The fawlty towers star died peacefully at home, her family confirmed

Prunella Scales, the British actress best known for her iconic portrayal of Sybil Fawlty in Fawlty Towers, has died aged 93.

Her family said the actress died “peacefully at home in London” on Monday. Her sons, Samuel and Joseph, said she had been watching Fawlty Towers the day before her death.

“Our darling mother Prunella Scales died peacefully at home in London yesterday. She was 93,” they said in a statement. “Although dementia forced her retirement from a remarkable acting career of nearly 70 years, she continued to live at home. Her last days were comfortable, contented and surrounded by love.”

Scales’ husband, fellow actor Timothy West, with whom she starred in Great Canal Journeys, died in November last year. She is survived by two sons, one stepdaughter, seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Scales was diagnosed with vascular dementia in 2013 but continued to appear publicly and to raise awareness about the condition. Alzheimer’s Society described her as “an inspiration, not just for her achievements on screen, but because she spoke so openly about living with dementia.”

Born in Surrey in 1932, Scales enjoyed a long and distinguished stage and screen career, but she will forever be remembered as the sharp-tongued, quick-witted Sybil Fawlty — the only person capable of keeping John Cleese’s flustered Basil in check.

Her withering one-liners and exasperated cries of “Basil!” became central to the show’s enduring success. Fawlty Towers, first broadcast in 1975, was voted the greatest British sitcom of all time in a 2019 Radio Times poll.

Cleese led tributes to his former co-star, calling her “a really wonderful comic actress”.

“How very sad,” he said. “Scene after scene she was absolutely perfect. She was a very sweet lady, who spent a lot of her life apologising. I used to tease her about it. I was very, very fond of her.”

The BBC confirmed that an episode of Fawlty Towers will be aired in her memory on Tuesday evening, while West End theatres will dim their lights for two minutes at 7pm on Thursday to honour her life and career.

Hannah Essex, co-chief executive of the Society of London Theatre, described Scales as “an artist of precision, wit and generosity who made an indelible mark on British entertainment.”

In addition to her television success, Scales was a prolific stage and film performer. She appeared in West End productions such as Long Day’s Journey Into Night (1991) alongside West, and the radio and television comedy After Henry.

Her film credits included The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (1987) and Consuming Passions (1988), opposite Vanessa Redgrave and Jonathan Pryce. In 1991 she received a Bafta nomination for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in Alan Bennett’s A Question of Attribution.

In later life, Scales became a familiar and much-loved television presence once again, co-presenting Great Canal Journeys with West. The gentle travel series, which ran for ten seasons on Channel 4, followed the couple navigating waterways in Britain and abroad.

Speaking to the BBC in 2023, West said dementia had not diminished their bond: “We didn’t start out thinking it would be exciting television, but it became something very special. We were good at it. Her dementia didn’t break our love story.”

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer called Scales “part of a golden era of British comedy” and said she “gave many people a huge amount of enjoyment”.Scales once reflected on her most famous role with a mixture of fondness and humour: “I feel very grateful for Sybil. Fawlty Towers was very hard to make, but it was very stimulating.