The Legendary Prunella Scales: Beginning with Fawlty Towers to Remarkable Canal Adventures

Prunella Scales, who died at the age of 93, was regarded as one of Britain's finest comedic performers.

Although an extensive and respected career on stage and screen, she will inevitably be remembered as Sybil Fawlty in the 1970s TV comedy, Fawlty Towers.

Sybil's primary objective throughout her existence to keep tabs on her "stick insect" husband Basil - 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, totally ignored or, in some cases, 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 stands as a humorous triumph.

And while numerous performers would have removed themselves from excessive identification with one particular character, Scales consistently voiced her pleasure in participating of the Fawlty Towers phenomenon.

Formative Years and Professional Start

Prunella Margaret Rumney Illingworth was born in the Guildford area on 22 June 1932.

It was a family deeply in love with the theatre - her mother being, Catherine Scales, a former actor who'd abandoned her career for marriage and children.

Bright and bookish, after wartime evacuation to the Lake District, Prunella attended Moira House educational institution in 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 Eastbourne, who had hoped she would apply 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 an obvious Juliet.

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

The youthful Prunella also hid her privileged background, aware that producers started seeking authentic working-class realism in their actors.

Nevertheless she began acquiring minor parts in plays, and, during preparations for a part at Worthing's Connaught Theatre, she encountered Andrew Sachs, who would subsequently appear as Manuel the Spanish server, in the famous series.

Her initial television exposure occurred in 1952, as the character Lydia Bennet in a television adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, which included Peter Cushing - better known 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 Charles Laughton.

Throughout the late 1950s and early 1960s, she was rarely out of work - performing across multiple mediums, featuring a brief stint as transport worker, character Eileen Hughes, in the popular soap Coronation Street.

She additionally encountered fellow actor 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 big TV break arrived through the series Marriage Lines, a comedy program about a newly married couple, George and Kate Starling.

Scales performed alongside actor Richard Briers, then one of the biggest stars in TV humor. The show proved hugely popular and continued for five seasons.

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

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

Actress Bridget Turner had been approached to play 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, 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 debuted in 1975, failed to win huge audiences but, as it continued, its comedic combination of ridiculous physical comedy and awkward circumstances grew in popularity.

Scales thought hard 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 were unsure about 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, called upon to play "dragons" and "old bags" when she desired more glamorous roles.

But when asked about her career pinnacle, 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 helped get the paying public 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, including a stint as character Elizabeth Mapp in the series Mapp and Lucia.

Her voice was also regularly heard on radio, notably the BBC Radio 4 sitcom, which later transitioned to TV, and the series Ladies of Letters, with Patricia Routledge, which evolved into a staple of the program Woman's Hour.

Scales appeared in at two major royal roles; as Queen Elizabeth II in the television drama of Alan Bennett's work, and as Queen Victoria in a one-woman show that she performed 400 times.

She once received a letter from one of Queen Elizabeth's security men who admitted that when Scales came on stage, he rose to his feet.

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

During 1995, she started appearing as character Dotty Turnbull in a series of TV adverts for supermarket giant Tesco - which paid her partly in vouchers.

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

Scales later came in for moderate critique for taking part in the commercial campaign, when she supported an initiative to stop local shops closing in her London community.

One of her finest performances appeared in the production Breaking the Code, the movie concerning the Bletchley Park wartime codebreakers.

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

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