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

Prunella Scales, who died at the age of 93, 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 the unforgettable Sybil Fawlty in the classic 1970s television series, Fawlty Towers.

It was Sybil's mission throughout her existence to closely monitor her "stick insect" husband Basil - played by comedian John Cleese - between telephone chats fueled by cigarettes with her friend, Audrey.

It fell to her to calm visitors who had been shouted at, completely overlooked or, in some cases, throttled 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 comic masterpiece.

Although many actors would have removed themselves from too close an association with one particular character, Scales always expressed her pleasure in participating of the Fawlty Towers experience.

Formative Years and Professional Start

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

Intelligent and studious, following evacuation during the war to the Lake District, Prunella studied at Moira House educational institution in Eastbourne.

During 1949, she won a scholarship to the prestigious Old Vic drama school and - two years later - 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 University and sent correspondence to the theater to tell them so.

At drama school, Scales had been thought of as a junior character actor instead of an obvious Juliet.

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

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

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

There was an early television appearance in 1952, as Lydia Bennet in a BBC production of Pride and Prejudice, which featured actor Peter Cushing - more famous for his horror film performances - as Mr Darcy.

And her first big screen roles followed the next year - in lighthearted romance, the film Laxdale Hall, and David Lean's Hobson's Choice, opposite the renowned Charles Laughton.

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

She also met colleague Timothy West.

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

Career Milestones and Defining Characters

Her big TV break arrived through 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.

Subsequently arrived 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 later remembered 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 initial season, which aired in 1975, failed to win huge audiences but, with subsequent episodes, its hilarious mix of ridiculous physical comedy and embarrassing situations grew in popularity.

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

Initially, John Cleese and his wife were unsure about this approach.

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

Later in her career, she frequently found herself, requested to portray "dragons" and "old bags" when she desired elegant characters.

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

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

"I like to think that if the public have seen you in one thing they'll come and see you in another," she expressed.

Later Career and Personal Life

After Fawlty Towers, Scales maintained her career in the television industry, including an engagement as character Elizabeth Mapp in the series Mapp and Lucia.

Her vocal talents were frequently featured on radio, notably the BBC Radio 4 sitcom, which later transitioned to TV, and Ladies of Letters, with Patricia Routledge, which evolved into a staple of the program Woman's Hour.

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

She obtained correspondence from a royal protection officer who confessed that when Scales appeared, he stood up.

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

During 1995, she started appearing as Dotty Turnbull in a series of TV adverts for the retail chain 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 Tesco adverts, when she supported an initiative to prevent neighborhood store closures in her London community.

Among her most accomplished roles came in Breaking the Code, the film about the Bletchley Park wartime codebreakers.

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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