Prunella Scales: From Fawlty Towers to Great Canal Journeys

The celebrated actress Prunella Scales, who passed away at the age of 93, was considered among Britain's most brilliant comic actors.

Despite an extensive and respected professional journey across theater and film, her legacy will forever be linked as Sybil Fawlty in the classic 1970s television series, Fawlty Towers.

Sybil's primary objective throughout her existence to keep tabs on her husband Basil described as a "stick insect" - played by comedian John Cleese - between cigarette-fuelled phone conversations with her friend, Audrey.

It fell to her to placate guests who had been yelled at, completely overlooked or, occasionally, throttled by Basil when in one of his more manic moods.

Her unforgettable cackle, extraordinary hairstyle and ferocious temper were components of a carefully constructed character that ranks as a humorous triumph.

Although many actors would have distanced themselves from too close an association with a single role, Scales consistently voiced her pleasure in having been part of the Fawlty Towers experience.

Early Life and Career Beginnings

The actress born Prunella Margaret Rumney Illingworth came into the world in the Guildford area on 22 June 1932.

She belonged to a household profoundly passionate about the theatre - with her mother, Bim Scales, a former actor who'd abandoned her career for family life.

Intelligent and studious, after wartime evacuation to England's Lake District, Prunella studied at Moira House Girls School in Eastbourne.

In 1949, she earned a scholarship to the prestigious Old Vic drama school and - after two years - secured a position as a stage management assistant.

This was to the fury of her former headmistress in Eastbourne, who had hoped she would apply to Cambridge and sent correspondence to the theater to tell them so.

During her theatrical training, Scales had been thought of as a junior character actor instead of a natural Juliet candidate.

"We all wanted to look like Audrey Hepburn," she later told her chronicler, "however I lacked conventional beauty and attracted no admirers."

Young Prunella concealed her middle-class roots, conscious that directors were beginning to look for authentic working-class realism in their actors.

Nevertheless she began acquiring minor parts in plays, and, during preparations for a role at Worthing's Connaught Theatre, she encountered actor Andrew Sachs, who would subsequently appear as Manuel the Spanish server, in the famous series.

Her initial television exposure occurred in the year 1952, as the character Lydia Bennet in a BBC production of Pride and Prejudice, which featured Peter Cushing - more famous for his horror film performances - as Mr Darcy.

And her first big screen roles followed the next year - in lighthearted romance, Laxdale Hall, and David Lean's Hobson's Choice, opposite Charles Laughton.

During the latter 1950s and early 1960s, she maintained constant employment - performing across multiple mediums, featuring a brief stint as transport worker, character Eileen Hughes, in the popular soap Coronation Street.

She also met fellow actor Timothy West.

After what Prunella described as "a gentle courtship involving crosswords and candies", they became a couple, and wed in 1963.

Career Milestones and Defining Characters

Her big TV break came with the series Marriage Lines, a BBC sitcom about recentlyweds, George and Kate Starling.

Scales appeared opposite actor Richard Briers, then one of the biggest stars in TV humor. The program achieved great success and continued for five seasons.

Subsequently arrived the legendary Fawlty Towers, which elevated her to cultural icon.

John Cleese and his then wife, Connie Booth, had submitted the first script of their comedy creation to the broadcasting corporation.

Performer Bridget Turner had been considered for the Sybil role but she declined the part and Scales tried out for the character.

She later remembered that Cleese was a hard taskmaster.

"John, quite rightly, was extremely rigorous about learning the script, and if you didn't, he could get quite cross, which was fair enough."

Merely twelve installments were ultimately produced.

The initial season, which debuted in 1975, didn't immediately attract massive viewership but, with subsequent episodes, its hilarious mix of absurd pratfalls and awkward circumstances increased in appeal.

Scales carefully considered about portraying Sybil Fawlty, and determined that her social background had to be below her husband Basil's.

Initially, John Cleese and his wife were unsure about this approach.

"After witnessing the initial read-through," recalled Scales, "they were sold on the idea."

In subsequent years, she was, all too often, requested to portray stern matriarchs when she desired more glamorous roles.

But when asked about her career pinnacle, Scales immediately identified in picking Sybil Fawlty.

"The role presented challenges," she maintained, "but I'm still proud of it." She even thought it assisted in bringing the paying public into performance venues.

"I like to think that if the public have seen you in one thing they'll come and see you in another," she expressed.

Subsequent Work and Private World

Following Fawlty Towers, Scales maintained her career in the television industry, comprising a stint as the frumpy Elizabeth Mapp in ITV's Mapp and Lucia.

Her vocal talents were frequently featured on audio broadcasts, particularly the comedy program After Henry, which subsequently transferred to television, and Ladies of Letters, with Patricia Routledge, which became an intrinsic part of Woman's Hour.

Scales performed at two major royal roles; as Queen Elizabeth in the television drama of Alan Bennett's work, and as Queen Victoria in a solo performance that she presented four hundred times.

She obtained correspondence from a royal protection officer who admitted that when Scales appeared, he rose to his feet.

"The response was automatic," she clarified. "The experience delighted me."

During 1995, she started appearing as character Dotty Turnbull in television commercials for supermarket giant Tesco - which paid her partly in vouchers.

The campaign, which continued for nine years, was cited as the primary reason in establishing its dominant market position in the mid 1990s.

Scales subsequently faced moderate critique for taking part in the commercial campaign, when she backed a campaign to stop local shops closing in her area of London.

One of her finest performances appeared in the production Breaking the Code, the movie concerning World War II cryptanalysts.

She portrays the mother of Alan Turing, who embodies a society that treated homosexual acts as a crime, an attitude that eventually led to his death.

Beyond performance, {Scales was