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

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

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

It was Sybil's mission in life to closely monitor her "stick insect" husband Basil - portrayed by comedian John Cleese - amid cigarette-fuelled phone conversations with her friend, Audrey.

She was tasked to calm visitors who had been yelled at, totally ignored or, occasionally, physically confronted by Basil when during his particularly frenzied episodes.

Her unforgettable cackle, gravity-defying hairdo and ferocious temper were components of a meticulously crafted persona that ranks as a comic masterpiece.

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

Formative Years and Professional Start

The actress born Prunella Margaret Rumney Illingworth was born in the Guildford area on June 22nd, 1932.

It was a family deeply in love with the theatre - her mother being, Bim 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 the coastal town of Eastbourne.

In 1949, she earned a scholarship to the Old Vic Theatre School and - two years later - secured a position as an assistant stage manager.

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

At drama school, Scales was perceived as a developing character performer instead of an obvious Juliet.

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

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

But she started picking up minor parts in plays, and, during preparations for a part at the Connaught Theatre in Worthing, she encountered Andrew Sachs, who would subsequently appear as Manuel the Spanish server, in Fawlty Towers.

Her initial television exposure occurred in 1952, as Lydia Bennet in a television adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, which included actor Peter Cushing - more famous for his roles in horror movies - 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 the renowned Charles Laughton.

Throughout the latter 1950s and early 1960s, she maintained constant employment - performing across multiple mediums, including a short appearance as transport worker, Eileen Hughes, in the popular soap Coronation Street.

She also met colleague Timothy West.

Following what she characterized as "a gentle courtship involving crosswords and candies", 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 Richard Briers, then one of the biggest stars in television comedy. The show proved hugely popular and ran for five years.

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

John Cleese and his then wife, Connie Booth, had presented the initial screenplay 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, 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, with subsequent episodes, its hilarious mix of absurd pratfalls and awkward circumstances increased in appeal.

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

At first, John Cleese and his wife had doubts regarding the treatment.

"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 stern matriarchs when she desired elegant characters.

However when questioned about what she thought was the high point, Scales had no hesitation in selecting Sybil Fawlty.

"The role presented challenges," she maintained, "yet I remain proud of my work." She even thought it assisted in bringing 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.

Subsequent Work and Private World

Following Fawlty Towers, Scales maintained her career in the television industry, comprising an engagement as the frumpy Elizabeth Mapp in the series Mapp and Lucia.

Her voice was also regularly heard on audio broadcasts, notably the BBC Radio 4 sitcom, which subsequently transferred to television, and Ladies of Letters, with actress Patricia Routledge, which evolved into a staple 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 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.

"It was a knee-jerk reaction," she clarified. "I was thrilled."

During 1995, she began starring as character Dotty Turnbull in television commercials for the retail chain Tesco - which compensated her partially with shopping credits.

The campaign, which ran for nine years, was identified as the primary reason in establishing its dominant market position in the mid-nineties.

Scales subsequently faced moderate critique for participating in the Tesco adverts, when she supported an initiative to stop local shops closing in her London community.

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

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

Beyond performance, {Scales was