{"id":335,"date":"2025-10-28T16:02:59","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T16:02:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/50statefeed.com\/?p=335"},"modified":"2025-10-28T16:02:59","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T16:02:59","slug":"john-cleese-hails-absolutely-perfect-fawlty-towers-star-prunella-scales-after-her-death-aged-93","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/50statefeed.com\/?p=335","title":{"rendered":"John Cleese hails \u2018absolutely perfect\u2019 Fawlty Towers star Prunella Scales after her death aged 93"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Prunella Scales played the iconic role of Sybil Fawlty (Picture: Regis Martin\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fawlty Towers<\/a>\u00a0legend Prunella Scales has died aged 93, her sons have shared in a statement.<\/p>\n

Tributes have started to pour in for the late actress, including from her\u00a0Fawlty Towers<\/a>\u00a0co-star\u00a0John Cleese<\/a>, who described her as a \u2018wonderful comic actress\u2019.<\/p>\n

Scales was best known for her role as Sybil Fawlty, the domineering wife of incompetent Basil Fawlty (Cleese), in the iconic\u00a0BBC<\/a>\u00a0sitcom.<\/p>\n

She was watching Fawlty Towers the day before she died on Monday, according to her sons, Samuel and Joseph West.<\/p>\n

They said in a statement: \u2018Our darling mother Prunella Scales died peacefully at home in\u00a0London<\/a>\u00a0yesterday.<\/p>\n

\u2018She was 93. Although dementia forced her retirement from a remarkable acting career of nearly 70 years, she continued to live at home. She was watching Fawlty Towers the day before she died.\u2019<\/p>\n

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Scales played the domineering wife of Basil Fawlty (Picture: BBC)<\/p>\n

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The actress lost her husband Timothy West in November (Picture: Keystone\/Hulton Archive\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The statement to PA continued: \u2018Pru was married to Timothy West for 61 years. He died in November 2024.<\/p>\n

\u2018She is survived by two sons and one stepdaughter, seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.<\/p>\n

\u2018We 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.\u2019<\/p>\n

In his tribute, Cleese, 86, said of Scales: \u2018Scene after scene she was absolutely perfect.\u2019<\/p>\n

Gyles Brandreth remembered her as \u2018a funny, intelligent, interesting, gifted human being\u2019, while\u00a0Sir Keir Starmer<\/a>\u00a0said she was \u2018part of a golden era for British comedy\u2019.<\/p>\n

The Prime Minister described her as \u2018someone whose talent was beamed into people\u2019s homes over many years and gave many people a huge amount of enjoyment\u2019.<\/p>\n

The director of comedy at the BBC Jon Petrie said: \u2018She was a national treasure whose brilliance as Sybil Fawlty lit up screens and still makes us laugh today.\u2019<\/p>\n

Fawlty Towers was only 12 episodes in length, but has been hailed as \u2018the British sitcom by which all other British sitcoms must be judged\u2019.<\/p>\n

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Scales is survived by two sons (Picture: Arthur Edwards \u2013 WPA Pool\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

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She and her husband presented 10 series of\u00a0Great Canal Journeys (Picture: Martin Hayhow\/PA Wire)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The show was set in the chaotic foyer of a fictional hotel in Torquay, Devon, and went on to win numerous accolades, including\u00a0the\u00a0British Academy Television Award for Best Scripted Comedy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After the sitcom came to an end, Scales was a small screen regular with roles in After Henry,\u00a0Mapp and Lucia, Smelling of Roses\u00a0and\u00a0Ladies of Letters.<\/p>\n

She also featured in many films, including\u00a0Lord of Misrule, Emma, and Wolf, as well as a now-lost screen adaptation of Pride and Prejudice from 1952.<\/p>\n

On the stage, Scales played Queen Victoria over 400 times in An Evening With Victoria. She was nominated for a Bafta in 1992 for A Question of Attribution, based on Alan Bennett\u2019s one-act stage play.<\/p>\n

Alongside her husband Timothy West, Scales appeared on Celebrity Gogglebox and also presented 10 series of\u00a0Great Canal Journeys\u00a0for Channel 4 from 2014 until 2020<\/a>, which saw the couple take charming trips on narrowboats across the UK and beyond.<\/p>\n

Scales was\u00a0diagnosed with vascular dementia in 2013<\/a>. The couple often discussed her Alzheimer\u2019s\u00a0on the travelogue show and it was eventually the\u00a0reason they quit the programme in 2020<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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(Picture: Alamy Stock Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u2018I\u2019m unable to have the same in-depth conversation about stage productions with Pru that I used to enjoy. But we continue to do the things we have always done, as it\u2019s important to continue to live,\u2019 actor Timothy told the charity\u00a0Alzheimer\u2019s Society<\/a>\u00a0at the time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Prunella Scales played the iconic role of Sybil Fawlty (Picture: Regis Martin\/Getty Images) Fawlty Towers\u00a0legend Prunella Scales has died aged 93, her sons have shared […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/50statefeed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/50statefeed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/50statefeed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/50statefeed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/50statefeed.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=335"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/50statefeed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":342,"href":"https:\/\/50statefeed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335\/revisions\/342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/50statefeed.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/50statefeed.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/50statefeed.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}