Fawlty Towers actress Prunella Scales dies aged 93

Fawlty Towers actress Prunella Scales has died aged 93, her family have confirmed.

Scales was best known for playing hotel manager Sybil Fawlty, the long-suffering and domineering wife of Basil – played by John Cleese – in the classic British sitcom.

The actress died “peacefully at home in London yesterday”, her sons Samuel and Joseph said.

They added that she was watching Fawlty Towers the day before she died. Cleese paid tribute, describing Scales as “a really wonderful comic actress”. He said: “Scene after scene she was absolutely perfect.”

The actress had been diagnosed with vascular dementia in 2013.

“Our darling mother Prunella Scales died peacefully at home in London yesterday. She was 93,” her sons told the PA News agency.

“Although dementia forced her retirement from a remarkable acting career of nearly 70 years, she continued to live at home.”

Her husband, fellow actor Timothy West, died in November last year.

She is survived by two sons and one stepdaughter, seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

The statement added: “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.”

BBC One will air an episode of Fawlty Towers on Tuesday evening in tribute.

The episode, called The Builders, is episode two from the first series and originally aired in September 1975. Basil and and Sybil decide to have some structural alterations done to the hotel whilst they are away for the weekend.

West End theatres in London will dim their lights for two minutes at 7pm on Thursday in remembrance of Scales.

Cleese said in a statement: “How very sad. Pru was a really wonderful comic actress. I’ve recently been watching a number of clips of Fawlty Towers whilst researching a book. Scene after scene she was absolutely perfect.”

He added: “She was a very sweet lady, who spent a lot of her life apologising. I used to tease her about it. I was very, very fond of her.”

Broadcaster Gyles Brandreth remembered her as “a funny, intelligent, interesting, gifted human being”.

Jon Petrie, director of comedy at the BBC, offered: “She was a national treasure whose brilliance as Sybil Fawlty lit up screens and still makes us laugh today.”

An official spokesman for prime minister Sir Keir Starmer noted how Scales was “part of a golden era of British comedy” and someone who “gave many people a huge amount of enjoyment”.

Scales also went on to receive a Bafta nomination for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in Alan Bennett’s 1991 televised play, A Question of Attribution.

But she will forever be most closely identified with the domineering and long-suffering comedy creation Sybil Fawlty in Fawlty Towers, best defined by one bark of “Basil”.

This year marked 50 years since the classic comedy Fawlty Towers first appeared on our screens.

In the sitcom, the aspirational and stylish Sybil – with her permed hair and sharp skirt suits – ruled the roost over her bumbling and often hapless husband Basil as they both attempted to run a Torquay hotel.

Often, when he was on the verge of a crisis, she would arrive and step in to either clear up his mess or benefit from his misfortune.

He referred to her by a number of negative nicknames including “the dragon” and “my little piranha fish”, but only behind her back as he was terrified of her.

In one episode, titled The Psychiatrist, Basil finally lost his patience and snapped at his wife, declaring: “Shut up, I’m fed up.”

“Oh, you’ve done it now,” responded Sybil.

Speaking of her character, Scales once said: “I feel very grateful for Sybil. Fawlty Towers was very hard to make, but it was very stimulating.”

But in an interview with The Times last year, she said she “loves it when people don’t” ask her about the show as she found the topic “boring”.

Later in life, she enjoyed an unlikely hit with Channel 4’s Great Canal Journeys, travelling waterways in the UK and elsewhere with her husband.

“We didn’t start out thinking it was going to be an especially exciting performance for people to watch,” admitted West in an interview with the BBC’s Colin Paterson in 2023.

But for 10 series – from 2014–2019 – the couple made canals captivating. “We were good at it,” he smiled.

West noted how his wife’s dementia would not break their 60-year love story.

Following the annoncement of her death on Tuesday, Corinne Mills, interim chief executive officer for Alzheimer’s Society, praised the actress for raising awareness.

She said: “We are deeply saddened by the news that Prunella Scales – a true British icon – has died.

“Prunella was an inspiration not just for her achievements on screen, but because she spoke so openly about living with dementia, shining an important light on the UK’s biggest killer.”

She added: “We are profoundly grateful for the awareness she helped to raise and send our heartfelt condolences to her loved ones.”

Scales’ big acting break came in the early 1960s sitcom Marriage Lines, and she also featured in various BBC Radio 4 sitcoms.

She appeared in the West End in productions like Long Day’s Journey Into Night in 1991, again alongside her husband, as well as the TV and radio comedy After Henry.

Her other credits include the 1987 film The Lonely Passion Of Judith Hearne and the 1988 comedy Consuming Passions, opposite Dame Vanessa Redgrave and Sir Jonathan Pryce.