The Legendary Prunella Scales: From Fawlty Towers to Remarkable Canal Adventures

Prunella Scales, who passed away at the age of 93, was regarded as among Britain's most brilliant comic actors.

Despite 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 throughout her existence to closely monitor her "stick insect" husband Basil - portrayed by John Cleese - between cigarette-fuelled phone conversations with her friend, Audrey.

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

Her nightmarish laugh, extraordinary hairstyle and intense anger were components of a meticulously crafted persona that stands as a comic masterpiece.

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

Formative Years and Professional Start

Prunella Margaret Rumney Illingworth was born near Guildford on June 22nd, 1932.

She belonged to a household profoundly passionate about the theatre - with her mother, Bim Scales, a former actor who'd given it all up for marriage and children.

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

During 1949, she won a scholarship to the prestigious Old Vic drama school and - after two years - 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 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 a natural Juliet candidate.

"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 privileged background, aware that producers started seeking a new kind of earthy credibility in performers.

But she started picking up small roles in theatrical productions, and, during preparations for a part at Worthing's Connaught Theatre, she met Andrew Sachs, who would later star as Manuel the Spanish server, in Fawlty Towers.

There was an early television appearance in 1952, as Lydia Bennet in a BBC production of Pride and Prejudice, which featured actor Peter Cushing - better known 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 maintained constant employment - performing across multiple mediums, featuring a brief stint as transport worker, Eileen Hughes, in Coronation Street.

She also met fellow actor Timothy West.

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

Career Milestones and Defining Characters

Her big TV break came with 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.

Then came 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 their comedy creation to the broadcasting corporation.

Actress Bridget Turner had been considered for the Sybil role but she had turned it down 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, failed to win huge audiences but, as it continued, its comedic combination of absurd pratfalls and embarrassing situations grew in popularity.

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

At first, the creators had doubts regarding this approach.

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

Later in her career, she was, all too often, called upon to play stern matriarchs when she hankered after more glamorous roles.

But when asked about what she thought was the high point, Scales had no hesitation in picking Sybil Fawlty.

"The role presented challenges," she insisted, "but I'm still proud of it." She even thought it assisted in bringing audience members 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.

Later Career and Personal Life

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, particularly the BBC Radio 4 sitcom, which subsequently transferred to television, and Ladies of Letters, with Patricia Routledge, which evolved into a staple of the program Woman's Hour.

Scales performed at two major royal roles; as Queen Elizabeth II in the television drama of Alan Bennett's A Question of Attribution, 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 confessed that when Scales appeared, he rose to his feet.

"It was a knee-jerk reaction," 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 continued for nine years, was identified 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 commercial campaign, when she backed a campaign to prevent neighborhood store closures in her area of London.

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

She appears as the mother of Alan Turing, who represents a culture that treated homosexual acts as a crime, an attitude that eventually led to his death.

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