Prunella Scales: From Fawlty Towers to Remarkable Canal Adventures

The celebrated actress Prunella Scales, who passed away at 93 years old, was considered one of Britain's finest comic actors.

Despite an extensive and respected career on stage and screen, her legacy will forever be linked as Sybil Fawlty in the 1970s TV comedy, the beloved Fawlty Towers.

It was Sybil's mission throughout her existence to keep tabs on her husband Basil described as a "stick insect" - portrayed by comedian John Cleese - amid telephone chats fueled by cigarettes with her friend, Audrey.

She was tasked to calm visitors who had been shouted at, totally ignored or, in some cases, physically confronted by Basil when in one of his more manic moods.

Her nightmarish laugh, extraordinary hairstyle and intense anger were components of a carefully constructed character that ranks as a comic masterpiece.

And while numerous performers would have removed themselves from too close an association with a single role, Scales always expressed her pleasure in having been part of the Fawlty Towers experience.

Formative Years and Professional Start

Prunella Margaret Rumney Illingworth came into the world in the Guildford area on June 22nd, 1932.

She belonged to a household deeply in love with the theatre - 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 attended Moira House Girls School in the coastal town of Eastbourne.

During 1949, she won a scholarship to the prestigious Old Vic drama school and - two years later - secured a position as a stage management assistant.

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

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

"Everyone aspired to resemble 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 directors were beginning to look for authentic working-class realism in their actors.

But she started picking up minor parts in plays, and, while rehearsing for a part at Worthing's Connaught Theatre, she met actor Andrew Sachs, who would later star as Manuel, the Spanish waiter, in the famous series.

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

Her initial film appearances followed the next year - in lighthearted romance, Laxdale Hall, and David Lean's production Hobson's Choice, opposite the renowned Charles Laughton.

During the late 1950s and early 1960s, she maintained constant employment - performing across multiple mediums, featuring a short appearance as a bus conductor, character Eileen Hughes, in the popular soap Coronation Street.

She also met colleague Timothy West.

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

Breakthrough and Iconic Roles

Her major television opportunity came with Marriage Lines, a comedy program about a newly married couple, George and Kate Starling.

Scales appeared opposite Richard Briers, then one of the biggest stars in TV humor. The program achieved great success and ran for five years.

Then came the legendary Fawlty Towers, which elevated her to cultural icon.

John Cleese and his spouse at the time, Connie Booth, had submitted the first script of Fawlty Towers to the broadcasting corporation.

Actress Bridget Turner had been approached to play the Sybil role but she had turned it down and Scales tried out for the character.

She later remembered that Cleese maintained high standards.

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

Only 12 episodes were ultimately produced.

The first series, which aired in 1975, failed to win huge audiences but, as it continued, its hilarious mix of absurd pratfalls and embarrassing situations increased in appeal.

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

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

"After witnessing the initial read-through," recalled Scales, "they were sold on the idea."

Later in her career, she was, all too often, called upon to play "dragons" and "old bags" when she desired more glamorous roles.

However when questioned about her career pinnacle, 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 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

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

Her vocal talents were frequently featured on audio broadcasts, particularly the comedy program After Henry, which subsequently transferred to television, and the series Ladies of Letters, with actress Patricia Routledge, which became an intrinsic part of Woman's Hour.

Scales performed at two major royal roles; as Queen Elizabeth 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 obtained correspondence from one of Queen Elizabeth's security men who confessed that when Scales came on stage, he stood up.

"The response was automatic," she clarified. "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 campaign, which ran for nine years, was cited as the primary reason 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 stop local shops closing in her area of London.

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

She appears as Alan Turing's mother, who represents a culture that criminalized same-sex relationships, an attitude that eventually led to his death.

Beyond performance, {Scales was