Prunella Scales: Beginning with the Iconic Fawlty Towers to Great Canal Journeys

Prunella Scales, who passed away at 93 years old, was considered one of Britain's finest comedic performers.

Although an extensive and respected professional journey across theater and film, her legacy will forever be linked as Sybil Fawlty in the classic 1970s television series, Fawlty Towers.

It was Sybil's mission in life to keep tabs on her "stick insect" husband Basil - played by John Cleese - between telephone chats fueled by cigarettes with her companion Audrey.

It fell to her to calm visitors who had been yelled at, totally ignored or, occasionally, physically confronted by Basil when during his particularly frenzied episodes.

Her nightmarish laugh, gravity-defying hairdo and intense anger were components of a carefully constructed character that stands as a humorous triumph.

And while many actors would have distanced themselves from too close an association with one particular character, Scales consistently voiced her delight in participating of the Fawlty Towers phenomenon.

Early Life and Career Beginnings

Prunella Margaret Rumney Illingworth was born in the Guildford area on 22 June 1932.

It was a family profoundly passionate about the theatre - her mother being, Bim Scales, a former actor who'd abandoned her career for marriage and children.

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

During 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 was to the fury of her former headmistress in her hometown, who had hoped she would apply to Cambridge and sent correspondence to the theater to express this opinion.

During her theatrical training, Scales had been thought of as a developing character performer instead of an obvious Juliet.

"We all wanted to look like Audrey Hepburn," she later told her chronicler, "but I wasn't attractive and nobody fancied me."

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 plays, and, during preparations for a part at Worthing's Connaught Theatre, she encountered 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 actor Peter Cushing - better known for his horror film performances - as Mr. Darcy.

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

During the late 1950s and early 1960s, she was rarely out of work - performing across multiple mediums, including a short appearance as transport worker, Eileen Hughes, in the popular soap Coronation Street.

She also met colleague Timothy West.

After what Prunella described as "a mild Times crossword and Polo mints flirtation", they became a couple, and married in 1963.

Breakthrough and Iconic Roles

Her major television opportunity came with Marriage Lines, a comedy program about a newly married couple, George and Kate Starling.

Scales performed alongside Richard Briers, then one of the biggest stars in television comedy. The program achieved great success and continued for five seasons.

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 broadcasting corporation.

Performer Bridget Turner had been considered for Sybil Fawlty but she declined the part and Scales tried out for the character.

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."

Only 12 episodes were ultimately produced.

The first series, which debuted in 1975, didn't immediately attract massive viewership but, with subsequent episodes, its comedic combination of ridiculous physical comedy and embarrassing situations increased in appeal.

Scales thought hard about how to play Sybil Fawlty, and decided that her character's upbringing had to be inferior to Basil's social standing.

Initially, the creators had doubts regarding this approach.

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

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

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

"It was a tough job," she insisted, "yet I remain proud of my work." She believed it helped get the paying public into performance venues.

"I like to think that if the public have seen you in one thing they'll come and see you in another," she expressed.

Subsequent Work and Private World

After 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, particularly the BBC Radio 4 sitcom, which subsequently transferred to television, and Ladies of Letters, with actress Patricia Routledge, which became an intrinsic part of the program Woman's Hour.

Scales performed two significant royal characters; as Queen Elizabeth II in the television drama of Alan Bennett's work, and as Queen Victoria in a one-woman show that she performed 400 times.

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

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

In 1995, she began starring as 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 primary reason in establishing its dominant market position in the mid 1990s.

Scales later came in for 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 the Bletchley Park wartime codebreakers.

She appears as Alan Turing's mother, who represents a culture that treated homosexual acts as a crime, a perspective that contributed to his tragic end.

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