The Legendary Prunella Scales: Beginning with Fawlty Towers to Great Canal Journeys

Prunella Scales, who died at the age of 93, was regarded as one of Britain's finest comic actors.

Despite an extensive and respected career on stage and screen, she will inevitably be remembered as the unforgettable Sybil Fawlty in the classic 1970s television series, Fawlty Towers.

Sybil's primary objective in life to keep tabs on her "stick insect" husband Basil - portrayed by John Cleese - between cigarette-fuelled phone conversations with her friend, Audrey.

She was tasked to calm visitors who had been shouted at, totally ignored or, in some cases, physically confronted by Basil when in one of his more manic moods.

Her unforgettable cackle, gravity-defying hairdo and intense anger were part of a meticulously crafted persona that ranks as a comic masterpiece.

And while many actors would have removed themselves from too close an association with a single role, 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 near Guildford on June 22nd, 1932.

It was a family profoundly passionate about the theatre - with her mother, Bim Scales, an ex-actress who'd given it all up for marriage and children.

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

During 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 former headmistress in her hometown, who had hoped she would apply to Cambridge University and wrote to the theatre 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 chronicler, "however I lacked conventional beauty and attracted no admirers."

Young Prunella concealed her middle-class roots, conscious that directors were beginning to look for authentic working-class realism in performers.

Nevertheless she began acquiring minor parts in plays, and, while rehearsing for a role at the Connaught Theatre in Worthing, she encountered Andrew Sachs, who would subsequently appear as Manuel, the Spanish waiter, in the famous series.

There was an early television appearance in 1952, as the character Lydia Bennet in a television adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, which featured Peter Cushing - better known for his roles in horror movies - as Mr Darcy.

And her first big screen roles followed the next year - in lighthearted romance, Laxdale Hall, and David Lean's Hobson's Choice, alongside the renowned Charles Laughton.

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

She additionally encountered fellow actor Timothy West.

After what Prunella described as "a gentle courtship involving crosswords and candies", they became a couple, and married in 1963.

Breakthrough and Iconic Roles

Her major television opportunity arrived through Marriage Lines, a comedy program about recentlyweds, the Starling couple.

Scales appeared opposite Richard Briers, then one of the biggest stars in TV humor. The show proved hugely popular and continued for five seasons.

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

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 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 initial season, which debuted in 1975, didn't immediately attract massive viewership but, with subsequent episodes, its hilarious mix of ridiculous physical comedy and embarrassing situations grew in popularity.

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

At first, John Cleese and his wife were unsure about this approach.

"After witnessing the initial read-through," Scales remembered, "they were sold on the idea."

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

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

"The role presented challenges," she insisted, "but I'm still proud of it." She believed it helped get 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 said.

Later Career and Personal Life

Following Fawlty Towers, Scales continued to work in television, including an engagement as the frumpy Elizabeth Mapp in the series Mapp and Lucia.

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

Scales performed two significant royal characters; as Queen Elizabeth in the television drama of Alan Bennett's A Question of Attribution, and as the monarch Queen Victoria in a solo performance that she presented four hundred times.

She obtained correspondence from a royal protection officer who confessed that when Scales appeared, he rose to his feet.

"It was a knee-jerk reaction," she explained. "The experience delighted me."

During 1995, she started appearing as Dotty Turnbull in a series of TV adverts for supermarket giant Tesco - which paid her partly in vouchers.

The campaign, which continued for nine years, was identified as the biggest factor in propelling it to market leadership in the mid 1990s.

Scales subsequently faced moderate critique for participating in the commercial campaign, when she backed a campaign to prevent neighborhood store closures in her area of London.

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

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

Beyond performance, {Scales was