Prunella Scales played the iconic role of Sybil Fawlty (Picture: Regis Martin/Getty Images)
Fawlty Towers legend Prunella Scales has died aged 93, her sons have shared in a statement.
Tributes have started to pour in for the late actress, including from her Fawlty Towers co-star John Cleese, who described her as a ‘wonderful comic actress’.
Scales was best known for her role as Sybil Fawlty, the domineering wife of incompetent Basil Fawlty (Cleese), in the iconic BBC sitcom.
She was watching Fawlty Towers the day before she died on Monday, according to her sons, Samuel and Joseph West.
They said in a statement: ‘Our darling mother Prunella Scales died peacefully at home in London yesterday.
‘She was 93. Although dementia forced her retirement from a remarkable acting career of nearly 70 years, she continued to live at home. She was watching Fawlty Towers the day before she died.’
Scales played the domineering wife of Basil Fawlty (Picture: BBC)
The actress lost her husband Timothy West in November (Picture: Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
The statement to PA continued: ‘Pru was married to Timothy West for 61 years. He died in November 2024.
‘She is survived by two sons and one stepdaughter, seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
‘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.’
In his tribute, Cleese, 86, said of Scales: ‘Scene after scene she was absolutely perfect.’
Gyles Brandreth remembered her as ‘a funny, intelligent, interesting, gifted human being’, while Sir Keir Starmer said she was ‘part of a golden era for British comedy’.
The Prime Minister described her as ‘someone whose talent was beamed into people’s homes over many years and gave many people a huge amount of enjoyment’.
The director of comedy at the BBC Jon Petrie said: ‘She was a national treasure whose brilliance as Sybil Fawlty lit up screens and still makes us laugh today.’
Fawlty Towers was only 12 episodes in length, but has been hailed as ‘the British sitcom by which all other British sitcoms must be judged’.
Scales is survived by two sons (Picture: Arthur Edwards – WPA Pool/Getty Images)
She and her husband presented 10 series of Great Canal Journeys (Picture: Martin Hayhow/PA Wire)
The show was set in the chaotic foyer of a fictional hotel in Torquay, Devon, and went on to win numerous accolades, including the British Academy Television Award for Best Scripted Comedy.
After the sitcom came to an end, Scales was a small screen regular with roles in After Henry, Mapp and Lucia, Smelling of Roses and Ladies of Letters.
She also featured in many films, including Lord of Misrule, Emma, and Wolf, as well as a now-lost screen adaptation of Pride and Prejudice from 1952.
On the stage, Scales played Queen Victoria over 400 times in An Evening With Victoria. She was nominated for a Bafta in 1992 for A Question of Attribution, based on Alan Bennett’s one-act stage play.
Alongside her husband Timothy West, Scales appeared on Celebrity Gogglebox and also presented 10 series of Great Canal Journeys for Channel 4 from 2014 until 2020, which saw the couple take charming trips on narrowboats across the UK and beyond.
Scales was diagnosed with vascular dementia in 2013. The couple often discussed her Alzheimer’s on the travelogue show and it was eventually the reason they quit the programme in 2020.
(Picture: Alamy Stock Photo)
‘I’m unable to have the same in-depth conversation about stage productions with Pru that I used to enjoy. But we continue to do the things we have always done, as it’s important to continue to live,’ actor Timothy told the charity Alzheimer’s Society at the time.
Writing in his memoir, Pru and Me, he said: ‘[We] have exactly the same conversation every day of the week and it’s something I never tire of.
‘Repetition doesn’t really exist in Pru’s world and the look on her face when she enters the room and sees me sitting there on the sofa waiting for her makes me realise just how much I love her.’ West, who appeared in dramas such as Bleak House and Gentleman Jack, died last year after a fall.
In recent years, Scales said she found fielding repeated questions about Fawlty Towers ‘boring’. There had been no reports that she was set to reprise her role in Cleese’s long-gestating revival of the show, which he announced in 2023.
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