Fawlty Towers legend Prunella Scales has died aged 93, her sons have shared in a statement.
The actress was best known for her role as Sybil Fawlty, the domineering wife of incompetent Basil Fawlty (John Cleese), in the iconic BBC sitcom.
Scales 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.’
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.’
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’.
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 end, Scales was a small screen regular with roles in A Question of Attribution, 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 ten series of Great Canal Journeys for Channel 4 from 2014 until 2020, in which the couple took 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.
‘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.
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.’
In recent years, Scales said she found fielding repeated questions about Fawlty Towers ‘boring and there had been no reports 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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