Final checkout for Fawlty Towers hotel

Basil Fawlty was inspired by the hotel's former owner.

The hotel that inspired Fawlty Towers is to be demolished and turned into 32 retirement flats.

The guesthouse was used by the Monty Python team while filming in Torquay, Devon, in 1970.

John Cleese called Donald Sinclair, the former owner of the hotel, the "most marvellously rude man I've met" and claims to have based his comic creation of Basil Fawlty on him.

Mr Sinclair, who died in 1981 aged 72, was the co-proprietor of the hotel after a career as an officer in the Merchant Navy.

His wife, Beatrice, later said her husband was a "gentleman and a very brave man" but a disciplinarian who did not tolerate fools. However, she insisted he was "not the neurotic eccentric that John Cleese made him out to be".

The Gleneagles Hotel, which has been at the centre of a long-running debate about its future, will be demolished after a decision from council planners.

Torbay Council approved the latest scheme, for 32 apartments, this week.

Simon McFarlane, of Churchill Retirement Living, said he was delighted the plans had been approved and work should start in the next six months.

The proposed scheme is for 21 one-bed and 11 two-bedroom apartments, with a guest suite and two communal lounges.

Helen Addison, a planning officer, said the contemporary design was "satisfactory" for the site.

Councillors said they much preferred the new scheme and unanimously approved the plans.