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

Prunella Scales, who passed away at 93 years old, was regarded as among Britain's most brilliant comedic performers.

Although a long and distinguished career on stage and screen, her legacy will forever be linked as the unforgettable 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 John Cleese - between cigarette-fuelled phone conversations with her companion Audrey.

She was tasked to placate guests who had been shouted at, totally ignored or, occasionally, physically confronted by Basil when in one of his more manic moods.

Her nightmarish laugh, gravity-defying hairdo and ferocious temper were components of a meticulously crafted persona that stands as a comic masterpiece.

And while many actors would have removed themselves from too close an association with one particular character, Scales always expressed her delight in participating of the Fawlty Towers experience.

Early Life and Career Beginnings

Prunella Margaret Rumney Illingworth was born near Guildford on 22 June 1932.

She belonged to a household deeply in love with theatrical arts - her mother being, Bim Scales, an ex-actress who'd given it all up for marriage and children.

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

In 1949, she earned a scholarship to the prestigious Old Vic drama school and - after two years - obtained a role as an assistant stage manager.

This decision angered of her former headmistress in her hometown, who had wished she would seek admission to Cambridge University and sent correspondence to the theater to tell them so.

At drama school, Scales had been thought of as a junior character actor 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 also hid her privileged background, conscious that producers started seeking a new kind of earthy credibility in their actors.

Nevertheless she began acquiring small roles in plays, and, while rehearsing for a role at Worthing's Connaught Theatre, she met Andrew Sachs, who would subsequently appear as Manuel the Spanish server, in Fawlty Towers.

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

And her first big screen roles came a year later - in lighthearted romance, Laxdale Hall, and David Lean's Hobson's Choice, alongside Charles Laughton.

Throughout the late 1950s and early 1960s, she was rarely out of work - performing across multiple mediums, including a short appearance 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 mild Times crossword and Polo mints flirtation", they became a couple, and wed in 1963.

Breakthrough and Iconic Roles

Her major television opportunity arrived through the series Marriage Lines, a BBC sitcom about recentlyweds, George and Kate Starling.

Scales performed alongside actor Richard Briers, at that time a major celebrity in television comedy. The show proved hugely popular and continued for five seasons.

Subsequently arrived Fawlty Towers, which propelled her to iconic status.

John Cleese and his then wife, Connie Booth, had submitted the first script of Fawlty Towers to the broadcasting corporation.

Performer Bridget Turner had been approached to play Sybil Fawlty but she declined the part and Scales tried out for the character.

She later remembered that Cleese was a hard taskmaster.

"John, appropriately, demanded strict script adherence, and failure to comply would understandably provoke his irritation."

Merely twelve installments were ever made.

The initial season, which debuted in 1975, failed to win huge audiences but, as it continued, its comedic combination of ridiculous physical comedy and embarrassing situations increased in appeal.

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

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

"Once they heard the first reading in rehearsal," recalled Scales, "they were sold on the idea."

In subsequent years, she was, all too often, called upon to play "dragons" and "old bags" when she hankered after more glamorous roles.

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

"The role presented challenges," she maintained, "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.

Later Career and Personal Life

Following Fawlty Towers, Scales maintained her career in television, comprising a stint as character Elizabeth Mapp in the series Mapp and Lucia.

Her voice was also regularly heard on audio broadcasts, particularly the BBC Radio 4 sitcom, which later transitioned to TV, and Ladies of Letters, with Patricia Routledge, which evolved into a staple of the program Woman's Hour.

Scales appeared in two significant royal characters; as Queen Elizabeth II in the television drama of Alan Bennett's A Question of Attribution, and as Queen Victoria in a one-woman show that she presented four hundred times.

She once received a letter from one of Queen Elizabeth's security men who confessed that when Scales appeared, he stood up.

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

Scales subsequently faced moderate critique 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 Breaking the Code, the film about the Bletchley Park wartime codebreakers.

She appears as Alan Turing's mother, who represents a culture that treated homosexual acts as a crime, an attitude that eventually led to his death.

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