Basil Fawlty (click for sound)
Basil is convinced that Fawlty Towers would be a top-rate establishment if it wasn't for the guests, who are merely sent along to annoy him and to prevent the smooth-running of the hotel. Incredibly class conscious, Basil adopts attitudes of superiority that are quite unjustified. The guests are either objects of derision or scorn, or objects to improve his position in the social hierarchy.
A Touch of Class and Gourmet Night are two episodes which sum up his attitude perfectly, with Basil desperately trying to improve the tone of the hotel ('I mean, have you seen the people in room six? They've never even sat on chairs before'). However, always one to judge by appearances, it comes as no surprise to anyone, except Basil, that he is soon taken in by a con-man impersonating a member of the aristocracy.
Basil is also terrified of his wife Sybil, who he refers to as his 'little nest of vipers'. Almost all the episodes are fuelled by the fact that Basil is trying to hide something from Sybil, whether it be a missing door, an admiring guest or a bet on the horses.
Manuel is a further source of frustration for Basil, with English so poor that he has difficulty in distinguishing 'Sybil' from 'the bill'. Basil's despair vents itself in his abuse of the Spanish waiter, beginning in The Builders with Basil slamming Manuel's head against the wall where the dining room door once stood. Future attacks involve a frying pan, a spoon and locking Manuel in a burning kitchen during a fire drill in The Germans.
Basil's disastrous attempts at running the hotel fail miserably as one thing after another crashes down and leaves him surrounded by a web of lies and embarrassment, which he makes worse by his desperate attempts to deflect the blame. By the end of the first series Basil has accused a party of wedding guests of all manner of dubious liaisons, assaulted a spoon-seller for not being a hotel inspector and given his car a 'damn good thrashing' for its role in the chaotic Gourmet Night. More mishaps follow in the second series as Basil attempts to hide a dead body from the other guests and almost takes the life of a public health inspector.
Sybil Fawlty (click for sound)
Sybil sees her role as socialising with the guests and seems to spend more time on the telephone to her friend Audrey than actually helping out in the hotel. She is a worthy opponent for Basil and appears completely unfazed by his insults, as well as adding many of her own.
Prunella Scales played the part very differently to the way Cleese and Booth had originally envisaged. This worried them at first but they soon came to realise that the way she played the part was in fact better, and when they wrote the second series they were able to write the dialogue with her in mind.
It is difficult to see how Basil and Sybil ever got together in the first place - Sybil says her mother describes it as 'black magic.' However, Basil's attempt to organise a surprise party in The Anniversary for their 15th wedding anniversary do suggest that there is some affection between them, although it is unclear how much of this is real affection and how much is an attempt on Basil's part to avoid 'what happened last time he didn't remember'.
Polly Sherman (click for sound)
Widely acknowledged as 'the sensible one,' Polly is also Basil's confidante. From her pretence that the horse money is hers in Communication Problems to her impersonation of someone from Mr Stubbs' firm in The Builders, Polly's impressive ability to think on her feet helps Basil out of some of his worst scrapes.
Perhaps the most memorable of all is in The Anniversary, where Basil persuades Polly to dress up as Sybil after his wife flounces off to the golf course after a row and he is left to explain her absence to the friends he has invited round for a surprise party.
Although strictly a waitress, Polly's duties seem to extend far beyond that, and her rendition of I'm Just a Girl Who Can't Say No in Gourmet Night is quite possibly more than just coincidence.
In the pilot episode of Fawlty Towers (A Touch of Class) Polly was a philosophy student but the writers felt the show would work better with Polly as an art student so several minutes of the show had to be re-filmed before it was transmitted to the general public.
Manuel (click for sound)
Hired by Basil because he was cheap, Manuel is a walking disaster and his poor command of English makes him a constant source of exasperation for Basil. Always keen to learn, Manuel's slavish devotion to Basil only succeeds in aggravating him further.
Andrew Sachs, who plays Manuel, suffered his fair share of blows during the filming of Fawlty Towers. He almost had his front teeth knocked out with a spoon, and was paid £700 in compensation after being burned on the shoulders during the filming of the kitchen fire scene in The Germans. The culprit was the special jacket he wore that was designed to smoke, but unfortunately some of the acid they used to create this effect got through onto his skin. One of Cleese's attacks with a frying pan also went wrong as Sachs straightened up as Cleese was delivering a sliding blow, denting the frying pan and giving Sachs a headache for two days.
Major Gowen
Usually to be found in the hotel bar or asking for the morning's papers, the Major is the hotel's longest-standing resident. Never understanding quite what is going on, he is constantly adding his own bizarre interpretations of the situation. Some of his most memorable moments include his conversation with the moose's head and his attempt to assassinate Manuel's pet rat.
The Old Ladies
Miss Gatsby and Miss Tibbs are the other long-standing residents of Fawlty Towers, although they appear relatively little. In The Builders they have to go to the nearby Gleneagles Hotel to eat whilst the building work is being carried out (named after the hotel upon which the series was based - see the history). They are given 'bread and cheese' in Gourmet Night whilst Basil entertains the nobility, and Miss Tibbs faints after seeing the dead Mr Leeman and is subsequently locked in a cupboard. Despite frequent ill-treatment from Basil, they both claim to be satisfied with the hotel in Waldorf Salad, defending Basil against the other guests.