Prunella Scales: Beginning with Fawlty Towers to Great Canal Journeys

The celebrated actress Prunella Scales, who passed away at 93 years old, was regarded as one of Britain's finest comedic performers.

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.

It was Sybil's mission throughout her existence to keep tabs on her husband Basil described as a "stick insect" - portrayed by John Cleese - amid cigarette-fuelled phone conversations with her friend, Audrey.

It fell to her to calm visitors who had been yelled at, completely overlooked or, occasionally, physically confronted by Basil when in one of his more manic moods.

Her unforgettable cackle, gravity-defying hairdo and ferocious temper were components of a carefully constructed character that ranks as a comic masterpiece.

And while numerous performers would have distanced themselves from excessive identification with one particular character, Scales always expressed her delight in having been part of the Fawlty Towers phenomenon.

Formative Years and Professional Start

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

It was a family deeply in love with the theatre - her mother being, Catherine Scales, an ex-actress who'd abandoned her career for marriage and children.

Bright and bookish, after wartime evacuation to the Lake District, Prunella studied at Moira House Girls School in Eastbourne.

During 1949, she won a scholarship to the Old Vic Theatre School and - after two years - obtained a role 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 wrote to the theatre to tell them so.

During her theatrical training, Scales had been thought of as a junior character actor rather than an obvious Juliet.

"We all wanted to look like Audrey Hepburn," she subsequently informed her biographer, "however I lacked conventional beauty and attracted no admirers."

Young Prunella concealed her privileged background, aware that directors were beginning to look for authentic working-class realism in their actors.

But she started picking up small roles in theatrical productions, and, while rehearsing for a part at Worthing's Connaught Theatre, she met Andrew Sachs, who would subsequently appear as Manuel, the Spanish waiter, in Fawlty Towers.

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

Her initial film appearances came a year later - in romantic comedy, Laxdale Hall, and David Lean's production Hobson's Choice, opposite the renowned Charles Laughton.

During the late 1950s and early 1960s, she was rarely out of work - performing across multiple mediums, featuring a brief stint as transport worker, character Eileen Hughes, in Coronation Street.

She also met fellow actor Timothy West.

Following what she characterized as "a gentle courtship involving crosswords and candies", they became a couple, and wed in 1963.

Career Milestones and Defining Characters

Her major television opportunity arrived through the series Marriage Lines, a comedy program about a newly married couple, the Starling couple.

Scales performed alongside actor Richard Briers, at that time a major celebrity in TV humor. The program achieved great success and ran for five years.

Subsequently arrived 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 declined the part and Scales tried out for the character.

She subsequently recalled that Cleese was a hard taskmaster.

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

Only 12 episodes were ever made.

The initial season, which aired in 1975, failed to win huge audiences but, as it continued, its hilarious mix of absurd pratfalls and awkward circumstances grew in popularity.

Scales thought hard about how to play Sybil Fawlty, and determined that her character's upbringing had to be inferior to Basil's social standing.

At first, the creators had doubts regarding this approach.

"Once they heard the first reading in rehearsal," Scales remembered, "they embraced the concept completely."

In subsequent years, she was, all too often, requested to portray "dragons" and "old bags" when she desired more glamorous roles.

But when asked about her career pinnacle, Scales had no hesitation in selecting Sybil Fawlty.

"The role presented challenges," she insisted, "yet I remain proud of my work." She even thought it helped get audience members 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 said.

Later Career and Personal Life

After Fawlty Towers, Scales continued to work in television, comprising a stint as the frumpy Elizabeth Mapp in the series Mapp and Lucia.

Her vocal talents were frequently featured on radio, notably the BBC Radio 4 sitcom, which subsequently transferred to television, and Ladies of Letters, with actress Patricia Routledge, which became an intrinsic part of the program Woman's Hour.

Scales performed two significant royal characters; as Queen Elizabeth in the television drama of Alan Bennett's work, and as Queen Victoria in a solo performance that she performed 400 times.

She obtained correspondence from a royal protection officer who admitted that when Scales came on stage, he stood up.

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

In 1995, she began starring as character Dotty Turnbull in television commercials for supermarket giant Tesco - which paid her partly in vouchers.

The campaign, which ran for nine years, was identified as the biggest factor in propelling it to market leadership in the mid-nineties.

Scales later came in for some gentle criticism for participating in the commercial campaign, when she backed a campaign to prevent neighborhood store closures in her area of London.

One of her finest performances appeared in Breaking the Code, the movie concerning the Bletchley Park wartime codebreakers.

She portrays the mother of Alan Turing, who represents a culture that criminalized same-sex relationships, a perspective that contributed to his tragic end.

Away from acting, {Scales was