Fawlty Towers Characters

The sitcom’s setting is in a fictional hotel referred to as the Fawlty towers, and the main interesting thing about this sitcom is the fact that it was written by a person who together with his wife took ;up main character roles in the movie. This sitcom was placed first in a list of one hundred great British programmes of 2000, before being ranked fifth four years later.

Just as mentioned earlier, this sitcom had the producer take up a main cast role and the then wife take up another one. Basil Fawlty is the hotel owner and it is played by John Cleese, and he portrays a person who is desperate to belong to a social class higher than that in which he currently is. According to him, the successful running of the hotel is a means through which he can achieve his dream despite the fact that the nature of his job forces him to be pleasant to those people whom he despises, or those who he’d ever want to be socially above.

Funny enough, despite his towering physique he is often on his wife’s receiving end, and she is known to not only verbally abuse him but if need be she does get physical. Sybil Fawlty is the woman being talked about here and it’s been played by Prunella Scales who was John’s wife in the real sense. The first thing you notice about her is that she wears precariously high heeled shoes besides also noticing her energy. She comes out as the hotel’s effective manager since she handles matters well than her husband. In fact when he’s around she’ll ensure that he either gets some things taken care of or stay out of the hotel altogether.

Manuel is one of the waiters in the hotel and is played by Andrew Sachs. He brings in a light touch to the whole sitcom since he is a clumsy waiter who has little mastery of the English language despite also being the clumsy one. He is the one who is physically and verbally abused by Basil and his wife, though the main aim why he is used is to clearly bring out Basil’s intolerance and insensitivity. He is also effectively used to show that his employer has poor communication skills.

There are some other regular characters such as Harry who is the chef; who is laid back, though he is observed to have casual cooking methods, which at times attract Basil’s wrath. He is known to appear in second series of episodes since in the first series there was no regular chef at the hotel. The other character is Major Gowen which is played by Ballard Berkeley, and he comes out as a senile soldier who has a permanent residence at the hotel. Interestingly, he is one among the people Basil dislikes.