Prunella Scales

ActingBorn 1932-06-22Died 2025-10-27 (93)Sutton Abinger, Surrey, England, UK

Prunella Margaret Rumney West Scales CBE (née Illingworth; 22 June 1932) was an English former actor, best known for playing Sybil Fawlty, wife of Basil Fawlty (John Cleese), in the BBC comedy Fawlty Towers; for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in A Question of Attribution (Screen One, BBC 1991) by Alan Bennett (for which she was nominated for a BAFTA award); and for the documentary series Great Canal Journeys (2014–2021), in which she travels on canal barges and narrowboats with her husband, fellow actor Timothy West.

Prunella Scales

Known For

Great Canal Journeys

Fawlty Towers

Consuming Passions

50 Years of BBC Two Comedy

Fawlty Towers: Re-Opened

Natural Causes

The Merry Wives of Windsor

Absurd Person Singular

The Rector's Wife

Agatha Christie's Marple

Filmography

The Cancellation Of Fawlty Towers

50 Years of BBC Two Comedy

Great Canal Journeys

Sub Rosa

The Phone Call

Run For Your Wife

Horrid Henry: The Movie

Fawlty Towers: Re-Opened

The Shell Seekers

What the Pythons Did Next...

Mr. Loveday's Little Outing

Fawlty Towers Revisited

Agatha Christie's Marple

The Royal

Dickens

The Ghost of Greville Lodge

Mad Cows

Loose Women

An Ideal Husband

Stiff Upper Lips

Keeping Mum

An Audience with Alf Garnett

Midsomer Murders

Emma

Breaking the Code

Dennis the Menace and Gnasher

Dalziel & Pascoe

Silent Witness

The World of Lee Evans

An Awfully Big Adventure

Signs and Wonders

Second Best

Wolf

Fair Game

The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends: The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle and Mr. Jeremy Fisher

The Rector's Wife

Freddie As F.R.O.7.

My Friend Walter

Howards End

A Question of Attribution

The Tale of Little Pig Robinson

Dirty Beasts

Revolting Rhymes

Beyond The Pale

A Chorus of Disapproval

Bosses From Hell

Communicators From Hell

Natural Causes

Consuming Passions

After Henry

When We Are Married

The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne

What the Butler Saw

Home Cooking

Casualty

Mapp & Lucia

Absurd Person Singular

Slimming Down

The Wicked Lady

The Merry Wives of Windsor

Outside Edge

Bergerac

Never the Twain

Doris and Doreen

The Boys from Brazil

The Hound of the Baskervilles

An Audience with...