Basil Fawlty

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Basil Fawlty, played by John Cleese

Basil Fawlty is the major character in the British sitcom Fawlty Towers, played by John Cleese. The character is often thought of as an iconic and phenomenal character, and has been deemed unforgettable despite only a dozen half hour episodes ever being made.

[edit] Personality

Basil is a snobbish, miserly, xenophobic and sexually repressed paranoiac misanthrope who is desperate to belong to a higher social class. He sees the successful running of the hotel as a means of achieving this ("turn it into an establishment of class..."), yet his job forces him to be pleasant to people he despises or aspires to be above socially. His unstoppable wife Sybil will often get in the way of Basil's treatment towards the guests, often trying to bridge the peace, or pick up the pieces to no avail.

While he is terrified of his wife's sharp tongue, he wishes to stand up to her and his plans often conflict with her wishes. She is often verbally abusive towards him (describing him as "an ageing, brilliantined stick insect") and though he is much taller than Sybil, he often finds himself on the receiving end of Sybil's temper, expressed verbally or physically. Basil usually turns to Manuel or Polly to help him with whatever scheme he has planned, while trying his best to prevent Sybil from finding out, and as such he is very famous for being a liar.

Basil takes many of his frustrations out on the hapless Manuel, physically assaulting him in a variety of ways. On occasions he also bashes others, such as strangling Mr. Hutchinson in "The Hotel Inspectors", kneeing Major Gowen in "Basil the Rat", and even- most famously- bashing his own car in "Gourmet Night" with a branch when it refuses to move.

Basil served in the Catering Corps of the British Army, possibly as part of his National Service, but makes it seem as if he was a soldier. He claims: "I fought in the Korean War, you know, I killed four men" to which his wife jokingly replies to the threat, "he was in the Catering Corps; he used to poison them". He is often seen wearing a military tie and a military-type moustache. He also claims to have sustained an injury to his leg in the Korean War caused by shrapnel.

John Cleese himself described Basil as thinking that he could run a first-rate hotel if he didn't have all the guests getting in the way. He has also made the point that on account of Basil's inner need to conflict with his wife's wishes, "Basil couldn't be Basil if he didn't have Sybil."

He has a slight soft spot for doctors, having aspired to be one himself (however Sybil says that he couldn't even be a tree surgeon couldn't stand the sight of sap - a ridicule on his dream). Basil is constantly maniacally depressed, intimidating towards guests, and liable to pick up a tail-end of a situation, turning it into one of the farcical misunderstandings that we know and love so well on screen. Basil is known for his tight-fisted mannerisms, employing Irish cowboy builder O'Reilly in The Builders because he was a cheaper alternative, and more importantly Manuel, who was in a similar boat, and is now the butt of violence from his employer.

Basil has been married to Sybil for 15 years (stated in the episode The Anniversary). Basil very rarely shows any signs of love for his long-suffering wife ("my little piranha-fish" is one of the kindest epithets he bestows on her), and vice-versa. Sybil's friend Audrey will often be the only support she gets, and therefore she struggles on putting up with him.

John Cleese reprised the role of Basil in the song: Don't Mention the War based on the situation in The Germans for the 2006 Germany FIFA World Cup.

[edit] Origins

Fawlty Towers was inspired by the Monty Python team's stay in the Gleneagles Hotel in Torquay. Cleese and Booth stayed on at the hotel after filming for the Python show had finished. The owner, Mr. Donald Sinclair, was very rude, throwing a bus timetable at a guest who asked when the next bus to town would arrive and placing Eric Idle's suitcase behind a wall in the garden in case it contained a bomb (actually it contained a ticking alarm clock). He also criticised the American-born Terry Gilliam's table manners for being too American (he had the fork in the wrong hand while eating), and it is reasonable to assume that his treatment of Gilliam partially inspired Basil's treatment of an American visitor in the episode Waldorf Salad.

Fawlty Towers

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