Prunella Scales

Actor Jun 22 (died age 93) Sutton Abinger, Surrey, England, UK 1952–2025 (73 year career)

6.1 avg rating

Biography

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,…

Known For

Film

Fawlty Towers

Sybil Fawlty

Film

Howards End

Aunt Juley

Film

Wolf

Maude Waggins

Film

The Boys from Brazil

Mrs. Harrington

Film

Hobson's Choice

Vicky Hobson

Film

Room at the Top

Council Office Worker (uncredited)

Film

Emma

Miss Bates

Film

The Phone Call

Joan

Filmography

Acting (96)

Movies (63)

The Cancellation Of Fawlty Towers

2025

Sub Rosa

2014

as Madame

5.0

50 Years of BBC Two Comedy

as Self

The Phone Call

as Joan

Run For Your Wife

as Woman in Pub

Horrid Henry: The Movie

2011

as Great Aunt Greta

5.2

Fawlty Towers: Re-Opened

2009

as Self / Sybil Fawlty

8.0

The Shell Seekers

2007

as Dolly Keeling

6.9

What the Pythons Did Next...

2007

as Self

Think

2007

as Customer

Mr. Loveday's Little Outing

2006

as Lady Moping

Fawlty Towers Revisited

2005

as Herself

5.0

The Funny Blokes of British Comedy

2005

as Sybil Fawlty (archive footage) (uncredited)

6.0

A Day In The Death Of Joe Egg

2002

as Grace

Station Jim

2001

as Queen Victoria

7.0

The Ghost of Greville Lodge

2000

as Sarah

6.4

Mad Cows

1999

as Dr. Minny Stinkler

An Ideal Husband

as Lady Markby

Stiff Upper Lips

as Aunt Agnes

An Audience with Alf Garnett

Emma

as Miss Bates

Lord of Misrule

as Shirley

Breaking the Code

1996

as Sara Turing

5.1

An Awfully Big Adventure

as Rose

Fair Game

as Marjorie

Wolf

as Maude Waggins

Second Best

as Margery

The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends: The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle and Mr. Jeremy Fisher

1994

as Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle (voice)

Howards End

as Aunt Juley

Freddie As F.R.O.7.

as Queen (voice)

My Friend Walter

as Aunt Ellie

A Question of Attribution

1991

as H.M.Q.

6.6

Dirty Beasts

1990

as Narrator

Revolting Rhymes

1990

as Narrator

The Tale of Little Pig Robinson

1990

as Fleecy Flock

Bosses From Hell

1989

Beyond The Pale

1989

as Milly

A Chorus of Disapproval

1989

as Hannah Ap Llewellyn

5.3

Communicators From Hell

1989

Natural Causes

1988

as Celia Bryce

Consuming Passions

as Ethel

What the Butler Saw

as Mrs Prentice

The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne

1987

as Moira O'Neill

6.5

When We Are Married

1987

as Annie Parker

Home Cooking

1986

as Judith

Absurd Person Singular

1985

as Marion Brewster-Wright

8.0

Slimming Down

1984

as Mrs. Shrigley

The Wicked Lady

as Lady Kingsclere

Singles

as Gail

The Merry Wives of Windsor

as Mistress Page

Outside Edge

as Miriam

The Hound of the Baskervilles

as Glynis

The Boys from Brazil

as Mrs. Harrington

Doris and Doreen

as Doris Rutter

The Achurch Letters

as Florence Farr

The Littlest Horse Thieves

1976

as Mrs. Sandman

6.8

The Apple Cart

1975

as Queen Jemima

Waltz of the Toreadors

1962

as Estella Fitzjohn

4.8

Room at the Top

1958

as Council Office Worker (uncredited)

Hobson's Choice

as Vicky Hobson

The Crowded Day

as Customer

What Every Woman Wants

as Mary

Laxdale Hall

as Morag McLeod

Television (33)

Great Canal Journeys

2014

as Self

8.8

Agatha Christie's Marple

as Mrs Mackenzie

The Royal

as Red Admiral

Dickens

as Elizabeth Dickens

Loose Women

as Self

Midsomer Murders

as Eleanor Bunsall

Keeping Mum

as Marjorie

Silent Witness

as Anne Parker

Dalziel & Pascoe

Dennis the Menace and Gnasher

1996

as Mrs. Duffel

6.2

Look at the State We're In!

1995

as Storyteller

The World of Lee Evans

1995

as Mother

6.3

Signs and Wonders

1995

as Elizabeth Palmore

The Rector's Wife

1994

as Marjorie Richardson

After Henry

as Sarah France

Thompson

Casualty

as Jocelyn Anderson

Unnatural Causes

as Judith

Theatre Night

as Mrs. Prentice

Mapp & Lucia

Bergerac

as Gloria Gibbins

Never the Twain

as Susan Peel

An Audience with...

as Self

Target

as Diana Blake

Lucky Feller

Fawlty Towers

as Sybil Fawlty

Playhouse

as Florence Farr

Seven of One

as Marion Joyce

BBC Play of the Month

1965

as Queen Jemima

5.0

Thirty-Minute Theatre

as Marie

Marriage Lines

Faces of Jim

as Laura Morrell

Pride and Prejudice

1952

as Lydia Bennet