Prunella Scales
Department: Acting
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.
Known For
Wolf
1994
The Shell Seekers
2007
Emma
1996
The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne
1987
Waltz of the Toreadors
1962
Hobson's Choice
1954
Mr. Loveday's Little Outing
2006
Breaking the Code
1996
A Question of Attribution
1991
Stiff Upper Lips
1998
Freddie As F.R.O.7.
1992
A Day In The Death Of Joe Egg
2002
A Chorus of Disapproval
1989
Consuming Passions
1988
What the Butler Saw
1987
The Phone Call
2013
Fawlty Towers Revisited
2005
An Ideal Husband
1999
Second Best
1994
50 Years of BBC Two Comedy
2014
Dirty Beasts
1990
Revolting Rhymes
1990
The Wicked Lady
1983
Run For Your Wife
2012
Fawlty Towers: Re-Opened
2009
The Littlest Horse Thieves
1976
An Audience with Alf Garnett
1997
Room at the Top
1958
The Ghost of Greville Lodge
2000
Beyond The Pale
1989
Doris and Doreen
1978
The Apple Cart
1975
What Every Woman Wants
1954
An Awfully Big Adventure
1995
Station Jim
2001
What the Pythons Did Next...
2007
Lord of Misrule
1996
Natural Causes
1988
Fair Game
1994
Howards End
1992
Outside Edge
1982
Horrid Henry: The Movie
2011
The Boys from Brazil
1978
The Hound of the Baskervilles
1978
Mad Cows
1999
The Merry Wives of Windsor
1982
Laxdale Hall
1953
My Friend Walter
1992
The Tale of Little Pig Robinson
1990
Home Cooking
1986
Sub Rosa
2014
When We Are Married
1987
Absurd Person Singular
1985
Slimming Down
1984
The Achurch Letters
1977
Bosses From Hell
1989
Communicators From Hell
1989
The Cancellation Of Fawlty Towers
2025
The Crowded Day
1954
Singles
1983
The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends: The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle and Mr. Jeremy Fisher
1994
Think
2007
The Ring of Truth
1973
The Funny Blokes of British Comedy
2005
Midsomer Murders
1997
Bergerac
1981
Fawlty Towers
1975
Marriage Lines
1961
Dalziel & Pascoe
1996
Great Canal Journeys
2014
Keeping Mum
1997
Unnatural Causes
1986
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