"Oooh, I know..."

Just enough time to wish many happy returns to the fabulous not-yet-Dame Prunella Scales, 80 years old today.

In her 60-year acting career, Pru has played just about everything - from costume dramas to the plays of the "angry young men", Bennett to Shakespeare, comedy, tragedy and melodrama, and no less than two Queens (Elizabeth II and Victoria).

On the way, she managed to bring to life two of the greatest ever comedic on-screen monsters - Mistress Mapp in the magnificent Mapp and Lucia, and of course, Sybil Fawlty.

Prunella Scales - Fawlty Towers "Forgotten Anniversary"

I have met Miss Scales (when she was supporting a fundraiser for the charity I worked for; she was pissed before she even got to the hospitality room), and a couple of years ago at Wilton's Music Hall we were privileged to sit immediately in front of a gathering of "national treasures" that not only included Prunella and hubby Timothy West, but also June Whitfield!

We loved eavesdropping on their conversation...

Happy birthday, ma'am!

Prunella Scales on IMDB

Au reservoir!

Today is the anniversary (143rd actually, but what's a number?) of the birth of the fabulously camp author E.F. Benson.

One of three gay brothers and a lesbian sister (what must their Victorian parents have thought?), Fred was the youngest, and - despite his older brother composing the lyrics to Land Of Hope And Glory - left us the most cherished of legacies, especially here at Dolores Delargo Towers.

For it was the youngest Benson who brought us the exquisite Mapp and Lucia! If anyone has not heard of them before, these tales of small-town snobbery, rivalry and bitchiness are a must-read. However, it is for the practically perfect Channel 4 TV series, starring Geraldine McEwan, Prunella Scales and Nigel Hawthorne that we love these tales the most.

Lucia's Art Deco gowns! The precision of the barbed put-downs! The machinations of reaching the top of the social ladder in Tilling! Oh, how we love it... Enjoy!

Mapp & Lucia - Au Reservoir

Mapp & Lucia on IMDB

The Friends of Tilling website