Prunella Scales
Born in Sutton Abinger, Surrey, England, UK — Jun 22 1932• Died Oct 27 2025
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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.
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Prunella Scales's Credits
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Midsomer Murders
Eleanor Bunsall
Casualty
Jocelyn Anderson
Silent Witness
Anne Parker
Bergerac
Gloria Gibbins
BBC Play of the Month
Queen Jemima
Agatha Christie's Marple
Mrs Mackenzie
Dalziel & Pascoe
Playhouse
Florence Farr
Thirty-Minute Theatre
Marie
Fawlty Towers
Sybil Fawlty
Never the Twain
Susan Peel
Target
Diana Blake
Country Matters
Babs Pickard
Great Canal Journeys
Self
Theatre Night
Mrs. Prentice
Dennis the Menace and Gnasher
Mrs. Duffel
Wolf
Maude Waggins
Faces of Jim
Laura Morrell
Mapp & Lucia
Miss Elizabeth Mapp
After Henry
Sarah France
Emma
Miss Bates
Seven of One
Marion Joyce
Look at the State We're In!
Storyteller
Unnatural Causes
Judith
The Boys from Brazil
Mrs. Harrington
Keeping Mum
Marjorie
Thompson
Dickens
Elizabeth Dickens
Signs and Wonders
Elizabeth Palmore
Howards End
Aunt Juley
The Rector's Wife
Marjorie Richardson
Room at the Top
Council Office Worker (uncredited)
The Royal
Red Admiral
Mad Cows
Dr. Minny Stinkler
Fair Game
Marjorie
Hobson's Choice
Vicky Hobson
Consuming Passions
Ethel
Horrid Henry: The Movie
Great Aunt Greta
Marriage Lines
Second Best
Margery
An Awfully Big Adventure
Rose
Pride and Prejudice
Lydia Bennet
Freddie As F.R.O.7.
Queen (voice)
The Funny Blokes of British Comedy
Sybil Fawlty (archive footage) (uncredited)
Lucky Feller
Bosses From Hell
Run For Your Wife
Woman in Pub
Station Jim
Queen Victoria
The Shell Seekers
Dolly Keeling
The Merry Wives of Windsor
Mistress Page
Stiff Upper Lips
Aunt Agnes
Waltz of the Toreadors
Estella Fitzjohn
The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne
Moira O'Neill
The World of Lee Evans
Mother
An Ideal Husband
Lady Markby
The Apple Cart
Queen Jemima
The Cancellation Of Fawlty Towers
The Wicked Lady
Lady Kingsclere
A Question of Attribution
H.M.Q.
When We Are Married
Annie Parker
Fawlty Towers: Re-Opened
Self / Sybil Fawlty
Sub Rosa
Madame
Lord of Misrule
Shirley
The Phone Call
Joan
The Hound of the Baskervilles
Glynis
Breaking the Code
Sara Turing
A Day In The Death Of Joe Egg
Grace
Doris and Doreen
Doris Rutter
Dirty Beasts
Narrator
50 Years of BBC Two Comedy
Self
Communicators From Hell
The Crowded Day
Customer
The Littlest Horse Thieves
Mrs. Sandman
Natural Causes
Celia Bryce
Home Cooking
Judith
The Achurch Letters
Florence Farr
Absurd Person Singular
Marion Brewster-Wright
The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends: The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle and Mr. Jeremy Fisher
Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle (voice)
Outside Edge
Miriam
Beyond The Pale
Milly
The Tale of Little Pig Robinson
Fleecy Flock
Laxdale Hall
Morag McLeod
Revolting Rhymes
Narrator
What the Pythons Did Next...
Self
Slimming Down
Mrs. Shrigley
Fawlty Towers Revisited
Herself
A Chorus of Disapproval
Hannah Ap Llewellyn
My Friend Walter
Aunt Ellie
Singles
Gail
Mr. Loveday's Little Outing
Lady Moping
What Every Woman Wants
Mary
What the Butler Saw
Mrs Prentice
The Ghost of Greville Lodge
Sarah
An Audience with Alf Garnett
The Ring of Truth
Babs Pickard
Think
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