RIP Gleneagles Hotel

Sad news. The Gleneagles Hotel of Torquay, England is no more. Why is this significant?

It's significant because the Gleneagles and its strange former owner, Donald Sinclair, were the inspiration for Basil Fawlty and the BBC series Fawlty Towers.

In the early 1970's the cast of Monty Python had checked into the hotel for a few weeks. John Cleese and his then wife, Connie Booth, were taken with the "marvelously rude" Sinclair. In 1975 Fawlty Towers, inspired by Sinclair and his hotel and created by and starring Cleese and Booth, debuted on the BBC and went on to become a world-wide hit.

Clockwise from top: John Cleese, Connie Booth,
Andrew Sachs and Prunella Scales.

The hotel was built in 1963 and will be replaced with "retirement flats".

H/T to Ministry of British Comedy on FB.