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Prunella Scales - balancing act
he may have a show business career spanning six decades but for most people, veteran actress Prunella Scales will always be remembered as Basil's domineering wife Sybil in classic British sitcom Fawlty Towers.
Listening to her clipped upper class tones today it is difficult to associate this 75-year-old thespian with the bee-hived, cigarette toting hotel proprietress.
Is this really the same woman who gave us the "machine-gunned seal" laugh and the immortal "I knowI know" while eating bonbons and gossiping on the phone?
And while sharp-tongued Sybil spent her time nagging her husband Basil - running his life as well as the hotel - Prunella seems an altogether different sort of wife.
In fact, she defers to her husband (the actor Timothy West) to answer many of my questions, obediently dictating his answers word for word. It's hard to imagine Sybil doing the same.
But the couple must be doing something right - they have been happily married for 45 years.
The secret, according to a tongue-in-cheek Timothy, is "prolonged and frequent separation" but for Prunella it's more about her husband's extraordinary letter writing ability.
"He writes wonderful letters when we're on tour," she says. "They are brilliant."
Other people clearly think so too. I'm Here I Think, Where Are You? a compilation of over 30 years worth of Timothy's letters to Prunella was published in 1995.
"I always say it's very difficult being married to someone in the business but impossible to be married to anybody else," she laughs.
"We learn our lines together but I think that's the same with any couple, you help one another out.
"There are no rules about this. If one of us was very successful and the other not, it could be a strain but we're pretty lucky that up to this time we have been employed equally."
When asked if she is happy about her son Sam following her into acting, she answers swiftly.
"Initially, absolutely not! It's the last thing anybody who works in theatre wants for one's children. What one wants is for them to have a proper civilian job with a good salary and pension at the end.
"At one time it was very unfashionable to have relatives in the business. We were supposed to be this raw talent so I kept quiet about my mum (the actress Catherine Scales).
"I think the Redgraves have changed all that. They have actors going back two or three generations and they don't seem to have it held against them.
"Sam has parents and grandparents in the business but it doesn't mean he isn't talented or that he hasn't worked hard.
I think attitudes are changing about that mercifully."
These days Prunella thinks nothing
of working with family members.
She is currently starring in Gertrude's Secret at Winchester's Theatre Royal -
a play written by her cousin.
"I'm used to taking direction from family members. It saves time because one knows what each other are talking about," she says briskly.
"The programme is a series of monologues with a twist in the tale - it's intriguingly written. I'm just delighted that a young writer is having success with his early writing."
Having beaten around the bush for a while, it's time to bring up the elephant in the room. Previous interviews with Prunella give the impression she is sick of talking about the television show that made her a household name.
It must be strange when a 12 episode series - representing a fraction of a 50 year acting career - is all anyone wants to hear.
She answers politely, if a little mechanically.
"Fawlty Towers was a blessing," she says. "I'm very, very grateful for it. In our business to be in a successful sitcom that is repeated all over the world with repeat fees is huge good fortune. Particularly if you have a young family to support.
"I have huge respect for the text written by John Cleese and Connie Boooth. They were lovely to work with and remain dear friends."
And that laugh, she says, came from
a hotel proprietress she met as a girl.
"I think I stole it from her.
"People are delighted to see me do something different from Sybil," she adds. "They come up to me and say
that was nothing like Sybil' and they seem to enjoy it."
During her lengthy career, Prunella has also built up a reputation for playing monarchs. First there was her portrayal of Queen Victoria in the 1980 stage show An Evening With Queen Victoria and the 2003 television show Waiting For Victoria. Then her critically acclaimed performance as Queen Elizabeth II in Alan Bennett's A Question of Attribution, made into a movie in 1992.
But she remains unfazed by playing such important figures, denying that it puts any more pressure on her as an actress.
Prunella's other numerous credits include the role of Mrs Bates in the 1997 film version of Jane Austin's Emma and her comic Radio 4 series with Patricia Routledge Ladies of Letters.
With so many leading ladies already ticked off, I ask if she has a dream role.
"I'll have to ask my husband," she replies bizarrely once again.
"Is there another leading lady I'd like to play?" she consults, before answering: "I have always wanted to play Gertrude - Hamlet's mum. She's not a leading lady but I've always been interested in her because I have a few theories. Maybe one day I will get to play her."
When she's not appearing on stage, screen or radio herself, Prunella is helping other aspiring actors make it into show business, running acting workshops in London.
Does she have any tips for budding thespians?
She relays my question to husband Timothy and then proceeds to recite his answers back to me.
Trying a different tack, I ask what she does to relax. It turns out Prunella and Tim like nothing more than gardening and travelling the length and breadth of Britain in their narrow boat.
Prunella - president of the Campaign to Protect Rural England - is passionate about the English countryside. Could her love of all things rural have begun during her back-to-basics upbringing on a farm in Surrey without gas or electricity?
She doesn't think so.
But is she a homebody at heart?
"Tim? Am I a homebody?" she checks again. Tim answers with a resounding yes'.
"Yes," she repeats.
"Do you want to send me my quotes?" she asks as our chat comes to an end.
"I don't know if I've been very entertaining."
3:48pm Thursday 5th June 2008
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