Prunella Scales

Born: 1932-06-22, Sutton Abinger, Surrey, England, UK

Died: 2025-10-27

Biography

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.

Filmography

• Midsomer Murders (1997)
• Casualty (1986)
• Silent Witness (1996)
• The BBC Television Shakespeare (1978)
• Agatha Christie's Marple (2004)
• Thirty-Minute Theatre (1965)
• Bergerac (1981)
• Playhouse (1974)
• Dalziel and Pascoe (1996)
• ScreenPlay (1986)
• Screen One (1989)
• Dennis the Menace and Gnasher (1996)
• Never the Twain (1981)
• Wolf (1994)
• Unnatural Causes (1986)
• Country Matters (1972)
• After Henry (1988)
• The Boys from Brazil (1978)
• Pickersgill People (1978)
• Howards End (1992)
• Seven of One (1973)
• Dickens (2002)
• Dirty Beasts (1990)
• Hobson's Choice (1954)
• Consuming Passions (1988)
• Home Cooking (1986)
• Horrid Henry: The Movie (2011)
• The Wicked Lady (1983)
• Room at the Top (1958)
• Freddie As F.R.O.7. (1992)