The celebrated actress Prunella Scales, who passed away at 93 years old, was regarded as among Britain's most brilliant comedic performers.
Although a long and distinguished professional journey across theater and film, she will inevitably be remembered as Sybil Fawlty in the classic 1970s television series, the beloved Fawlty Towers.
Sybil's primary objective throughout her existence to closely monitor her husband Basil described as a "stick insect" - 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, completely overlooked or, occasionally, throttled by Basil when during his particularly frenzied episodes.
Her nightmarish laugh, gravity-defying hairdo and ferocious temper were part of a meticulously crafted persona that stands as a humorous triumph.
Although many actors would have distanced themselves from excessive identification with one particular character, Scales always expressed her pleasure in having been part of the Fawlty Towers experience.
The actress born Prunella Margaret Rumney Illingworth came into the world in the Guildford area on June 22nd, 1932.
She belonged to a household profoundly passionate about the theatre - her mother being, Bim Scales, an ex-actress who'd abandoned her career for family life.
Intelligent and studious, after wartime evacuation to England's Lake District, Prunella attended Moira House educational institution in the coastal town of Eastbourne.
During 1949, she won a scholarship to the Old Vic Theatre School and - two years later - secured a position as a stage management assistant.
This decision angered of her previous school principal in her hometown, who had wished she would seek admission to Cambridge and sent correspondence to the theater to express this opinion.
At drama school, Scales had been thought of as a junior character actor rather than a natural Juliet candidate.
"Everyone aspired to resemble Audrey Hepburn," she subsequently informed her biographer, "but I wasn't attractive and nobody fancied me."
The youthful Prunella concealed her middle-class roots, conscious that directors were beginning to look for 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 the Connaught Theatre in Worthing, she encountered actor 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 roles in horror movies - as Mr. Darcy.
And her first big screen roles came a year later - in romantic comedy, Laxdale Hall, and David Lean's Hobson's Choice, opposite the renowned Charles Laughton.
Throughout the latter 1950s and early 1960s, she was rarely out of work - performing across multiple mediums, including a brief stint as a bus conductor, Eileen Hughes, in Coronation Street.
She additionally encountered colleague Timothy West.
Following what she characterized as "a mild Times crossword and Polo mints flirtation", they got together, and wed in 1963.
Her big TV break came with Marriage Lines, a comedy program about a newly married couple, George and Kate Starling.
Scales performed alongside Richard Briers, then one of the biggest stars in TV humor. The program achieved great success and ran for five years.
Subsequently arrived the legendary Fawlty Towers, which elevated her to cultural icon.
John Cleese and his then wife, Connie Booth, had submitted the first script of their comedy creation to the broadcasting corporation.
Actress Bridget Turner had been approached to play Sybil Fawlty but she declined the part and Scales tried out for the character.
She subsequently recalled that Cleese maintained high standards.
"John, appropriately, demanded strict script adherence, and failure to comply would understandably provoke his irritation."
Merely twelve installments were ultimately produced.
The first series, which aired in 1975, failed to win huge audiences but, with subsequent episodes, its hilarious mix of ridiculous physical comedy and embarrassing situations increased in appeal.
Scales carefully considered about portraying Sybil Fawlty, and determined that her character's upbringing had to be inferior to Basil's social standing.
Initially, the creators had doubts regarding the treatment.
"After witnessing the initial read-through," Scales remembered, "they were sold on the idea."
Later in her career, she was, all too often, called upon to play "dragons" and "old bags" when she desired more glamorous roles.
But when asked about what she thought was the high point, Scales immediately identified in picking Sybil Fawlty.
"It was a tough job," she maintained, "yet I remain proud of my work." She even thought it helped get 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 expressed.
Following Fawlty Towers, Scales continued to work in the television industry, comprising an engagement as character Elizabeth Mapp in the series Mapp and Lucia.
Her vocal talents were frequently featured on audio broadcasts, notably the BBC Radio 4 sitcom, which subsequently transferred to television, and Ladies of Letters, with actress Patricia Routledge, which evolved into a staple of Woman's Hour.
Scales appeared in at two major royal roles; as Queen Elizabeth II in the BBC production of Alan Bennett's work, and as the monarch Queen Victoria in a solo performance that she performed 400 times.
She once received a letter from one of Queen Elizabeth's security men who confessed that when Scales came on stage, he rose to his feet.
"The response was automatic," she explained. "The experience delighted me."
During 1995, she began starring as Dotty Turnbull in television commercials for the retail chain Tesco - which paid her partly in vouchers.
The advertising series, which continued for nine years, was cited as the primary reason in establishing its dominant market position in the mid 1990s.
Scales later came in for moderate critique for taking part in the commercial campaign, when she backed a campaign to stop local shops closing in her area of London.
One of her finest performances came in the production Breaking the Code, the movie concerning the Bletchley Park wartime codebreakers.
She portrays the mother of Alan Turing, who represents a culture that treated homosexual acts as a crime, a perspective that contributed to his tragic end.
Away from acting, {Scales was
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