Basil Fawlty

Basil Fawlty is the main character of the British sitcom Fawlty Towers, played by John Cleese. Basil has become an iconic British comedy character, despite only 12 half-hour episodes ever being made.

Personality

Basil (/ˈbæzəl/), who runs the titular hotel in Torquay, is a misanthropic, pessimistic and somewhat snobbish man whose main aspiration is to become a member of more "respectable" (richer) social circles. He sees the successful running of the hotel as a means of achieving this dream, yet his job frequently requires him to be pleasant to people he despises - something he severely struggles with. His much more customer-friendly wife Sybil often has to deal with the fallout of Basil's bad treatment of the guests, to varying success.

Basil has staunch right-wing and traditionalist views about most things, for example in "The Wedding Party", when he shows open disgust towards a young unmarried couple having an active sex life. In "The Germans" he appears to blame the failure of the hotel's fire extinguisher on "bloody Wilson", referencing the then Labour prime minister, Harold Wilson.