Prunella Scales, best known for her role as Sybil in Fawlty Towers, has died at the age of 93, her family has said.
The actress died "peacefully at home in London yesterday", her sons Samuel and Joseph said.
"Our darling mother Prunella Scales died peacefully at home in London yesterday. She was 93," they said.
"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."
Jon Petrie, Director of Comedy at the BBC, paid tribute to Scales, saying: "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."
Broadcaster Gyles Brandreth has remembered Prunella Scales as "a funny, intelligent, interesting, gifted human being".
This is a snap I took last year of Prunella Scales with Queen Camilla at Lamb House in Rye - we were celebrating Mapp & Lucia in which Pru had starred. What a wonderful actress: what a funny, intelligent, interesting, gifted human being. Blessed with a wonderful marriage to Tim. pic.twitter.com/XLoMgaoAOd
— Gyles Brandreth (@GylesB1) October 28, 2025
Sharing some photos of the actress on X, he wrote: "This is a snap I took last year of Prunella Scales with Queen Camilla at Lamb House in Rye – we were celebrating Mapp & Lucia in which Pru had starred.
"What a wonderful actress: what a funny, intelligent, interesting, gifted human being. Blessed with a wonderful marriage to Tim."
Read more:
- Tributes paid to 'wonderful actress' Prunella Scales
- Prunella Scales will forever be known as the long-suffering wife of Basil Fawlty
Her Fawlty Towers character, Sybil, was the long-suffering wife of Basil Fawlty, played by John Cleese, in a show that won the BAFTA for Best Scripted Comedy in 1976.
This year marked 50 years since the comedy show first appeared on screens.
Scales had been diagnosed with vascular dementia in 2013.
She also played Queen Elizabeth II in Alan Bennett's A Question of Attribution and, in 1973, she teamed up with Ronnie Barker in the series Seven Of One, also for the BBC.
After several film appearances, in 2003 Scales appeared as Hilda, the "she who must be obeyed", wife of Horace Rumpole in four BBC Radio 4 plays, with her real-life husband, Timothy West, playing her fictional husband.
Scales married West in 1963, and had two sons; the elder being the actor and director Samuel West, and a stepdaughter, Juliet.
In January 2013, she revealed her short term memory was fading. A year later her husband confirmed that Scales was living with dementia.
West spoke openly about his wife's illness and told Piers Morgan’s Life Stories: "The sad thing is that you just watch the gradual disappearance of the person that you knew and loved and were very close to.
"When we’ve been to a concert, or a play, or a film, there’s nothing very much we can say about it afterwards because Pru will have a fairly hazy memory."
The couple appeared together in 10 series of Great Canal Journeys for Channel 4 from 2014 until Scales’ dementia reportedly progressed to the point where they had to stop in 2020.
Their last journey for the programme was broadcast in June 2019. It was along the South East Asian waterways on Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, where they also took in the Cambodian temple of Angkor Wat.
There was several more specials where they looked back at their travels, which were broadcast in 2020.
Actress Sheila Hancock and her friend, presenter Gyles Brandreth, then took over Great Canal Journeys.
