Prunella Scales
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, fellow actor Timothy West.
Filmography
Pride and Prejudice
1952 · 9.0
The Rector's Wife
1994 · 9.0
Lord of Misrule
1996 · 9.0
Consuming Passions
1988 · 8.3
Absurd Person Singular
1985 · 8.3
Fawlty Towers
1975 · 8.3
Dirty Beasts
1990 · 8.0
Revolting Rhymes
1990 · 8.0
Natural Causes
1988 · 8.0
The Merry Wives of Windsor
1982 · 8.0
Outside Edge
1982 · 8.0
Agatha Christie's Marple
2004 · 7.9
The Royal
2003 · 7.8
Silent Witness
1996 · 7.6
Station Jim
2001 · 7.5
Midsomer Murders
1997 · 7.5
Hobson's Choice
1954 · 7.4
Seven of One
1973 · 7.3
The Phone Call
2013 · 7.3
Screen One
1989 · 7.2
Howards End
1992 · 7.0
Bergerac
1981 · 7.0
Playhouse
1974 · 7.0
Target
1977 · 7.0
Never the Twain
1981 · 7.0
Marriage Lines
1961 · 7.0
Mr Big
1977 · 7.0
Signs and Wonders
1995 · 7.0
The World of Lee Evans
1995 · 7.0
Dickens
2002 · 7.0
When We Are Married
1987 · 7.0
The Ghost of Greville Lodge
2000 · 7.0
My Friend Walter
1992 · 7.0
Laxdale Hall
1953 · 7.0
Room at the Top
1958 · 6.9
The Shell Seekers
2007 · 6.9
The Littlest Horse Thieves
1976 · 6.9
A Question of Attribution
1991 · 6.8
After Henry
1988 · 6.7
The Boys from Brazil
1978 · 6.7
Second Best
1994 · 6.7
Emma
1996 · 6.6
The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne
1987 · 6.6
What Every Woman Wants
1954 · 6.6
An Awfully Big Adventure
1995 · 6.5
The Funny Blokes of British Comedy
2005 · 6.5
An Ideal Husband
1999 · 6.5
Doris and Doreen
1978 · 6.5
Dalziel and Pascoe
1996 · 6.4
Unnatural Causes
1986 · 6.3
Dennis the Menace and Gnasher
1996 · 6.3
Casualty
1986 · 6.2
Mapp & Lucia
1985 · 6.2
Wolf
1994 · 6.1
ScreenPlay
1986 · 6.0
The BBC Television Shakespeare
1978 · 6.0
Singles
1983 · 6.0
The Crowded Day
1954 · 5.8
Stiff Upper Lips
1998 · 5.6
Breaking the Code
1996 · 5.6
A Chorus of Disapproval
1989 · 5.4
BBC Play of the Month
1965 · 5.2
Horrid Henry: The Movie
2011 · 5.2
Freddie As F.R.O.7.
1992 · 5.2
Fair Game
1994 · 5.0
Thompson
1988 · 5.0
Sub Rosa
2014 · 5.0
Waltz of the Toreadors
1962 · 5.0
The Wicked Lady
1983 · 4.9
Country Matters
1972 · 4.6
The Hound of the Baskervilles
1978 · 4.4
Run For Your Wife
2012 · 4.4
Mad Cows
1999 · 4.4
Thirty-Minute Theatre
1965 · 4.2
What the Butler Saw
1987 · 3.0
S.W.A.L.K.
1982 · 0.5
Weekend Playhouse
1984 · 0.0
Theatre Night
1985 · 0.0
Faces of Jim
1961 · 0.0
Pickersgill People
1978 · 0.0
Look at the State We're In!
1995 · 0.0
Keeping Mum
1997 · 0.0
The Ring of Truth
1973 · 0.0
The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends: The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle and Mr. Jeremy Fisher
1994 · 0.0
Think
2007 · 0.0
The Cancellation Of Fawlty Towers
2025 · 0.0
Bosses From Hell
1989 · 0.0
The Achurch Letters
1977 · 0.0
The Apple Cart
1975 · 0.0
The Tale of Little Pig Robinson
1990 · 0.0
Searching
1995 · 0.0
Slimming Down
1984 · 0.0
Communicators From Hell
1989 · 0.0
An Audience with Alf Garnett
1997 · 0.0
Mr. Loveday's Little Outing
2006 · 0.0