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Terry the Chef was a fictional character played by Brian Hall in the hit BBC Television sitcom Fawlty Towers. Viewers never heard his surname, though it is probably 'Hughes', as Basil once introduced him as 'Terry Hughe...', but trailed off.

Personality

Terry is Fawlty Towers' cockney chef. He lives up to the commonly perceived stereotype: he's a quick witted 'wideboy', who thinks of women before work (for example, in the "Waldorf Salad" episode, he admits that he is leaving his shift early to see a young Finnish woman). However, he has a big heart and a very sharp mind - he's always finding ways to get out of the tricky situations that Basil Fawlty lands him in.

Terry arrives in the second season after the relief of Kurt (only seen in Gourmet Night); he is quite relaxed towards his work. Basil occasionally gets frustrated with this attitude. Terry used to work in Dorchester, not at The Dorchester (a famous luxury hotel), as was once thought.

Terry claims that he and Polly "basically run the bleeding hotel", which, to a certain extent, is true, as they are usually the only ones capable of orderly behaviour when things go beserk. However, Terry once had a memorable fight with Manuel, after Basil let Manuel cook paella, much to Terry's dismay.

Terry was introduced in the second series because Cleese and Booth thought that the hotel seemed empty due to its lack of employees. He was the only new character to be introduced in the series.

Brian Hall died of cancer in 1997. The role of Terry was his best remembered role.

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• Fawlty Towers characters
• Fictional chefs