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

The celebrated actress Prunella Scales, who died at 93 years old, was considered one of Britain's finest comedic performers.

Despite a long and distinguished professional journey across theater and film, her legacy will forever be linked as Sybil Fawlty in the 1970s TV comedy, Fawlty Towers.

Sybil's primary objective throughout her existence to closely monitor her husband Basil described as a "stick insect" - portrayed by comedian John Cleese - between cigarette-fuelled phone conversations with her companion Audrey.

It fell to her to placate guests 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 ferocious temper were part of a carefully constructed character that stands as a comic masterpiece.

Although numerous performers would have removed themselves from excessive identification with one particular character, Scales always expressed her delight in participating of the Fawlty Towers experience.

Formative Years and Professional Start

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

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

Bright and bookish, following evacuation during the war to England's Lake District, Prunella attended Moira House Girls School in Eastbourne.

In 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 decision angered of her former headmistress in Eastbourne, who had hoped she would apply to Cambridge University and sent correspondence to the theater to express this opinion.

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

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

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

Nevertheless she began acquiring small roles in theatrical productions, and, during preparations for a role at Worthing's Connaught Theatre, she met Andrew Sachs, who would subsequently appear as Manuel the Spanish server, in the famous series.

There was an early television appearance in the year 1952, as the character Lydia Bennet in a television adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, which included Peter Cushing - more famous for his horror film performances - as Mr. Darcy.

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

Throughout the latter 1950s and early 1960s, she maintained constant employment - appearing on stage, film and television, featuring a brief stint as transport worker, character Eileen Hughes, in the popular soap Coronation Street.

She additionally encountered colleague Timothy West.

Following what she characterized as "a gentle courtship involving crosswords and candies", they became a couple, and wed in 1963.

Career Milestones and Defining Characters

Her big TV break arrived through Marriage Lines, a comedy program about a newly married couple, the Starling couple.

Scales appeared opposite Richard Briers, at that time a major celebrity in television comedy. The program achieved great success and ran for five years.

Subsequently arrived 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.

Performer Bridget Turner had been approached to play the Sybil role but she declined the part and Scales tried out for the character.

She subsequently recalled that Cleese was a hard taskmaster.

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

Only 12 episodes were ever made.

The initial season, which debuted in 1975, failed to win huge audiences but, as it continued, its comedic combination of absurd pratfalls and awkward circumstances increased in appeal.

Scales thought hard about how to play Sybil Fawlty, and decided that her social background had to be below her husband Basil's.

At first, John Cleese and his wife had doubts regarding this approach.

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

Later in her career, she was, all too often, requested to portray stern matriarchs when she hankered after elegant characters.

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

"It was a tough job," she maintained, "but I'm still proud of it." She even thought it assisted in bringing the paying public into theaters.

"I believe that audience familiarity with one performance encourages attendance at others," she said.

Later Career and Personal Life

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

Her voice was also regularly heard on radio, particularly the comedy program After Henry, which subsequently transferred to television, 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 A Question of Attribution, and as Queen Victoria in a solo performance that she presented four hundred times.

She once received a letter from one of Queen Elizabeth's security men who admitted that when Scales appeared, 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 television commercials for supermarket giant Tesco - which compensated her partially with shopping credits.

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

Scales subsequently faced moderate critique for participating in the commercial campaign, when she supported an initiative to stop local shops closing in her London community.

One of her finest performances came in Breaking the Code, the film about the Bletchley Park wartime codebreakers.

She portrays Alan Turing's mother, who represents a culture that criminalized same-sex relationships, a perspective that contributed to his tragic end.

Beyond performance, {Scales was