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Basil Fawlty

Basil Fawlty
Basil Fawlty.jpg
John Cleese as Basil Fawlty.
Fawlty Towers character
Portrayed by John Cleese
Duration 1975–1979, 2016
First appearance "A Touch of Class" (1975)
Last appearance "Basil the Rat" (1979)
Created by John Cleese
Introduced by Connie Booth
Profile
Occupation Hotelier

Basil Fawlty is the main character of the British sitcom Fawlty Towers, played by John Cleese. Basil has become an iconic British comedy character that is widely recognised around the world, despite only 12 half-hour episodes ever being made.

Basil (/ˈbæzəl/), who runs the titular hotel in Torquay, is a misanthropic, pessimistic and somewhat snobbish man whose main aspiration is to become a member of more "respectable" (richer) social circles. He sees the successful running of the hotel as a means of achieving this dream, yet his job frequently requires him to be pleasant to people he despises - something he severely struggles with. His much more customer-friendly wife Sybil often has to deal with the fallout of Basil's bad treatment of the guests, to varying success.

Basil has staunch right-wing and traditionalist views about most things, for example in "The Wedding Party", when he shows open disgust towards a young unmarried couple having an active sex life. In "The Germans" he appears to blame the failure of the hotel's fire extinguisher on "bloody Wilson", referencing the then Labour prime minister, Harold Wilson. He is also frequently furious by industrial action; in "A Touch of Class", launching into a tirade against dustmen and postmen going on strike. In "The Kipper and the Corpse", he is so enraged by news of a car strike that he fails to notice that one of his guests is dead.

He is desperate to avoid of his wife's sharp tongue, and his plans often conflict with hers, but he mostly fails to stand up to her. 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 her temper, expressed verbally and physically. Basil does, though, occasionally manage to gain the upper hand. During "The Kipper and the Corpse", Sybil refuses to help Basil dispose of the body of recently deceased guest Mr. Leeman. Basil gets his revenge towards the end of the episode, when he asks a number of disgruntled guests to direct their complaints towards Sybil. In "The Psychiatrist", he has a row with Sybil during which he calls his wife a 'rancorous, coiffured old sow'.


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