Prunella Scales

Known for: Acting

Born: 1932-06-22 – 2025-10-27 (aged 93)

From: Sutton Abinger, Surrey, England, UK

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.

Filmography (102)

MOVIE
The Cancellation Of Fawlty Towers
2025
MOVIE★ 8.0
50 Years of BBC Two Comedy
2014
as Self
TV★ 8.8
Great Canal Journeys
2014
as Self
MOVIE★ 5.0
Sub Rosa
2014
as Madame
MOVIE★ 7.3
The Phone Call
2013
as Joan
MOVIE★ 4.4
Run For Your Wife
2012
as Woman in Pub
MOVIE★ 5.2
Horrid Henry: The Movie
2011
as Great Aunt Greta
MOVIE★ 8.4
Fawlty Towers: Re-Opened
2009
as Self / Sybil Fawlty
MOVIE★ 6.9
The Shell Seekers
2007
as Dolly Keeling
MOVIE
Think
2007
as Customer
MOVIE
What the Pythons Did Next...
2007
as Self
MOVIE
Mr. Loveday's Little Outing
2006
as Lady Moping
MOVIE★ 5.0
Fawlty Towers Revisited
2005
as Herself
MOVIE★ 6.5
The Funny Blokes of British Comedy
2005
as Sybil Fawlty (archive footage) (uncredited)
TV★ 7.8
Agatha Christie's Marple
2004
as Mrs Mackenzie
TV
Looking for Victoria
2003
as Self / Victoria
TV★ 7.8
The Royal
2003
as Red Admiral
TV★ 7.0
Dickens
2002
as Elizabeth Dickens
MOVIE
A Day In The Death Of Joe Egg
2002
as Grace
MOVIE★ 7.5
Station Jim
2001
as Queen Victoria
MOVIE★ 7.0
The Ghost of Greville Lodge
2000
as Sarah
MOVIE★ 4.4
Mad Cows
1999
as Dr. Minny Stinkler
TV★ 3.4
Loose Women
1999
as Self
MOVIE★ 6.5
An Ideal Husband
1999
as Lady Markby
MOVIE★ 5.6
Stiff Upper Lips
1998
as Aunt Agnes
TV
Keeping Mum
1997
as Marjorie
MOVIE
An Audience with Alf Garnett
1997
TV★ 7.5
Midsomer Murders
1997
as Eleanor Bunsall
MOVIE★ 6.6
Emma
1996
as Miss Bates
MOVIE★ 5.5
Breaking the Code
1996
as Sara Turing
MOVIE★ 9.0
Lord of Misrule
1996
as Shirley
TV★ 6.3
Dennis the Menace and Gnasher
1996
as Mrs. Duffel
TV★ 6.4
Dalziel and Pascoe
1996
as Edith Disney
TV★ 7.6
Silent Witness
1996
as Anne Parker
TV★ 7.0
The World of Lee Evans
1995
as Mother
TV
Look at the State We're In!
1995
as Storyteller
MOVIE★ 6.5
An Awfully Big Adventure
1995
as Rose
TV★ 7.0
Signs and Wonders
1995
as Elizabeth Palmore
MOVIE★ 6.8
Second Best
1994
as Margery
MOVIE★ 6.1
Wolf
1994
as Maude Waggins
MOVIE★ 4.8
Fair Game
1994
as Marjorie
MOVIE
The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends: The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle and Mr. Jeremy Fisher
1994
as Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle (voice)
TV★ 9.0
The Rector's Wife
1994
as Marjorie Richardson
MOVIE★ 5.3
Freddie As F.R.O.7.
1992
as Queen (voice)
MOVIE★ 7.0
My Friend Walter
1992
as Aunt Ellie
MOVIE★ 7.0
Howards End
1992
as Aunt Juley
MOVIE★ 6.8
