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 comedic performers.

Despite a long and distinguished professional journey across theater and film, her legacy will forever be linked as Sybil Fawlty in the 1970s TV comedy, Fawlty Towers.

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

She was tasked to placate guests who had been shouted at, completely overlooked or, occasionally, physically confronted by Basil when during his particularly frenzied episodes.

Her nightmarish laugh, gravity-defying hairdo and intense anger were components of a carefully constructed character that ranks as a comic masterpiece.

Although numerous performers would have distanced themselves from too close an association with a single role, 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 June 22nd, 1932.

It was a family profoundly passionate about the theatre - with her mother, Catherine Scales, an ex-actress who'd abandoned her career for family life.

Bright and bookish, after wartime evacuation to England's Lake District, Prunella attended Moira House Girls School in the coastal town of Eastbourne.

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

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

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

"We all wanted to look like Audrey Hepburn," she later told her chronicler, "but I wasn't attractive and nobody fancied me."

The youthful Prunella concealed her middle-class roots, aware that directors were beginning to look for a new kind of earthy credibility in performers.

Nevertheless she began acquiring small roles in plays, and, while rehearsing for a role at the Connaught Theatre in Worthing, she met actor Andrew Sachs, who would subsequently appear as Manuel, the Spanish waiter, in the famous series.

Her initial television exposure occurred in the year 1952, as the character Lydia Bennet in a television adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, which included Peter Cushing - more famous for his roles in horror movies - as Mr Darcy.

Her initial film appearances came a year later - in romantic comedy, the film Laxdale Hall, and David Lean's production 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, featuring a short appearance as transport worker, Eileen Hughes, in the popular soap Coronation Street.

She also met colleague Timothy West.

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

Breakthrough and Iconic Roles

Her major television opportunity came with the series Marriage Lines, a comedy program about recentlyweds, the Starling couple.

Scales appeared opposite actor Richard Briers, then one of the biggest stars in television comedy. The show proved hugely popular and continued for five seasons.

Then came 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.

Actress Bridget Turner had been considered for Sybil Fawlty but she declined the part and Scales auditioned for the role.

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 first series, which aired in 1975, didn't immediately attract massive viewership but, with subsequent episodes, its hilarious mix of absurd pratfalls and awkward circumstances grew in popularity.

Scales carefully considered about how to play Sybil Fawlty, and decided that her social background had to be inferior to Basil's social standing.

Initially, the creators had doubts regarding this approach.

"After witnessing the initial read-through," Scales remembered, "they embraced the concept completely."

Later in her career, she was, all too often, requested to portray stern matriarchs when she hankered after elegant characters.

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

"The role presented challenges," she insisted, "but I'm still proud of it." She even thought it helped get audience members into performance venues.

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

Later Career and Personal Life

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

Her voice was also regularly heard on audio broadcasts, particularly the comedy program After Henry, which later transitioned to TV, and the series Ladies of Letters, with actress Patricia Routledge, which evolved into a staple of Woman's Hour.

Scales appeared in 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 once received a letter from a royal protection officer who admitted that when Scales appeared, he stood up.

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

In 1995, she started appearing as character Dotty Turnbull in a series of TV adverts for supermarket giant Tesco - which compensated her partially with shopping credits.

The advertising series, which continued for nine years, was identified as the primary reason in propelling it to market leadership in the mid 1990s.

Scales subsequently faced moderate critique for participating in the Tesco adverts, when she backed a campaign to prevent neighborhood store closures in her London community.

One of her finest performances came in Breaking the Code, the film about World War II cryptanalysts.

She appears as Alan Turing's mother, who represents a culture that treated homosexual acts as a crime, a perspective that contributed to his tragic end.

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