Earlier this month, a new stage adaptation of John Cleese’s sitcom Fawlty Towers embarked upon a West End run. The production doesn’t require much in the way of publicity—good luck trying to get a ticket anytime soon—but try telling that to John Dixon Hart.
As the proprietor of Beverley Guest House, formerly known as Minster Garth Guest House, in the East Yorkshire market town of Beverley, Hart may very well be Britain’s most notorious hotelier and regularly inspires comparisons to Cleese’s beloved character. Indeed, upon handing him a nine-month suspended prison sentence last week, for falsely claiming that his lodgings offered four-star luxury despite being called “dirty,” “smelly,” and “threadbare,” the judge overseeing Hart’s case remarked, “I sometimes think you should be called Basil Fawlty. You need to prove you can run a guesthouse without taking the piss out of your guests.”
