Prunella Scales: Beginning with Fawlty Towers to Remarkable Canal Adventures

The celebrated actress Prunella Scales, who passed away at 93 years old, was regarded as one of Britain's finest comedic performers.

Although a long and distinguished career on stage and screen, her legacy will forever be linked as Sybil Fawlty in the classic 1970s television series, the beloved Fawlty Towers.

It was Sybil's mission in life to closely monitor her husband Basil described as a "stick insect" - played by comedian John Cleese - amid telephone chats fueled by cigarettes with her friend, Audrey.

She was tasked to calm visitors who had been shouted at, completely overlooked or, in some cases, physically confronted by Basil when during his particularly frenzied episodes.

Her unforgettable cackle, extraordinary hairstyle and ferocious temper were part of a carefully constructed character that stands as a humorous triumph.

Although many actors would have removed themselves from too close an association with one particular character, Scales always expressed her pleasure in participating of the Fawlty Towers experience.

Formative Years and Professional Start

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

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

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

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

At drama school, Scales had been thought of as a junior character actor rather than 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, conscious that directors were beginning to look for authentic working-class realism in their actors.

But she started picking up minor parts in plays, and, while rehearsing for a part at the Connaught Theatre in Worthing, she met actor Andrew Sachs, who would later star as Manuel, the Spanish waiter, in the famous series.

Her initial television exposure occurred in the year 1952, as the character Lydia Bennet in a BBC production of Pride and Prejudice, which included actor Peter Cushing - more famous for his roles in horror movies - as Mr. Darcy.

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

Throughout the late 1950s and early 1960s, she maintained constant employment - performing across multiple mediums, including a brief stint as a bus conductor, character Eileen Hughes, in 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.

Career Milestones and Defining Characters

Her major television opportunity came with the series Marriage Lines, a BBC sitcom about recentlyweds, George and Kate Starling.

Scales appeared opposite actor 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 presented the initial screenplay of Fawlty Towers to the broadcasting corporation.

Performer Bridget Turner had been considered for Sybil Fawlty but she had turned it down and Scales auditioned for the role.

She subsequently recalled 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 ever made.

The initial season, which aired in 1975, failed to win huge audiences but, as it continued, its hilarious mix of absurd pratfalls and awkward circumstances grew in popularity.

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

Initially, the creators had doubts regarding the treatment.

"Once they heard the first reading in rehearsal," Scales remembered, "they were sold on the idea."

In subsequent years, she was, all too often, called upon to play "dragons" and "old bags" when she desired elegant characters.

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

"It was a tough job," she maintained, "yet I remain proud of my work." She even thought it helped get 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.

Subsequent Work and Private World

After Fawlty Towers, Scales continued to work in television, comprising an engagement as character Elizabeth Mapp in the series Mapp and Lucia.

Her voice was also regularly heard on audio broadcasts, notably the comedy program After Henry, which subsequently transferred to television, and Ladies of Letters, with Patricia Routledge, which evolved into a staple of Woman's Hour.

Scales performed at two major royal roles; as Queen Elizabeth in the television drama of Alan Bennett's A Question of Attribution, and as the monarch Queen Victoria in a one-woman show that she presented four hundred times.

She obtained correspondence from a royal protection officer who admitted that when Scales appeared, he stood up.

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

In 1995, she started appearing as Dotty Turnbull in television commercials for supermarket giant Tesco - which paid her partly in vouchers.

The campaign, which ran for nine years, was cited as the primary reason in propelling it to market leadership in the mid 1990s.

Scales later came in for moderate critique for participating in the Tesco adverts, when she backed a campaign to stop local shops closing in her area of London.

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

She portrays Alan Turing's mother, who embodies a society that treated homosexual acts as a crime, a perspective that contributed to his tragic end.

Beyond performance, {Scales was