Basil Fawlty (Sybil Fawlty),
Connie Booth (Polly) and
Andrew Sachs (Manuel);
(back) John Cleese (Basil Fawlty)
Basil Fawlty, played by
John Cleese, is a
cynical and snobbish
misanthrope who is desperate to belong to a
higher social class. He sees a successful hotel as a means of achieving this, yet his job forces him to be polite to people he despises. He is intimidated by his wife
Sybil Fawlty. He yearns to stand up to her, but his plans frequently conflict with her demands. She is often
verbally abusive (describing him as "an ageing,
brilliantined stick insect") but although he towers over her, he often finds himself on the receiving end of her temper, verbally and physically (as in "The Builders"), and it is only on one occasion when Sybil mistakenly believes he is stalking an attractive Australian guest that he finally snaps and stands up to her. Basil usually turns to Manuel or Polly to help him with his schemes, while trying his best to keep Sybil from discovering them. However, Basil occasionally laments the time when there was passion in their relationship, now seemingly lost. Also, it appears he still does care for her and remains loyal to her, and actively resists the flirtations of a French guest in one episode. The penultimate episode, "The Anniversary", is about his efforts to put together a surprise anniversary party involving their closest friends. Basil exaggerates this period of his life, proclaiming to strangers, "I killed four men." To this Sybil jokes that "He was in the
Catering Corps—he used to poison them." Basil is often seen wearing regimental and old-boy style ties, perhaps spuriously, one of which is in the colours of the Army Catering Corps. He also claims to have sustained a
shrapnel injury to his leg; it tends to flare up at suspiciously convenient times. The only person towards whom Basil generally exhibits tolerance and good manners is the old and senile Major Gowen, a permanent resident at the hotel who is a veteran of one of the
world wars (which one is never specified, though he once mentions to Mrs Peignoir that he was in France in 1918). Indeed, he is not entirely unsympathetic. The "
Hotel Inspectors" and "Communication Problems" episodes feature guests who are shown to be deeply annoying, with constant and unreasonable demands. In "Gourmet Night" the chef gets drunk and is unable to cook dinner, leaving Basil to scramble in an attempt to salvage the evening. Much of the time, Basil is an unfortunate victim of circumstances.
Sybil Fawlty Sybil Fawlty, played by
Prunella Scales, is Basil's wife. Energetic and petite, she prefers a working wardrobe of tight skirt-suits in shiny fabrics and sports a tower of permed hair augmented with hairpieces and wigs necessitating the use of overnight
curlers. She often is a more effective manager of the hotel, making sure Basil gets certain jobs done or stays out of the way when she is handling difficult guests. Typically when Basil is on the verge of a meltdown due to a crisis (usually of his own making), it is Sybil who steps in to clear up the mess and bring some sense to the situation. Despite this, she rarely participates directly in the running of the hotel. During busy check-in sessions or meal times, while everyone else is busy working, Sybil is frequently talking on the phone to one of her friends with her phrase "Oohhh, I knoooooooow" or chatting to customers. She has a distinctive conversational tone and braying laugh, which Basil compares to "someone machine-gunning a seal". Being his wife, she is the only regular character who refers to Basil by his first name. When she barks his name at him, he flinchingly freezes in his tracks. Basil refers to her by a number of epithets, occasionally to her face, including "that golfing puff-adder", "the dragon", "toxic midget", "the sabre-toothed tart", "my little kommandant", "my little piranha fish", "my little nest of vipers" and "you rancorous, coiffured old sow". Manuel's exaggerated Spanish accent is part of the humour of the show. In fact, Sachs's original language was German; he emigrated to Britain as a child. The character's nationality was switched to Italian (and the name to Paolo) for the Spanish dub of the show, while in
Catalonia and
France, Manuel is a Mexican.
Other regular characters and themes • Terry Hughes, played by
Brian Hall, is the hotel chef throughout the second series. A sly, somewhat shifty
Cockney, he is nonetheless a competent chef ("I 'ave been to catering school!"). His cooking methods are occasionally somewhat casual, which frustrates and worries the neurotic Basil; and he also has limited concern for food and kitchen hygiene, claiming that "What the eye don't see, the chef gets away with" and that "the better the kitchen, the filthier it is." He used to work in
Dorchester (not at
The Dorchester, as a guest wrongly infers). In "
The Anniversary" Terry and Manuel come to blows since Terry doesn't like anyone overshadowing him as a cook, so he proceeds to sabotage the
paella Manuel is making for Basil and Sybil, leading to fisticuffs at the end of the episode. Cleese himself told Hall to portray Terry as if he were on the run from the police. • Major Gowen, played by
Ballard Berkeley, is a slightly senile, amiable old soldier who is a permanent resident of the hotel. He is one of the few guests whom Basil seems to like. This is because he has the
establishment status that Basil craves. He usually wears the
Royal Artillery jagged-striped tie, and once mentions to Mrs Peignoir being in France in 1918. He often is introduced as their "oldest resident" and in the episode "Waldorf Salad" Basil reveals that the Major has lived there for seven years. He enjoys talking about the world outside, especially the cricket scores and workers' strikes (the frequent strikes at
British Leyland during the time of the series' original transmission were often mentioned), and is always on the lookout for the newspaper. In the episode "
The Germans" he shows he has trouble forgiving the Germans because of the wars. The best he can say is that German women make good card players. In the same episode, he also demonstrates his outdated racial attitudes when he comments about the ethnic difference between "
wogs" and "
niggers". Despite his good intentions, the Major can cause Basil's plans to go awry, notably in the episode "
Communication Problems" in which Basil tries his best to keep secret from Sybil the money he won in a bet. • Miss Tibbs and Miss Gatsby, played by
Gilly Flower and
Renee Roberts, are the other two permanent residents. Seemingly inseparable, these sweet-natured, dotty spinsters appear to have taken a fancy to Basil, feeling that they need to take care of him. In response, Basil vacillates between
superficial charm and blunt rudeness during his conversations with them. Following the conclusion of
Fawlty Towers, Flower and Roberts reprised their roles as Abitha Tibbs and Ursula Gatsby in a guest capacity in the 1983
Only Fools and Horses episode "Homesick". • Audrey is Sybil's lifelong best friend, and is mostly acknowledged during gossipy telephone calls. Talking with her is a refuge for Sybil. When times get tough for Audrey, who has a dysfunctional relationship with her husband George, Sybil will offer solutions and guidance, often resulting in the catchphrase "Ohhh, I knowwww..." when she tries to commiserate with Audrey's problems. In Audrey's one on-screen appearance, in "The Anniversary", she is played by actress Christine Shaw. Basil tells Major Gowen that he thinks she is a "dreadful woman". • A
running gag throughout the two series is the rearranged letters of the "Fawlty Towers" hotel sign which is shown at the beginning of every episode except "The Germans", when a hospital exterior is used as an
establishing shot. In series one, the letters slowly fall from the sign due to lack of maintenance. In series two, the letters are re-arranged into a series of deliberate anagrams. The paperboy, though rarely seen, is revealed at the beginning of "The Psychiatrist" to be the prankster who rearranges the letters on the sign to sometimes crude phrases. The sign's phrases were provided by production assistant Iain McLean, who was a keen
crossword solver. • Terence Conoley appears in two episodes as entirely different characters. In "A Touch of Class" he plays Mr Wareing, and in "Waldorf Salad" he portrays Mr Johnston. ==Episodes==