 The idea of the show came from Cleese after he stayed at the Gleneagles Hotel in Torquay, Devon in 1970 (along with the rest of the Monty Python troupe) where he encountered the eccentric hotel owner Donald Sinclair.Stuffy and snobbish, Sinclair treated guests as though they were a hindrance to his running of the hotel (a waitress who worked for him stated "it was as if he didn't want the guests to be there").Sinclair was the inspiration for Cleese's character Basil Fawlty.