Prunella Scales: Beginning with Fawlty Towers to Remarkable Canal Adventures

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

Although 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, 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 companion Audrey.

She was tasked 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, extraordinary hairstyle and intense anger were part of a meticulously crafted persona that stands as a humorous triumph.

Although numerous performers would have distanced themselves from excessive identification with a single role, Scales consistently voiced her delight in participating of the Fawlty Towers experience.

Formative Years and Professional Start

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

It was a family deeply in love with the theatre - with her mother, Catherine Scales, an ex-actress who'd given it all up for marriage and children.

Intelligent and studious, after wartime evacuation to the Lake District, Prunella attended Moira House Girls School in Eastbourne.

During 1949, she earned a scholarship to the Old Vic Theatre School and - after two years - obtained a role as an assistant stage manager.

This was to the fury of her previous school principal in Eastbourne, who had hoped she would apply to Cambridge and sent correspondence to the theater to express this opinion.

During her theatrical training, Scales was perceived as a developing character performer rather than an obvious Juliet.

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

Young Prunella concealed her middle-class roots, aware that producers started seeking authentic working-class realism in their actors.

But she started picking up small roles in theatrical productions, and, during preparations for a role at Worthing's Connaught Theatre, she met Andrew Sachs, who would later star as Manuel the Spanish server, in Fawlty Towers.

Her initial television exposure occurred in 1952, as Lydia Bennet in a BBC production of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, which featured Peter Cushing - more famous for his roles in horror movies - as Mr. Darcy.

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

Throughout the latter 1950s and early 1960s, she was rarely out of work - appearing on stage, film and television, including a brief stint as a bus conductor, character Eileen Hughes, in Coronation Street.

She additionally encountered colleague Timothy West.

After what Prunella described as "a mild Times crossword and Polo mints flirtation", they got together, and wed in 1963.

Career Milestones and Defining Characters

Her big TV break arrived through Marriage Lines, a BBC sitcom about recentlyweds, the Starling couple.

Scales performed alongside Richard Briers, then one of the biggest stars in television comedy. The show proved hugely popular and ran for five years.

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

John Cleese and his then wife, Connie Booth, had presented the initial screenplay of Fawlty Towers to the BBC.

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

She subsequently recalled that Cleese was a hard taskmaster.

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

Merely twelve installments were ever made.

The first series, which debuted in 1975, failed to win huge audiences but, as it continued, its hilarious mix of ridiculous physical comedy and awkward circumstances grew in popularity.

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

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

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

In subsequent years, she frequently found herself, requested to portray stern matriarchs when she desired more glamorous roles.

However when questioned about what she thought was the high point, Scales had no hesitation in picking 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 like to think that if the public have seen you in one thing they'll come and see you in another," she expressed.

Subsequent Work and Private World

Following Fawlty Towers, Scales maintained her career in the television industry, including 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 subsequently transferred to television, and Ladies of Letters, with actress Patricia Routledge, which evolved into a staple of Woman's Hour.

Scales performed at two major royal roles; as Queen Elizabeth in the television drama of Alan Bennett's A Question of Attribution, and as the monarch 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.

"It was a knee-jerk reaction," she explained. "The experience delighted me."

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

The advertising series, which continued for nine years, was identified as the biggest factor in establishing its dominant market position in the mid-nineties.

Scales subsequently faced some gentle criticism for taking part 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 the production Breaking the Code, the film about 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.

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