The Legendary Prunella Scales: Beginning with the Iconic Fawlty Towers to Great Canal Journeys

The celebrated actress Prunella Scales, who died at the age of 93, was regarded as one of Britain's finest comic actors.

Despite a long and distinguished career on stage and screen, she will inevitably be remembered as the unforgettable Sybil Fawlty in the classic 1970s television series, the beloved Fawlty Towers.

It was Sybil's mission in life to keep tabs on her husband Basil described as a "stick insect" - played by comedian John Cleese - between telephone chats fueled by cigarettes with her friend, Audrey.

It fell to her to calm visitors who had been yelled at, totally ignored or, in some cases, throttled by Basil when in one of his more manic moods.

Her nightmarish laugh, gravity-defying hairdo and intense anger were part of a meticulously crafted persona that stands as a humorous triumph.

And while many actors would have distanced themselves from excessive identification with a single role, Scales consistently voiced her delight in participating of the Fawlty Towers experience.

Early Life and Career Beginnings

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

It was a family profoundly passionate about theatrical arts - with her mother, Catherine Scales, a former actor who'd abandoned her career for family life.

Intelligent and studious, after wartime evacuation to England's Lake District, Prunella attended Moira House educational institution in the coastal town of Eastbourne.

During 1949, she earned a scholarship to the prestigious Old Vic drama school and - two years later - obtained a role as a stage management assistant.

This decision angered of her previous school principal in her hometown, who had wished she would seek admission to Cambridge and sent correspondence to the theater to express this opinion.

At drama school, Scales had been thought of as a developing character performer rather than an obvious Juliet.

"Everyone aspired to resemble Audrey Hepburn," she subsequently informed her biographer, "however I lacked conventional beauty and attracted no admirers."

Young Prunella concealed her privileged background, conscious that producers started seeking a new kind of earthy credibility in their actors.

But she started picking up small roles in theatrical productions, and, while rehearsing for a part at the Connaught Theatre in Worthing, she met actor Andrew Sachs, who would later star as Manuel the Spanish server, in Fawlty Towers.

Her initial television exposure occurred in the year 1952, as the character Lydia Bennet in a BBC production of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, which included Peter Cushing - better known for his roles in horror movies - as Mr Darcy.

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

During the latter 1950s and early 1960s, she maintained constant employment - appearing on stage, film and television, including a brief stint as transport worker, character Eileen Hughes, in 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 married in 1963.

Career Milestones and Defining Characters

Her big TV break arrived through Marriage Lines, a BBC sitcom about recentlyweds, George and Kate Starling.

Scales appeared opposite actor Richard Briers, at that time a major celebrity in television comedy. The program achieved great success and ran for five years.

Then came Fawlty Towers, which propelled her to iconic status.

John Cleese and his spouse at the time, Connie Booth, had presented the initial screenplay of Fawlty Towers to the broadcasting corporation.

Actress Bridget Turner had been approached to play Sybil Fawlty but she had turned it down and Scales tried out for the character.

She subsequently recalled that Cleese maintained high standards.

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

Only 12 episodes were ultimately produced.

The first series, which debuted in 1975, failed to win huge audiences but, with subsequent episodes, its comedic combination of absurd pratfalls and embarrassing situations grew in popularity.

Scales thought hard about portraying Sybil Fawlty, and decided that her social background had to be below Basil's social standing.

Initially, the creators had doubts regarding this approach.

"After witnessing the initial read-through," Scales remembered, "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.

However when questioned about her career pinnacle, Scales immediately identified in selecting Sybil Fawlty.

"It was a tough job," she insisted, "yet I remain proud of my work." She believed it assisted in bringing the paying public into performance venues.

"I believe that audience familiarity with one performance encourages attendance at others," she expressed.

Subsequent Work and Private World

After Fawlty Towers, Scales continued to work in the television industry, comprising a stint as character Elizabeth Mapp in ITV's Mapp and Lucia.

Her voice was also regularly heard on audio broadcasts, notably the comedy program After Henry, which later transitioned to TV, and Ladies of Letters, with actress Patricia Routledge, which became an intrinsic part of Woman's Hour.

Scales appeared in at two major royal roles; as Queen Elizabeth II in the BBC production of Alan Bennett's work, and as the monarch Queen Victoria in a solo performance that she presented four hundred times.

She once received a letter from one of Queen Elizabeth's security men who confessed that when Scales came on stage, he rose to his feet.

"The response was automatic," she explained. "I was thrilled."

In 1995, she began starring as Dotty Turnbull in a series of TV adverts for supermarket giant Tesco - which paid her partly in vouchers.

The advertising series, which ran for nine years, was cited as the biggest factor in establishing its dominant market position in the mid 1990s.

Scales later came in for some gentle criticism for participating in the Tesco adverts, when she supported an initiative to prevent neighborhood store closures 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 represents a culture that treated homosexual acts as a crime, a perspective that contributed to his tragic end.

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