Gleneagles | Tellyspotting

Posted November 27, 2021 - No Comment

Sans ‘Fawlty Towers’, Torquay named the 9th worst place to live in the U.K.

Based around an exceedingly chaotic and poorly run seaside hotel in Torquay, Fawlty Towers has not only provided laughter to British comedy fans worldwide for the better part of four decades, it is widely considered to be the best British comedy of all-time. Unfortunately, sans Fawlty Towers, the same cannot be said for the Devonshire seaside town of Torquay where the sitcom was based, which now has the coveted distinction of being named one of the worst places to live in the UK, actually #9 on the list.

Posted September 21, 2016 - No Comment

At 41, ‘Fawlty Towers’ is still the greatest sitcom of all-time

September 19, 1975 — a day that will live on in history as the day one of the most brilliant situation comedies of all-time debuted on the BBC. Born out of a seemingly uneventful trip to the Torquay Gleneagles Hotel by the original members of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, Fawlty Towers is comedy greatness that has not seen its […]

Posted October 29, 2011 - No Comment

How Fawlty Towers almost never opened its doors

This gem comes from Shaun Usher over at Letters of Note, a Manchester site dedicated to the seeking out fascinating letters, postcards, telegrams, faxes, and memos. To the British comedy world, there is none more ‘fascinating’ that this accompanying 1974 memo graphic supplied by Sam Ward. While we knew of this story through several interviews […]

Posted September 18, 2010 - No Comment

Real-life Fawlty Towers matriarch passes at 95

Much as been printed over the years with respect to the fact that Donald Sinclair, owner of the Gleneagles Hotel in Torquay, was the model for the most infamous hotelier, Basil Fawlty, in the classic British comedy, Fawlty Towers. As the story goes, the Pythons were staying at the hotel during a May 1970 location […]

Posted September 7, 2010 - No Comment

Book your reservation at Fawlty Towers

To most, if not all, British comedy fans, there is but one Fawlty Towers. Without question, when one speaks the name, visions of an extraordinarily short-fused hotelier by the name of Basil Fawlty come to mind. While Basil is desperate to join the ranks of the “upper class”, he’s forever at odds with guests and […]