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

The celebrated actress Prunella Scales, who passed away at 93 years old, was regarded as among Britain's most brilliant comic actors.

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

It was Sybil's mission in life to keep tabs on her husband Basil described as a "stick insect" - played by John Cleese - between cigarette-fuelled phone conversations with her companion Audrey.

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

Her nightmarish laugh, gravity-defying hairdo and intense anger were components of a meticulously crafted persona that stands as a comic masterpiece.

Although many actors would have removed themselves from excessive identification with a single role, Scales consistently voiced her pleasure in having been part of the Fawlty Towers phenomenon.

Early Life and Career Beginnings

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

It was a family deeply in love with the theatre - her mother being, Catherine Scales, a former actor who'd abandoned her career for family life.

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

In 1949, she won a scholarship to the Old Vic Theatre School and - after two years - obtained a role as an assistant stage manager.

This was to the fury of her previous school principal in her hometown, who had hoped she would apply to Cambridge and sent correspondence to the theater to tell them so.

During her theatrical training, Scales was perceived as a junior character actor rather than 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."

The youthful Prunella also hid her privileged background, conscious that directors were beginning to look for a new kind of earthy credibility in performers.

But she started picking up small roles in plays, and, during preparations for a role at Worthing's Connaught Theatre, she encountered Andrew Sachs, who would subsequently appear as Manuel, the Spanish waiter, in Fawlty Towers.

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

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

During the latter 1950s and early 1960s, she maintained constant employment - performing across multiple mediums, including a short appearance as transport worker, character Eileen Hughes, in the popular soap Coronation Street.

She additionally encountered fellow actor Timothy West.

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

Breakthrough and Iconic Roles

Her big TV break arrived through Marriage Lines, a BBC sitcom about recentlyweds, the Starling couple.

Scales appeared opposite Richard Briers, at that time a major celebrity in TV humor. The show proved hugely popular and continued for five seasons.

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 their comedy creation to the BBC.

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

She subsequently recalled that Cleese maintained high standards.

"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 aired in 1975, didn't immediately attract massive viewership but, as it continued, its comedic combination of ridiculous physical comedy and embarrassing situations increased in appeal.

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

Initially, the creators were unsure about the treatment.

"Once they heard the first reading in rehearsal," Scales remembered, "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 hankered after more glamorous roles.

However when questioned about her career pinnacle, Scales immediately identified in picking Sybil Fawlty.

"The role presented challenges," she maintained, "but I'm still proud of it." She even thought it assisted in bringing the paying public into performance venues.

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

Subsequent Work and Private World

After Fawlty Towers, Scales maintained her career in television, comprising a stint as the frumpy Elizabeth Mapp in ITV's Mapp and Lucia.

Her voice was also regularly heard on audio broadcasts, notably the BBC Radio 4 sitcom, which subsequently transferred to television, and Ladies of Letters, with actress Patricia Routledge, which became an intrinsic part of Woman's Hour.

Scales appeared in 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 presented four hundred times.

She obtained correspondence from one of Queen Elizabeth's security men who confessed that when Scales came on stage, he rose to his feet.

"The response was automatic," she explained. "The experience delighted me."

In 1995, she started appearing 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 identified as the primary reason in propelling it to market leadership in the mid 1990s.

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

One of her finest performances appeared in Breaking the Code, the movie concerning World War II cryptanalysts.

She appears as Alan Turing's mother, who embodies a society that criminalized same-sex relationships, an attitude that eventually led to his death.

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