Prunella Scales: Beginning with Fawlty Towers to Great Canal Journeys

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

Despite an extensive and respected career on stage and screen, she will inevitably be remembered as the unforgettable Sybil Fawlty in the classic 1970s television series, the beloved Fawlty Towers.

Sybil's primary objective throughout her existence to closely monitor her husband Basil described as a "stick insect" - 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, completely overlooked or, in some cases, throttled by Basil when during his particularly frenzied episodes.

Her nightmarish laugh, gravity-defying hairdo and intense anger were part of a carefully constructed character that stands as a comic masterpiece.

And while numerous performers would have distanced themselves from too close an association with one particular character, Scales always expressed her delight in having been part of the Fawlty Towers experience.

Early Life and Career Beginnings

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, an ex-actress who'd given it all up for family life.

Bright and bookish, after wartime evacuation to England's Lake District, Prunella attended Moira House Girls School in Eastbourne.

In 1949, she earned a scholarship to the Old Vic Theatre School and - two years later - obtained a role as a stage management assistant.

This decision angered of her former headmistress in Eastbourne, who had hoped she would apply to Cambridge and sent correspondence to the theater to tell them so.

At drama school, Scales was perceived as a junior character actor instead of an obvious Juliet.

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

The youthful Prunella also hid her privileged background, aware that directors were beginning to look for authentic working-class realism in performers.

Nevertheless she began acquiring 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.

There was an early television appearance in 1952, as Lydia Bennet in a BBC production of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, which included Peter Cushing - better known for his roles in horror movies - as Mr Darcy.

Her initial film appearances came a year later - in romantic comedy, the film Laxdale Hall, and David Lean's Hobson's Choice, alongside Charles Laughton.

Throughout the late 1950s and early 1960s, she maintained constant employment - appearing on stage, film and television, featuring a short appearance as a bus conductor, 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 Marriage Lines, a BBC sitcom about a newly married couple, the Starling couple.

Scales performed alongside Richard Briers, at that time a major celebrity in TV humor. The program achieved great success and continued for five seasons.

Subsequently arrived the legendary Fawlty Towers, which propelled her to iconic status.

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

Performer Bridget Turner had been considered for the Sybil role but she declined the part and Scales auditioned for the role.

She later remembered that Cleese maintained high standards.

"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 ultimately produced.

The first series, which debuted in 1975, didn't immediately attract massive viewership but, as it continued, its hilarious mix of ridiculous physical comedy and awkward circumstances increased in appeal.

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

Initially, the creators had doubts regarding this approach.

"Once they heard the first reading in rehearsal," 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 elegant characters.

But when asked about what she thought was the high point, 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 helped get audience members into theaters.

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

Later Career and Personal Life

Following Fawlty Towers, Scales maintained her career in the television industry, including a stint as character Elizabeth Mapp in the series Mapp and Lucia.

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

Scales appeared in at two major royal roles; as Queen Elizabeth II in the BBC production of Alan Bennett's A Question of Attribution, and as the monarch Queen Victoria in a solo performance that she performed 400 times.

She once received a letter from a royal protection officer who confessed that when Scales appeared, he rose to his feet.

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

In 1995, she began starring as character Dotty Turnbull in television commercials for supermarket giant Tesco - which compensated her partially with shopping credits.

The advertising series, 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 commercial campaign, when she supported an initiative to stop local shops closing in her area of London.

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

She portrays the mother of Alan Turing, who embodies a society that criminalized same-sex relationships, a perspective that contributed to his tragic end.

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