Widow of 'real life Basil Fawlty' hits out at John Cleese

The widow of the hotel owner who John Cleese claimed inspired him to write Fawlty Towers, has hit back at the 1970s comedy.

Betty Sinclair, 87, has broken her silence by claiming Cleese has held her family "up to ridicule".

She says it is cruel and unfair that to compare her deceased husband Donald to the show's eccentric character Basil Fawlty.

Cleese has always said that the Sinclair's hotel in Torquay was the inspiration for Fawlty Towers, after he stayed there with the rest of his Monty Python team in 1970.

Betty says: "I regard John Cleese as a complete and utter fool. He had held my family up to ridicule and has made a lot of money doing it.

"Donald was no Basil Fawlty. It is cruel, unfair and absolutely untrue. He was a gentleman and a very brave man.

"Certainly Donald was a disciplinarian and he couldn't stand fools, but he was not the neurotic eccentric that John Cleese made him out to be. They have made millions out of our unhappiness and I feel that Cleese owes me something."

Betty Sinclair decided to break her silence after learning that a new DVD has been released in the US, which recounts the series of mishaps at her hotel that prompted Cleese to write Fawlty Towers.

Speaking from his home in California, Cleese told the Daily Express: "To put it tactfully, my recollection is somewhat different than Mrs Sinclair's. Her husband was extraordinarily rude and difficult."

Michael Palin added: "He was an incredibly rude man, terribly difficult, and ran the place like a high security prison. The fact she says he did not want us there in the first place says a lot."