Prunella Scales

Acting · Born 1932-06-22 · Sutton Abinger, Surrey, England, UK

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.

Known for

• The Cancellation Of Fawlty Towers (2025)
• 50 Years of BBC Two Comedy (2014)
• Sub Rosa (2014)
• The Phone Call (2013)
• Run For Your Wife (2012)
• Horrid Henry: The Movie (2011)
• Fawlty Towers: Re-Opened (2009)
• The Shell Seekers (2007)
• What the Pythons Did Next... (2007)
• Think (2007)
• Mr. Loveday's Little Outing (2006)
• Fawlty Towers Revisited (2005)
• The Funny Blokes of British Comedy (2005)
• A Day In The Death Of Joe Egg (2002)
• Station Jim (2001)
• The Ghost of Greville Lodge (2000)
• An Ideal Husband (1999)
• Mad Cows (1999)
• Stiff Upper Lips (1998)
• An Audience with Alf Garnett (1997)
• Emma (1996)
• Breaking the Code (1996)
• Lord of Misrule (1996)
• An Awfully Big Adventure (1995)