hurts and you wish you could stop laughing. Wonderful feeling! You don't get that as much as you get older. Though you get it a little bit on stage."
This is an amusing and interesting look into the background of "Fawlty Towers" and John Cleese, its star and co-creator. Those who enjoy great comedy and who cherish the "Fawlty Towers" series should enjoy this interview with John Cleese.
By late 2016, the hotel inspiration for Fawlty Towers no longer existed in the seaside town of Torquay. The Gleneagles changed hands after Donald Sinclair died in 1981. His wife, Beatrice, died in 2010. Over the years, the new owners and the community took on some of the aura of Fawlty Towers and they became part of the tourist attraction to the seaside resort community. The hotel closed in 2015 and in 2016 it was razed for development of a retirement community.
Cleese, himself one of the best comedy actors of the 20th century (there has been so little good comedy written or performed so far in the 21st century), tells of the inspiration for the new series. He's fun to watch and listen to as he tells how he and Connie Booth came up with the idea for Fawlty Towers while they were shooting some of "Monty Pythons Flying Circus." At the time, they were staying at a hotel in the seaside town of Torquay on the "English Riviera" (the SW shores of England on the English Channel). The year was 1971, and the Monty Python crew had booked in at the Gleneagles Hotel. It was a 41-room hotel owned and run by Donald Sinclair and his wife, Beatrice. Sinclair was so rude that he drove clients away, including most of the Monty Python crew. But Cleese and Booth, who were married at the time, stayed on and began to take notes.
Cleese said that Sinclair was the "most wonderfully rude man" he had ever met. And the hotel couple became the models for Basil and Sybil Fawlty. Some of the stories Cleese tells about their 1971 stay at the hotel in Torquay are so funny, one wonders why they didn't actually use some of those incidents in the TV series. One of their crew members was an American, and when they were eating dinner one night, Sinclair came to the table and scolded him in front of everyone because he didn't eat with his fork in the correct hand. Another incident was one of the crew returning to find a bag missing. Sinclair had put it outside a garden wall because he thought it might contain a bomb. When the crew member asked who would want to bomb his hotel, Sinclair said they had been having a lot of staff problems of late.
Cleese said that in the beginning, "I wrote most of Basil and most of Manuel, and Connie wrote most of Sybil and most of Polly. But gradually, I started writing more of Sybil and she started writing more of Basil and we just started to mix and collaborate more and more." Cleese said, "The one character the two of us loved the most was the major. We had this guy who was in his own world, who never quite understood what was going on, but always added his own insane interpretation of it." Cleese said he was "hugely fond" of Ballard Berkeley who played Major Gowen.
"It was a very happy group," Cleese said of the Fawlty Towers troupe. "Everybody was very pleased with what they had to do. Nobody was trying to hold their part up. Everyone was happy." As to the character of Basil, Cleese said, "He was always trying to hide something for Basil. He has no interest in other people as human beings at all. He's an awful human being. The key to Basil is his snobbery." Cleese shared his love for comedy. "I've always had a tremendous love for farce. And I think what I like to do more than anything else is to really laugh. You don't do it so much as you get older, but in your teenage years, there are some times when you just laugh and you laugh so hard that it hurts and you wish you could stop laughing. Wonderful feeling! You don't get that as much as you get older. Though you get it a little bit on stage."
This is an amusing and interesting look into the background of "Fawlty Towers" and John Cleese, its star and co-creator. Those who enjoy great comedy and who cherish the "Fawlty Towers" series should enjoy this interview with John Cleese.
By late 2016, the hotel inspiration for Fawlty Towers no longer existed in the seaside town of Torquay. The Gleneagles changed hands after Donald Sinclair died in 1981. His wife, Beatrice, died in 2010. Over the years, the new owners and the community took on some of the aura of Fawlty Towers and they became part of the tourist attraction to the seaside resort community. The hotel closed in 2015 and in 2016 it was razed for development of a retirement community.
