Prunella Scales: From the Iconic Fawlty Towers to Remarkable Canal Adventures

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

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

It was Sybil's mission in life to closely monitor her "stick insect" husband Basil - played by comedian John Cleese - amid cigarette-fuelled phone conversations with her companion Audrey.

It fell to her to placate guests who had been yelled at, completely overlooked or, occasionally, throttled 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 one particular character, Scales always expressed her delight in having been part of the Fawlty Towers experience.

Early Life and Career Beginnings

Prunella Margaret Rumney Illingworth came into the world in the Guildford area on 22 June 1932.

She belonged to a household profoundly passionate about theatrical arts - her mother being, Bim Scales, an ex-actress who'd abandoned her career for marriage and children.

Bright and bookish, following evacuation during the war to the Lake District, Prunella attended Moira House Girls School in Eastbourne.

In 1949, she earned a scholarship to the Old Vic Theatre School and - after two years - secured a position as a stage management assistant.

This was to the fury of her previous school principal in Eastbourne, who had hoped she would apply to Cambridge and wrote to the theatre to express this opinion.

During her theatrical training, Scales was perceived as a developing character performer instead of a natural Juliet candidate.

"We all wanted to look like Audrey Hepburn," she subsequently informed her biographer, "but I wasn't attractive and nobody fancied me."

The youthful Prunella also hid her privileged background, conscious that directors were beginning to look for authentic working-class realism 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.

Her initial television exposure occurred in 1952, as the character Lydia Bennet in a BBC production of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, which featured Peter Cushing - better known for his horror film performances - as Mr. Darcy.

And her first big screen roles came a year later - in lighthearted romance, Laxdale Hall, and David Lean's production Hobson's Choice, alongside the renowned 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 colleague Timothy West.

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

Career Milestones and Defining Characters

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

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

Then came 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 broadcasting corporation.

Actress Bridget Turner had been considered for Sybil Fawlty but she declined the part 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 first series, which debuted in 1975, failed to win huge audiences but, with subsequent episodes, its hilarious mix of absurd pratfalls and awkward circumstances grew in popularity.

Scales carefully considered about portraying Sybil Fawlty, and determined that her character's upbringing had to be inferior to her husband Basil's.

Initially, the creators were unsure about the treatment.

"Once they heard the first reading in rehearsal," Scales remembered, "they embraced the concept completely."

Later in her career, she frequently found herself, called upon to play stern matriarchs when she desired elegant characters.

But when asked about her career pinnacle, Scales had no hesitation in picking Sybil Fawlty.

"The role presented challenges," she maintained, "yet I remain proud of my work." She even thought it assisted in bringing the paying public 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 said.

Later Career and Personal Life

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

Her vocal talents were frequently featured on radio, notably the comedy program After Henry, which later transitioned to TV, and the series Ladies of Letters, with actress Patricia Routledge, which evolved into a staple of Woman's Hour.

Scales appeared in two significant royal characters; as Queen Elizabeth 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 once received a letter from a royal protection officer who admitted that when Scales came on stage, he stood up.

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

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

The campaign, which ran for nine years, was identified as the primary reason in propelling it to market leadership in the mid-nineties.

Scales subsequently faced moderate critique for taking part in the Tesco adverts, when she supported an initiative to stop local shops closing in her area of London.

Among her most accomplished roles came in the production Breaking the Code, the film about the Bletchley Park wartime codebreakers.

She appears as Alan Turing's mother, who embodies a society that treated homosexual acts as a crime, an attitude that eventually led to his death.

Beyond performance, {Scales was