In a spin with the real Basil Fawlty

JOhn CLeeSe is planning to reboot Fawlty Towers, the comedy hit inspired by his stay at the Gleneagles hotel in Torquay in the 1970s.

I was a guest at this hotel with my young family in 1971. everything that’s been said about the hotel owner, Donald Sinclair — especially his eccentricity — is absolutely spot on!

One evening we were in the hotel lounge with some other guests. Donald had put on the classical record In A Monastery Garden, which did not go down well with everyone. Prompted by a fellow guest, I took the record off the turntable and replaced it with The Beatles.

In stormed Donald in high dudgeon demanding to know who’d had the audacity to change his record. ‘Don’t you realise it is Sunday?’ he bellowed. To which I replied: ‘Yes I do, and we are all on holiday, thank you very much!’ Reg Brayshaw, Horwich, Lancs.