Prunella Scales
Known for: Acting
Born: June 22, 1932
Died: October 27, 2025
Place of birth: Sutton Abinger, Surrey, England, UK
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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Filmography
64 movies · 42 TV shows, newest first
NR
The Cancellation Of Fawlty Towers
2025
8.0
50 Years of BBC Two Comedy
2014
8.8
Great Canal Journeys
2014
5.0
Sub Rosa
2014
7.3
The Phone Call
2013
4.4
Run For Your Wife
2012
5.2
Horrid Henry: The Movie
2011
8.4
Fawlty Towers: Re-Opened
2009
6.9
The Shell Seekers
2007NR
Think
2007
NR
What the Pythons Did Next...
2007
NR
Mr. Loveday's Little Outing
2006
7.5
Fawlty Towers Revisited
20056.5
The Funny Blokes of British Comedy
2005
7.8
Agatha Christie's Marple
2004NR
Looking for Victoria
2003
7.8
The Royal
2003
7.0
Dickens
2002
NR
A Day in the Death of Joe Egg
2002
7.5
Station Jim
2001
7.0
The Ghost of Greville Lodge
2000
4.4
Mad Cows
1999
3.4
Loose Women
1999
6.5
An Ideal Husband
1999
5.6
Stiff Upper Lips
1998
NR
Keeping Mum
1997
NR
An Audience with Alf Garnett
1997
7.5
Midsomer Murders
1997
6.6
Emma
1996
5.6
Breaking the Code
19969.0
Lord of Misrule
1996
6.3
Dennis the Menace and Gnasher
1996
6.4
Dalziel and Pascoe
1996
7.6
Silent Witness
1996
7.0
The World of Lee Evans
1995NR
Look at the State We're In!
1995
6.5
An Awfully Big Adventure
1995
7.0
Signs and Wonders
1995
6.8
Second Best
1994
6.1
Wolf
1994
4.8
Fair Game
1994
NR
The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends: The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle and Mr. Jeremy Fisher
1994
9.0
The Rector's Wife
1994
5.2
Freddie As F.R.O.7.
1992
7.0
My Friend Walter
1992
7.0
Howards End
1992
6.8
A Question of Attribution
1991
NR
The Tale of Little Pig Robinson
1990
NR
Dirty Beasts
1990
NR
Revolting Rhymes
1990
7.2
Screen One
1989
7.0
Beyond The Pale
1989
5.4
A Chorus of Disapproval
1989
NR
Bosses From Hell
1989
NR
Communicators From Hell
19895.0
Thompson
1988
8.0
Natural Causes
1988
8.3
Consuming Passions
1988
6.7
After Henry
1988
7.0
When We Are Married
1987
6.6
The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne
1987
3.0
What the Butler Saw
1987
NR
Home Cooking
1986
6.3
Unnatural Causes
1986
6.2
Casualty
1986
6.0
ScreenPlay
1986
NR
Theatre Night
1985
6.3
Mapp & Lucia
1985
8.3
Absurd Person Singular
1985NR
Weekend Playhouse
1984
NR
Slimming Down
1984
4.9
The Wicked Lady
19836.0
Singles
1983
8.0
The Merry Wives of Windsor
1982
8.0
Outside Edge
19820.5
S.W.A.L.K.
1982
7.0
Bergerac
1981
7.0
Never the Twain
1981
6.5
Doris and Doreen
1978
6.0
The BBC Television Shakespeare
1978
6.7
The Boys from Brazil
1978
4.4
The Hound of the Baskervilles
1978
NR
Pickersgill People
1978
5.3
An Audience with...
1978
7.0
Target
1977
NR
The Achurch Letters
19777.0
Mr. Big
1977
6.9
The Littlest Horse Thieves
1976
8.3
Fawlty Towers
1975NR
The Apple Cart
1975
7.0
Playhouse
1974
7.3
Seven of One
1973NR
The Ring of Truth
1973
4.6
Country Matters
19725.1
Film '72
1971
5.2
BBC Play of the Month
1965
4.3
Thirty-Minute Theatre
1965
5.0
Waltz of the Toreadors
1962NR
Faces of Jim
1961
7.0
Marriage Lines
1961
6.9
Room at the Top
1958
5.8
The Crowded Day
1954
6.6
What Every Woman Wants
1954
7.4
Hobson's Choice
19547.0
Laxdale Hall
1953
9.0
Pride and Prejudice
1952