A Question of Attribution
1991
as H.M.Q.
MOVIE
The Tale of Little Pig Robinson
1990
as Fleecy Flock
MOVIE
Dirty Beasts
1990
as Narrator
MOVIE
Revolting Rhymes
1990
as Narrator
TV★ 7.2
Screen One
1989
as H.M.Q.
MOVIE★ 7.0
Beyond The Pale
1989
as Milly
MOVIE★ 5.4
A Chorus of Disapproval
1989
as Hannah Ap Llewellyn
MOVIE
Bosses From Hell
1989
MOVIE
Communicators From Hell
1989
TV★ 5.0
Thompson
1988
MOVIE★ 8.0
Natural Causes
1988
as Celia Bryce
MOVIE★ 8.3
Consuming Passions
1988
as Ethel
TV★ 6.7
After Henry
1988
as Sarah France
MOVIE★ 7.0
When We Are Married
1987
as Annie Parker
MOVIE★ 6.6
The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne
1987
as Moira O'Neill
MOVIE★ 3.0
What the Butler Saw
1987
as Mrs Prentice
MOVIE
Home Cooking
1986
as Judith
TV★ 6.3
Unnatural Causes
1986
as Judith
TV★ 6.2
Casualty
1986
as Jocelyn Anderson
TV★ 6.0
ScreenPlay
1986
as Milly
TV
Theatre Night
1985
as Mrs. Prentice
TV★ 6.3
Mapp & Lucia
1985
as Miss Elizabeth Mapp
MOVIE★ 8.3
Absurd Person Singular
1985
as Marion Brewster-Wright
TV
Weekend Playhouse
1984
as Olive Dodd
MOVIE
Slimming Down
1984
as Mrs. Shrigley
MOVIE★ 5.0
The Wicked Lady
1983
as Lady Kingsclere
MOVIE★ 6.0
Singles
1983
as Gail
MOVIE★ 8.0
The Merry Wives of Windsor
1982
as Mistress Page
MOVIE★ 8.0
Outside Edge
1982
as Miriam
TV★ 6.7
Bergerac
1981
as Gloria Gibbins
TV★ 7.0
Never the Twain
1981
as Susan Peel
MOVIE★ 6.5
Doris and Doreen
1978
as Doris Rutter
TV★ 6.0
The BBC Television Shakespeare
1978
as Mistress Page
MOVIE★ 6.7
The Boys from Brazil
1978
as Mrs. Harrington
MOVIE★ 4.4
The Hound of the Baskervilles
1978
as Glynis
TV★ 5.3
An Audience with...
1978
as Self
TV★ 7.0
Target
1977
as Diana Blake
MOVIE
The Achurch Letters
1977
as Florence Farr
TV★ 7.2
Lucky Feller
1976
MOVIE★ 6.9
The Littlest Horse Thieves
1976
as Mrs. Sandman
TV★ 8.3
Fawlty Towers
1975
as Sybil Fawlty
MOVIE
The Apple Cart
1975
as Queen Jemima
TV★ 7.0
Playhouse
1974
as Florence Farr
TV★ 7.3
Seven of One
1973
as Marion Joyce
MOVIE
The Ring of Truth
1973
as Babs Pickard
TV★ 4.6
Country Matters
1972
as Babs Pickard
TV★ 5.3
BBC Play of the Month
1965
as Queen Jemima
TV★ 4.2
Thirty-Minute Theatre
1965
as Marie
MOVIE★ 5.0
Waltz of the Toreadors
1962
as Estella Fitzjohn
TV
Faces of Jim
1961
as Laura Morrell
TV★ 7.0
Marriage Lines
1961
as Kate Starling
MOVIE★ 6.9
Room at the Top
1958
as Council Office Worker (uncredited)
MOVIE★ 5.8
The Crowded Day
1954
as Customer
MOVIE★ 6.5
What Every Woman Wants
1954
as Mary
MOVIE★ 7.4
Hobson's Choice
1954
as Vicky Hobson
MOVIE★ 7.0
Laxdale Hall
1953
as Morag McLeod