Prunella Scales: Beginning with Fawlty Towers to Remarkable Canal Adventures

Prunella Scales, who died at the age of 93, was considered among Britain's most brilliant comic actors.

Although a long and distinguished career on stage and screen, she will inevitably be remembered as the unforgettable Sybil Fawlty in the classic 1970s television series, Fawlty Towers.

It was Sybil's mission throughout her existence to closely monitor her "stick insect" husband Basil - portrayed by comedian John Cleese - between telephone chats fueled by cigarettes with her companion Audrey.

She was tasked to calm visitors who had been shouted at, completely overlooked or, occasionally, throttled by Basil when in one of his more manic moods.

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

And while numerous performers would have distanced themselves from excessive identification with one particular character, Scales consistently voiced her pleasure in having been part of the Fawlty Towers experience.

Early Life and Career Beginnings

Prunella Margaret Rumney Illingworth came into the world in the Guildford area on 22 June 1932.

It was a family deeply in love with the theatre - her mother being, Bim Scales, an ex-actress 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 Eastbourne.

During 1949, she earned a scholarship to the prestigious Old Vic drama school and - two years later - secured a position as an assistant stage manager.

This was to the fury of her former headmistress in Eastbourne, who had wished she would seek admission 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 later told her biographer, "however I lacked conventional beauty and attracted no admirers."

Young Prunella concealed her privileged background, conscious that producers started seeking a new kind of earthy credibility in performers.

Nevertheless she began acquiring small roles in theatrical productions, and, while rehearsing for a part at Worthing's Connaught Theatre, she encountered actor Andrew Sachs, who would later star as Manuel, the Spanish waiter, in Fawlty Towers.

Her initial television exposure occurred in the year 1952, as the character Lydia Bennet in a BBC production of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, which featured Peter Cushing - more famous for his horror film performances - as Mr Darcy.

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

During the latter 1950s and early 1960s, she was rarely out of work - appearing on stage, film and television, featuring a short appearance as a bus conductor, character Eileen Hughes, in Coronation Street.

She also met fellow actor Timothy West.

Following what she characterized as "a mild Times crossword and Polo mints flirtation", they became a couple, and married in 1963.

Career Milestones and Defining Characters

Her major television opportunity arrived through Marriage Lines, a BBC sitcom about a newly married couple, George and Kate Starling.

Scales performed alongside actor Richard Briers, at that time a major celebrity in TV humor. The show proved hugely popular and ran for five years.

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

John Cleese and his spouse at the time, Connie Booth, had presented the initial screenplay of their comedy creation to the BBC.

Performer Bridget Turner had been considered for 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."

Only 12 episodes were ultimately produced.

The first series, which debuted in 1975, didn't immediately attract massive viewership but, as it continued, its comedic combination of absurd pratfalls and awkward circumstances increased in appeal.

Scales carefully considered about how to play Sybil Fawlty, and decided that her social background had to be below Basil's social standing.

At first, John Cleese and his wife had doubts regarding the treatment.

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

Later in her career, she frequently found herself, requested to portray "dragons" and "old bags" when she desired more glamorous roles.

But when asked about what she thought was the high point, Scales immediately identified in picking Sybil Fawlty.

"It was a tough job," she maintained, "yet I remain proud of my work." She believed it assisted in bringing audience members 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 expressed.

Later Career and Personal Life

Following Fawlty Towers, Scales maintained her career in television, comprising an engagement as character Elizabeth Mapp in the series Mapp and Lucia.

Her voice was also regularly heard on audio broadcasts, particularly the comedy program After Henry, which later transitioned to TV, and Ladies of Letters, with Patricia Routledge, which became an intrinsic part of Woman's Hour.

Scales appeared in two significant royal characters; as Queen Elizabeth 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 a royal protection officer who admitted that when Scales came on stage, he stood up.

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

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

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

Scales later came in for moderate critique for participating in the Tesco adverts, when she backed a campaign to prevent neighborhood store closures in her London community.

Among her most accomplished roles came 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, a perspective that contributed to his tragic end.

Beyond performance, {Scales was