Woman who inspired Sybil Fawlty dies

Beatrice "Sybil" Sinclair, the real-life proprietor of the Torquay hotel that inspired the 1970s BBC television series Fawlty Towers, had died at age 95. John Cleese created the characters of Basil and Sybil Fawlty after staying at the Gleneagles hotel run by Beatrice and her husband Donald. The real-life Sybil was no fan of the show, feeling that it had represented her and her husband unfairly. That's no surprise, since her fictional alter ego didn't have a sense of humour either.