Prunella Scales: From Fawlty Towers to Great Canal Journeys
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Prunella Scales, who died at the age of 93, was one of Britain's finest comic actors. But despite a long and distinguished career on stage and screen, she will inevitably be remembered as Sybil Fawlty in the 1970s TV comedy, Fawlty Towers. It was Sybil's mission in life to keep tabs on her "stick insect" husband Basil - played by John Cleese - between cigarette-fuelled phone conversations with her friend, Audrey. It fell to her to placate guests who had been shouted at, totally ignored or, in some cases, throttled by Basil when in one of his more manic moods. Her nightmarish laugh, gravity-defying hairdo and ferocious temper were part of a carefully constructed character that ranks as a comic masterpiece. And while many actors would have distanced themselves from too close an association with a single role, Scales always expressed her delight in having been part of the Fawlty Towers experience.
John Cleese and Prunella Scales as Basil and
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