{"id":105275,"date":"2025-10-28T13:42:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T13:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/105275\/"},"modified":"2025-10-28T13:42:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T13:42:09","slug":"fawlty-towers-actress-prunella-scales-dies-aged-93","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/105275\/","title":{"rendered":"Fawlty Towers actress Prunella Scales dies aged 93"},"content":{"rendered":"

Emma Saunders,Culture reporter and <\/p>\n

Paul Glynn,Culture reporter<\/p>\n

\"BBCBBC Images<\/p>\n

Fawlty Towers actress Prunella Scales has died aged 93, her family have confirmed.<\/p>\n

Scales was best known for playing hotel manager Sybil Fawlty, the long-suffering and domineering wife of Basil – played by John Cleese – in the classic British sitcom.<\/p>\n

The actress died “peacefully at home in London yesterday”, her sons Samuel and Joseph said.<\/p>\n

They added that she was watching Fawlty Towers the day before she died. Cleese paid tribute, describing Scales as “a really wonderful comic actress”. He said: “Scene after scene she was absolutely perfect.”<\/p>\n

Watch: Prunella Scales during 2023 interview with the BBC<\/p>\n

The actress had been diagnosed with vascular dementia in 2013.<\/p>\n

“Our darling mother Prunella Scales died peacefully at home in London yesterday. She was 93,” her sons told the PA News agency. <\/p>\n

“Although dementia forced her retirement from a remarkable acting career of nearly 70 years, she continued to live at home.”<\/p>\n

Her husband, fellow actor Timothy West, died in November last year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

She is survived by two sons and one stepdaughter, seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.<\/p>\n

The statement added: “We would like to thank all those who gave Pru such wonderful care at the end of her life: her last days were comfortable, contented and surrounded by love.”<\/p>\n

‘Wonderful comic actress’<\/p>\n

Cleese said in a statement: “How very sad. Pru was a really wonderful comic actress. I’ve recently been watching a number of clips of Fawlty Towers whilst researching a book. Scene after scene she was absolutely perfect.”<\/p>\n

He added: “She was a very sweet lady, who spent a lot of her life apologising. I used to tease her about it. I was very, very fond of her.”<\/p>\n

Broadcaster Gyles Brandreth remembered her as “a funny, intelligent, interesting, gifted human being”.<\/p>\n

Jon Petrie, director of comedy at the BBC, offered: “She was a national treasure whose brilliance as Sybil Fawlty lit up screens and still makes us laugh today.”<\/p>\n

Scales also went on to receive a Bafta nomination for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in Alan Bennett’s 1991 televised play, A Question of Attribution. <\/p>\n

But she will forever be most closely identified with the domineering and long-suffering comedy creation Sybil Fawlty in Fawlty Towers, best defined by one bark of “Basil”.<\/p>\n

\"GettyGetty Images<\/p>\n

Timothy West and Prunella Scales proved a hit in Great Canal Journeys on Channel 4<\/p>\n

This year marked 50 years since the classic comedy Fawlty Towers first appeared on our screens.<\/p>\n

In the sitcom, the aspirational and stylish Sybil – with her permed hair and sharp skirt suits – ruled the roost over her bumbling and often hapless husband Basil as they both attempted to run a Torquay hotel.<\/p>\n

Often, when he was on the verge of a crisis, she would arrive and step in to either clear up his mess or benefit from his misfortune.<\/p>\n

He referred to her by a number of negative nicknames including “the dragon” and “my little piranha fish”, but only behind her back as he was terrified of her.<\/p>\n

In one episode, titled The Psychiatrist, Basil finally lost his patience and snapped at his wife, declaring: “Shut up, I’m fed up.”<\/p>\n

“Oh, you’ve done it now,” responded Sybil.<\/p>\n

Speaking of her character, Scales once said: “I feel very grateful for Sybil. Fawlty Towers was very hard to make, but it was very stimulating.”<\/p>\n

But in an interview with the Independent<\/a> last year, she said she “loves it when people don’t” ask her about the show as she found the topic “boring”.<\/p>\n

\"GettyGetty Images<\/p>\n

Scales met Queen Camilla during a garden party in Rye in May last year<\/p>\n

Later in life, she enjoyed an unlikely hit with Channel 4’s Great Canal Journeys, travelling waterways in the UK and elsewhere with her late husband.<\/p>\n

“We didn’t start out thinking it was going to be an especially exciting performance for people to watch,” admitted West in an interview with the BBC’s Colin Paterson in 2023.<\/p>\n

But for 10 series, they made canals captivating. “We were good at it,” he smiled.<\/p>\n

West noted how his wife’s dementia would not break their 60-year love story.<\/a><\/p>\n

Following the annoncement of her death on Tuesday, Corinne Mills, interim chief executive officer for Alzheimer’s Society, praised the actress for raising awareness.<\/p>\n

She said: “We are deeply saddened by the news that Prunella Scales – a true British icon – has died.<\/p>\n

“Prunella was an inspiration not just for her achievements on screen, but because she spoke so openly about living with dementia, shining an important light on the UK’s biggest killer.”<\/p>\n

She added: “We are profoundly grateful for the awareness she helped to raise and send our heartfelt condolences to her loved ones.”<\/p>\n

West End<\/p>\n

Scales’ big acting break came in the early 1960s sitcom Marriage Lines, and she also featured in various BBC Radio 4 sitcoms.<\/p>\n

She appeared on the West End in productions like Long Day’s Journey Into Night in 1991, again alongside her husband, as well as the TV and radio comedy After Henry.<\/p>\n

Her other credits include the 1987 film The Lonely Passion Of Judith Hearne and the 1988 comedy Consuming Passions, opposite Dame Vanessa Redgrave and Sir Jonathan Pryce.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Emma Saunders,Culture reporter and Paul Glynn,Culture reporter BBC Images Fawlty Towers actress Prunella Scales has died aged 93,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":105276,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[156,111,139,69,437],"class_list":{"0":"post-105275","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz","12":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105275\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}