Prunella Scales
Known for: Actress
Born: 22 June 1932, Sutton Abinger, Surrey, England, UK
Died: 27 October 2025
Credits: 60+ titles
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
The Cancellation Of Fawlty Towers
Sub Rosa
The Phone Call
Run For Your Wife
Horrid Henry: The Movie
The Shell Seekers
Think
Mr. Loveday's Little Outing
The Funny Blokes of British Comedy
Agatha Christie's Marple
The Royal
Dickens
A Day in the Death of Joe Egg
Station Jim
The Ghost of Greville Lodge
Mad Cows
An Ideal Husband
Stiff Upper Lips
Keeping Mum
An Audience with Alf Garnett
Midsomer Murders
Emma
Breaking the Code
Lord of Misrule
Dennis the Menace and Gnasher
Dalziel and Pascoe
Silent Witness
Searching
The World of Lee Evans
Look at the State We're In!
An Awfully Big Adventure
Signs and Wonders
Second Best
Wolf
Fair Game
The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends: The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle and Mr. Jeremy Fisher
The Rector's Wife
Freddie As F.R.O.7.
My Friend Walter
Howards End
A Question of Attribution
The Tale of Little Pig Robinson
Revolting Rhymes
Dirty Beasts
Screen One
Beyond The Pale
A Chorus of Disapproval
Communicators From Hell
Bosses From Hell
Thompson
Natural Causes
Consuming Passions
After Henry
When We Are Married
The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne
What the Butler Saw
Unnatural Causes
Home Cooking
Casualty
ScreenPlay