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

Prunella Scales, who passed away at the age of 93, was regarded as among Britain's most brilliant comic actors.

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

Sybil's primary objective throughout her existence to closely monitor her "stick insect" husband Basil - played by John Cleese - amid telephone chats fueled by cigarettes with her companion Audrey.

It fell to her to placate guests who had been yelled at, totally ignored or, in some cases, physically confronted by Basil when during his particularly frenzied episodes.

Her unforgettable cackle, extraordinary hairstyle and intense anger were components of a carefully constructed character that ranks as a humorous triumph.

And while numerous performers would have distanced themselves from too close an association with one particular character, Scales consistently voiced her pleasure 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.

She belonged to a household deeply in love with the theatre - her mother being, Catherine Scales, a former actor who'd given it all up for family life.

Bright and bookish, after wartime evacuation to the Lake District, Prunella studied at Moira House educational institution in Eastbourne.

In 1949, she earned a scholarship to the prestigious Old Vic drama school and - after two years - obtained a role as an assistant stage manager.

This decision angered of her former headmistress in Eastbourne, who had wished she would seek admission to Cambridge and wrote to the theatre to tell them so.

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

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

The youthful Prunella also hid her middle-class roots, conscious that directors were beginning to look for authentic working-class realism in performers.

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

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

And her first big screen roles followed the next year - in romantic comedy, the film Laxdale Hall, and David Lean's production Hobson's Choice, alongside Charles Laughton.

Throughout the latter 1950s and early 1960s, she maintained constant employment - appearing on stage, film and television, featuring a short appearance as a bus conductor, character Eileen Hughes, in the popular soap Coronation Street.

She also met colleague Timothy West.

Following what she characterized 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 BBC sitcom about a newly married couple, George and Kate Starling.

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

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

John Cleese and his then wife, Connie Booth, had submitted the first script of their comedy creation to the BBC.

Actress Bridget Turner had been considered for Sybil Fawlty but she had turned it down 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."

Only 12 episodes were ever made.

The first series, 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 thought hard about how to play Sybil Fawlty, and determined that her character's upbringing had to be below her husband Basil's.

At first, John Cleese and his wife were unsure about the treatment.

"After witnessing the initial read-through," Scales remembered, "they embraced the concept completely."

Later in her career, she frequently found herself, called upon to play stern matriarchs when she desired more glamorous roles.

However when questioned about her career pinnacle, Scales had no hesitation in picking Sybil Fawlty.

"The role presented challenges," she maintained, "yet I remain proud of my work." She believed it assisted in bringing the paying public 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 said.

Later Career and Personal Life

Following Fawlty Towers, Scales continued to work in the television industry, including a stint as the frumpy Elizabeth Mapp in ITV's 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 actress 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 A Question of Attribution, and as 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 admitted that when Scales came on stage, he rose to his feet.

"The response was automatic," she explained. "I was thrilled."

During 1995, she began starring as character Dotty Turnbull in television commercials for the retail chain Tesco - which paid her partly in vouchers.

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

Scales subsequently faced 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 appeared in the production Breaking the Code, the movie concerning World War II cryptanalysts.

She portrays Alan Turing's mother, who embodies a society that treated homosexual acts as a crime, an attitude that eventually led to his death.

Away from acting, {Scales was