Posted on: December 17, 2020 Posted by: Thomas Walker Comments: 0

You may be searching for the perfect place to stay in the Uk or in Ireland. Perhaps you’d like to take a city break in Dublin where you can sample the delights of Temple Bar and visit Restaurants near Olympia Theatre before you take in a show. Perhaps you’d like to visit the countryside and have a sedate place in the wilds of Wales or maybe the South Coast of England is for you? The tranquil Torbay? Called the English Riviera due to it’s Gulf stream warmth, they can even grow Palm trees there. If you’ve settled on the choice just make sure you avoid this particular place.

Image credit

Cementing himself as one of Britains funnest and productive comedic performers and writers John Cleese took an experience that he and the Monty Python team had had when staying at a hotel in Torquay. The Manager was rude and abrasive throughout and his ever so English guests could not bring themselves to complain. This was the basis for the character of Basil Fawlty.

Image credit

For two series Cleese and Connie Booth, his then wife and also Python co-star, crafted a physical and witty comedy able supported by Andrew Sachs as the hapless Manuel and the perfectly pitched Prunella Scales as he’s harridan (though somewhat understandably so) wife Sybil.

The madcap elements of Python drifted in but the surreal was left pretty much as the door. Booth and Cleese give us a sad angry disillusioned man and a wife who plainly wants more but just cannot seem to let go. Whilst there is a quiet tragedy going on, you can imagine Polly the chambermaid and waitress, reminiscing to her children about the experience later in life the comedy shines throughout.