Prunella Scales: Beginning with Fawlty Towers to Remarkable Canal Adventures

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

Despite a long and distinguished professional journey across theater and film, she will inevitably be remembered as Sybil Fawlty in the 1970s TV comedy, the beloved Fawlty Towers.

It was Sybil's mission in life to keep tabs on her husband Basil described as a "stick insect" - portrayed by comedian John Cleese - amid telephone chats fueled by cigarettes with her companion Audrey.

It fell to her to calm visitors who had been yelled at, completely overlooked or, in some cases, throttled by Basil when in one of his more manic moods.

Her nightmarish laugh, gravity-defying hairdo and ferocious temper were components of a meticulously crafted persona that ranks as a humorous triumph.

Although many actors would have distanced themselves from excessive identification with one particular character, Scales always expressed her delight in having been part of the Fawlty Towers phenomenon.

Early Life and Career Beginnings

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

It was a family profoundly passionate about the theatre - her mother being, Catherine Scales, a former actor who'd given it all up for marriage and children.

Bright and bookish, following evacuation during the war to the Lake District, Prunella attended Moira House educational institution in the coastal town of Eastbourne.

In 1949, she won a scholarship to the prestigious Old Vic drama school and - two years later - 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 University 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.

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

Young Prunella concealed her middle-class roots, conscious that producers started seeking authentic working-class realism in their actors.

Nevertheless she began acquiring minor parts in plays, and, while rehearsing for a role at the Connaught Theatre in Worthing, she encountered actor Andrew Sachs, who would subsequently appear as Manuel, the Spanish waiter, in the famous series.

There was an early television appearance in 1952, as Lydia Bennet in a television adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, which featured actor Peter Cushing - better known for his roles in horror movies - as Mr. Darcy.

Her initial film appearances followed the next year - in romantic comedy, the film Laxdale Hall, and David Lean's Hobson's Choice, opposite Charles Laughton.

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

She also met fellow actor Timothy West.

After what Prunella described as "a gentle courtship involving crosswords and candies", they got together, and married in 1963.

Breakthrough and Iconic Roles

Her major television opportunity arrived through the series Marriage Lines, a BBC sitcom about a newly married couple, the Starling couple.

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

Then came 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 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 ultimately produced.

The initial season, which aired in 1975, failed to win huge audiences but, with subsequent episodes, its hilarious mix of absurd pratfalls and embarrassing situations 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 were unsure about this approach.

"Once they heard the first reading in rehearsal," Scales remembered, "they embraced the concept completely."

In subsequent years, she was, all too often, requested to portray stern matriarchs when she hankered after elegant characters.

But when asked about her career pinnacle, Scales had no hesitation in picking Sybil Fawlty.

"It was a tough job," she insisted, "but I'm still proud of it." She believed it assisted in bringing the paying public into performance venues.

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

Later Career and Personal Life

Following Fawlty Towers, Scales continued to work in the television industry, comprising a stint as character Elizabeth Mapp in ITV's Mapp and Lucia.

Her vocal talents were frequently featured on audio broadcasts, particularly the comedy program After Henry, which subsequently transferred to television, and the series Ladies of Letters, with actress Patricia Routledge, which became an intrinsic part of the program Woman's Hour.

Scales appeared in at two major royal roles; as Queen Elizabeth II in the BBC production of Alan Bennett's work, 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 admitted that when Scales came on stage, he stood up.

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

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

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

Scales subsequently faced some gentle criticism for taking part in the Tesco adverts, when she supported an initiative to prevent neighborhood store closures in her area of London.

Among her most accomplished roles came in Breaking the Code, the movie concerning World War II cryptanalysts.

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

Beyond performance, {Scales was