John Cleese based the character of Basil Fawlty on Donald Sinclair, a former owner of the Hotel Gleneagles, in Torquay, Devon.

The new owners are a family from Bristol who say they are "big fans" of the comedy, which ran for 12 episodes between 1975 and 1979.

Cleese, who stayed at the hotel with the Monty Python team in 1971, described Sinclair as "the most wonderfully rude man I have ever met".

Sinclair, who died in 1981, is said to have thrown Eric Idle's suitcase out of the window "in case it contained a bomb" and complained about Terry Gilliam's table manners.

Panna and Kumar Patel, who bought the hotel with Mr Patel's brother Keethri, also own two supermarkets and a pub in Bristol.

Mrs Patel said: "We were big fans of the Fawlty Towers programme so we believe that it will prove to be a sound investment to have bought one of the best-known hotels in the UK."

After councillors rejected plans to replace the hotel with luxury flats, it went on the market at the end of last year.