Cleese, who played Basil Fawlty in the two-season 70s comedy, remembered Scales as a “really wonderful comic actress”.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
John Cleese says scene after scene in Fawlty Towers, Prunella Scales was perfect. (Getty: Don Smith\/Radio Times)<\/p>\n
“I’ve recently been watching a number of clips of Fawlty Towers whilst researching a book,” Cleese said in a statement.<\/p>\n
“Scene after scene she was absolutely perfect.<\/p>\n
“She was a very sweet lady, who spent a lot of her life apologising.<\/p>\n
“I used to tease her about it. I was very, very fond of her.”<\/p>\n
Numerous writers, actors and presenters have joined Cleese in paying tribute to Scales, whose acting r\u00e9sum\u00e9 includes TV, film and theatre roles.<\/p>\n
She starred as Elizabeth Mapp in the 1985 TV adaptation of Mapp & Lucia, Queen Elizabeth II in A Question of Attribution and as another royal playing Queen Victoria more than 400 times in one-woman show An Evening with Queen Victoria.<\/p>\n
British broadcaster Gyles Brandreth said Scales was brilliant.<\/p>\n
Loading Instagram content<\/p>\n
“Prunella was a wonderful actress who brought her high intelligence to every part she played \u2014 from Sybil Fawlty to Elizabeth II,” Brandreth said.<\/p>\n
“She was funny, intrepid, interesting, interested, challenging, huge fun.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Prunella Scales was best known for playing Sybil Fawlty in Fawlty Towers. (Youtube)<\/p>\n
British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer passed on his condolences to Scales’s family.<\/p>\n
“Clearly Prunella Scales was part of a golden era for British comedy,” a spokesperson for Sir Keir said.<\/p>\n
“Someone whose talent was beamed into people’s homes over many years and gave many people a huge amount of enjoyment.”<\/p>\n
Scales was diagnosed with vascular dementia in 2013, but continued working for many years after.<\/p>\n
Between 2014 and 2019, she and her husband, actor Timothy West, who died in November 2024, explored waterways in Britain and abroad in the travel show Great Canal Journeys.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Prunella Scales (left) starred alongside John Cleese, Connie Booth and Andrew Sachs in Fawlty Towers. (Supplied)<\/p>\n
The program was praised for the way it honestly depicted Scales’s dementia.<\/p>\n
The British Alzheimer’s Society interim chief executive, Corinne Mills, described Scales as “a true British icon”.<\/p>\n
“Prunella was an inspiration not just for her achievements on screen, but because she spoke so openly about living with dementia,” she said.<\/p>\n
“We are profoundly grateful for the awareness she helped to raise and send our heartfelt condolences to her loved ones.”<\/p>\n
Scales’s sons Alex and Samuel announced their mother had died peacefully in London in a statement on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
“She was watching Fawlty Towers the day before she died,” the statement said.<\/p>\n
She is also survived by a stepdaughter, seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.<\/p>\n
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