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Happy birthday Prunella Scales! The popular actress turned 90 this week, so we're taking the time to celebrate 10 things we really admire about her.
1. She appeared in one of the all-time great British sitcoms.
In a way, Scales played the "straight man" in Fawlty Towers, which ran for just two seasons in 1975 and 1979. But her performance as Sybil Fawlty, the exasperated and sharp-tongued wife of John Cleese's blundering hotelier Basil, was a masterclass in restraint and precise comic timing. Her put-downs remain legendary even if you've seen them a dozen times.

2. She really made the role her own.
In this clip from a Fawlty Towers retrospective show, Cleese reveals that he and co-writer Connie Booth (who played Polly in the show) were a little "worried" about Scales' performance after the first day, But once they looked back at footage the following morning, they realized that she had made the character "even better" than they had imagined.

3. She also starred in some much-loved British TV commercials.
From 1995 to 2004, Scales played Dotty in adverts for U.K. supermarket chain Tesco. Many of the commercials pivoted on the fact that Dotty's daughter (Jane Horrocks) thought her persnickety mother was expecting a little too much from Tesco's sales staff. However, Dotty was always delighted to get the sterling service she deserved.

4. She has a long and happy marriage to fellow actor Timothy West.
Scales and West have been married since 1963 and have three children together. "I am famous for playing unfortunate wives, but I have been a very lucky wife," Scales told The Guardian in 2012. "Tim and I met in a period TV drama, She Died Young. We have both been incredibly lucky: we have been busy, we have had lovely kids. I first met my future father-in-law in a black-and-white production of Pride and Prejudice, long before I knew Tim. He was the actor Lockwood West and was giving a very extravagant performance. I said to myself: 'This is what is known as an old queen, they're very powerful in the theater and I must be very respectful to him.' I ended up married to his son!"
5. She has spoken candidly about her experience with Alzheimer's.
West revealed in 2014 that Scales had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's, a disease that causes progressive memory loss and feelings of disorientation. "I’m sure it can be boring for Tim because he used to live with this person who had a very quick mind and a good memory, and now it takes me a bit of time," Scales told the charity Age U.K. soon afterward. Last year, their son Samuel West confirmed that Scales remains "in good spirits" despite the disease's inevitable progress, telling The Daily Mirror: "She still recognizes us and she knows I have two children, so that’s really good."
6. She was the first actress to play Queen Elizabeth II in a major production.
Before Helen Mirren, Claire Foy and Olivia Colman portrayed the monarch, Scales starred as HMQ (Her Majesty the Queen) in the 1988 stage play A Question of Attribution. Written by Alan Bennett, it dramatized the scandal involving Sir Anthony Blunt, Elizabeth II's personal art advisor who was later revealed to be a Soviet spy. Scales earned a BAFTA nomination for her performance in the 1992 BBC TV adaptation.
7. She has also been honored by Queen Elizabeth II. 
The British monarch appointed her a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1992. Still, Scales admitted on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs that "she'd have died" if Elizabeth II had ever come to see her in A Question of Attribution.
8. She is also a travel presenter.
Scales and West are longtime lovers of narrowboat vacations. From 2014 to 2019, they poured their passion into Great Canal Journeys, a charming Channel 4 series in which they explored various waterways in the U.K., Europe, India, and Egypt. 

9. She also starred in Mapp and Lucia.
Based on E.F. Benson's novels, this popular 1980s series centers on a pair of affluent ladies (Scales and Geraldine McEwan) who compete to be "Queen Bee" in a quaint English country village. It's perfect Sunday afternoon viewing, preferably with a pot of tea and some English scones.

10. And finally, in 2009, she gamely brought back Sybil Fawlty for a BBC telethon.
In this bit for the Children in Need telethon, Scales' Sybil makes a bid to take over Hotel Babylon, the setting of the hit BBC drama series of the same name. It's hard to believe this sketch was filmed 30 years after the final episode of Fawlty Towers because Scales hasn't changed all that much.

Do you have a favorite Prunella Scales role?