Posted in: BBC, TV | Tagged: fawlty towers, Prunella Scales

Fawlty Towers Star, Actress Prunella Scales Passes Away, Age 93

Prunella Scales, who will forever be remembered as Sybill in Fawlty Towers and one half of Mapp and Lucia, has passed away at the age of 93.

Prunella Scales, who secured her place in pop culture and sitcom history by playing Cybill Fawlty in Fawlty Towers, passed away at the age of 93. She had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2013 and died peacefully at home in London on Monday, according to her sons, Samuel and Joseph. Her passing was reported in multiple outlets, including The Guardian.

Basil Fawlty (John Cleese) was afraid of chaos but utterly terrified of his wife Sybil, whom he considered the definition of "battle axe" to use that old sexist parlance, with the emphasis on "battle". He was truly afraid that she might kill him if she ever caught him cheating on her or transgressing on any of her strict rules. She was the one thing in the universe he could not bully and seemed to bully him into submission effortlessly. He had to constantly sneak behind and around her to keep her from finding out he had failed in his latest endeavour to hide his failures from her, even with the help of loyal employee Polly (series co-creator and co-writer Connie Booth). The tiny Sybill seemed to be a walking time bomb in the eyes of epoplectic Basil Fawlty, one he never wanted to set off but constantly did in his eternal cycles of failure. Prunella Scales' performance was one of precise voice and comic timing without her seeming to make any effort. It was a masterclass in classical comedy acting.

She may be remembered forever for Fawlty Towers, but Scales' career has lasted decades, including a now-lost screen adaptation of Pride and Prejudice from 1952, early Sixties sitcom The Marriage Lines, where she co-starred with Richard Briers, and the 1980s adaptation of E.F. Benson's comedic 1930s books about madcap socialites Mapp and Lucia with Geraldine McEwan. Scales also earned a BAFTA nomination for playing Queen Elizabeth II in Alan Bennett's A Question of Attribution in 1992, and became a household name again from 1995 to 2005, playing a demanding shopper named Dotty in a series of adverts for British supermarket chain Tesco. From 2014 to 2019, Scales and her husband, Timothy West, presented Channel 4's Great Canal Journeys, where they went on a series of canal and narrowboat journeys across the UK and Europe.

Prunella Scales' family released a statement to the PA Media news agency that announced, "Our darling mother Prunella Scales died peacefully at home in London yesterday. She 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. Pru was married to Timothy West for 61 years. He died in November 2024. She is survived by two sons and one stepdaughter, seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. 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 Director of Comedy Jon Petrie said, "All of us at BBC Comedy are so sorry to hear of Prunella Scales' passing. She was a national treasure whose brilliance as Sybil Fawlty lit up screens and still makes us laugh today. We send our love and condolences to her family and friends."

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