The celebrated actress Prunella Scales, who passed away at 93 years old, was regarded as one of Britain's finest comedic performers.
Although an extensive and respected professional journey across theater and film, her legacy will forever be linked as the unforgettable Sybil Fawlty in the 1970s TV comedy, Fawlty Towers.
Sybil's primary objective in life to keep tabs on her husband Basil described as a "stick insect" - played by John Cleese - amid cigarette-fuelled phone conversations with her companion Audrey.
She was tasked to placate guests who had been yelled at, completely overlooked 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 components of a meticulously crafted persona that stands as a humorous triumph.
Although numerous performers would have removed themselves from excessive identification with a single role, Scales always expressed her pleasure in having been part of the Fawlty Towers phenomenon.
Prunella Margaret Rumney Illingworth came into the world near Guildford on 22 June 1932.
She belonged to a household profoundly passionate about the theatre - with her mother, Bim Scales, a former actor who'd abandoned her career for marriage and children.
Bright and bookish, after wartime evacuation to England's Lake District, Prunella attended Moira House Girls School in Eastbourne.
During 1949, she earned a scholarship to the Old Vic Theatre School and - after two years - 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 University and sent correspondence to the theater to tell them so.
During her theatrical training, 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 also hid her privileged background, conscious that producers started seeking a new kind of earthy credibility in performers.
But she started picking up minor parts in plays, and, during preparations for a role at Worthing's Connaught Theatre, she met actor Andrew Sachs, who would later star as Manuel, the Spanish waiter, in Fawlty Towers.
There was an early television appearance in 1952, as 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 came a year later - in lighthearted romance, the film Laxdale Hall, and David Lean's production Hobson's Choice, opposite the renowned Charles Laughton.
Throughout the latter 1950s and early 1960s, she maintained constant employment - appearing on stage, film and television, including a short appearance as a bus conductor, character Eileen Hughes, in the popular soap Coronation Street.
She also met colleague Timothy West.
Following what she characterized as "a mild Times crossword and Polo mints flirtation", they became a couple, and married in 1963.
Her big TV break came with Marriage Lines, a comedy program about recentlyweds, the Starling couple.
Scales performed alongside actor Richard Briers, then one of the biggest stars in television comedy. The show proved hugely popular and continued for five seasons.
Subsequently arrived Fawlty Towers, which propelled her to iconic status.
John Cleese and his then wife, Connie Booth, had submitted the first script of Fawlty Towers to the BBC.
Actress Bridget Turner had been approached to play the Sybil role but she had turned it down and Scales auditioned for the role.
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 initial season, which aired in 1975, didn't immediately attract massive viewership but, with subsequent episodes, its comedic combination of absurd pratfalls and awkward circumstances increased in appeal.
Scales thought hard about portraying Sybil Fawlty, and determined that her social background had to be below Basil's social standing.
Initially, the creators had doubts regarding this approach.
"Once they heard the first reading in rehearsal," recalled Scales, "they embraced the concept completely."
In subsequent years, she frequently found herself, called upon to play stern matriarchs when she desired more glamorous roles.
However when questioned about what she thought was the high point, Scales had no hesitation in selecting Sybil Fawlty.
"The role presented challenges," she insisted, "yet I remain proud of my work." She even thought it helped get audience members into theaters.
"I believe that audience familiarity with one performance encourages attendance at others," she said.
Following Fawlty Towers, Scales continued to work in television, comprising an engagement as the frumpy Elizabeth Mapp in ITV's Mapp and Lucia.
Her vocal talents were frequently featured on radio, particularly the comedy program After Henry, 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 in the BBC production of Alan Bennett's work, and as the monarch Queen Victoria in a solo performance that she presented four hundred times.
She obtained correspondence from one of Queen Elizabeth's security men who admitted that when Scales came on stage, he stood up.
"It was a knee-jerk reaction," she explained. "The experience delighted me."
In 1995, she started appearing as Dotty Turnbull in a series of TV adverts for the retail chain Tesco - which paid her partly in vouchers.
The advertising series, which ran for nine years, was cited as the biggest factor 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 supported an initiative to stop local shops closing in her area of London.
Among her most accomplished roles appeared in Breaking the Code, the film about the Bletchley Park wartime codebreakers.
She portrays the mother of Alan Turing, who embodies a society that criminalized same-sex relationships, an attitude that eventually led to his death.
Away from acting, {Scales was
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