Prunella Scales
Known for: Acting
Born: June 22, 1932
Died: October 27, 2025
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,…
Known for
Revolting Rhymes
1990
Beyond The Pale
1989
My Friend Walter
1992
Home Cooking
1986
Singles
1983
A Question of Attribution
1991
What the Butler Saw
1987
Dirty Beasts
1990
The Ghost of Greville Lodge
2000
Doris and Doreen
1978
Natural Causes
1988
Sub Rosa
2014
Slimming Down
1984
The Achurch Letters
1977
The Cancellation Of Fawlty Towers
2025
Think
2007
Mr. Loveday's Little Outing
2006
Stiff Upper Lips
1998
A Day In The Death Of Joe Egg
2002
A Chorus of Disapproval
1989
Fawlty Towers Revisited
2005
Fawlty Towers: Re-Opened
2009
The Apple Cart
1975
When We Are Married
1987
The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends: The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle and Mr. Jeremy Fisher
1994
The Ring of Truth
1973
The Shell Seekers
2007
Breaking the Code
1996
The Phone Call
2013
Second Best
1994
An Audience with Alf Garnett
1997
Fair Game
1994
The Merry Wives of Windsor
1982
Hobson's Choice
1954
Freddie As F.R.O.7.
1992
The Wicked Lady
1983
Outside Edge
1982
Waltz of the Toreadors
1962
Consuming Passions
1988
An Awfully Big Adventure
1995
Absurd Person Singular
1985
The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne
1987
An Ideal Husband
1999
The Littlest Horse Thieves
1976
Howards End
1992
Laxdale Hall
1953
What Every Woman Wants
1954
Lord of Misrule
1996
Horrid Henry: The Movie
2011
Emma
1996
The Tale of Little Pig Robinson
1990
Wolf
1994
Mad Cows
1999
The Hound of the Baskervilles
1978
Station Jim
2001
Communicators From Hell
1989
What the Pythons Did Next...
2007
Bosses From Hell
1989
50 Years of BBC Two Comedy
2014
The Crowded Day
1954
Room at the Top
1958
The Boys from Brazil
1978
Run For Your Wife
2012
Midsomer Murders
1997
Bergerac
1981
Fawlty Towers
1975
Great Canal Journeys
2014
Keeping Mum
1997
The Royal
2003
Thompson
1988
Lucky Feller
1976
Dennis the Menace and Gnasher
1996
An Audience with...
1978
Casualty
1986
The World of Lee Evans
1995
The Rector's Wife
1994
Signs and Wonders
1995
Silent Witness
1996
Loose Women
1999
Pride and Prejudice
1952
Thirty-Minute Theatre
1965
Agatha Christie's Marple
2004
Theatre Night
1985
Never the Twain
1981
Playhouse
1974
BBC Play of the Month
1965
Target
1977
Dickens
2002
After Henry
1988
Look at the State We're In!
1995
Seven of One
1973
Faces of Jim
1961
Mapp & Lucia
1985
Country Matters
1972
Marriage Lines
1961
Unnatural Causes
1986
Dalziel and Pascoe
1996
ScreenPlay
1986
Screen One
1989
Looking for Victoria
2003
Weekend Playhouse
1984
The BBC Television Shakespeare
1978
The Funny Blokes of British Comedy
2005