₦airaland Forum

Fawlty Towers actress Prunella Scales has died

The actress, best known for her role as Sybil, has died aged 93. She was watching the sitcom the day before she died.

John Cleese has paid tribute to his Fawlty Towers co-star Prunella Scales, who has died aged 93, describing her as a "wonderful comic actress".

The star, who was living with dementia, was watching the sitcom the day before she died, her sons Samuel and Joseph West said in a statement confirming her death.

"Our darling mother Prunella Scales died peacefully at home in London yesterday."

Her seven-decade acting career saw her in multiple roles from the 1950s, including in 1960s sitcom Marriage Lines, before featuring as the wife of John Cleese's character Basil Fawlty, in two series of Fawlty Towers in 1975 and 1979.

The family statement added: "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."

Prunella Scales was one of the most successful and popular comedy actresses of her generation - achieving worldwide fame and recognition as Sybil, the long-suffering wife of Basil Fawlty in the sitcom Fawlty Towers.

Her performances, alongside John Cleese, are often regarded as arguably some of TV's funniest comedy moments ever.

The sitcom, set in a hotel in the seaside resort of Torquay, continues to be broadcast. It was developed into a theatre production that moved to London's West End in 2024.


'National treasure' and 'British icon'

John Cleese described his on-screen wife as "a really wonderful comic actress" and "a very sweet lady".

"Scene after scene she was absolutely perfect," he added.

Jon Petrie, director of comedy at the BBC which broadcast Fawlty Towers, described her as a "national treasure whose brilliance as Sybil Fawlty lit up screens and still makes us laugh today".

Broadcaster Gyles Brandreth told Sky News "she was funny, independent, intelligent, interesting, interested, intrepid, a very... considerable actress. She was a mistress of her craft."

In an earlier tribute on X, he posted images of Scales alongside Queen Camilla, from an event in May 2024.

Sir Keir Starmer's official spokesman said Scales "was part of a golden era for British comedy" whose talent "gave many people a huge amount of enjoyment".

Meanwhile, Corinne Mills, for Alzheimer's Society, called her a "a true British icon" and praised her for "shining an important light on the UK's biggest killer".

Sybil was 'poignant and beautiful'

Sky News arts and entertainment reporter Bethany Minelle said the success of Fawlty Towers was largely down to how Prunella Scales portrayed her character, Sybil.

"She could have played that as a kind of moaning, whingeing, kind of negative kind of wife... the wife indoors. And she didn't.

"She absolutely gave it layers. It was poignant and beautiful."

Seven-decade acting career

But although she was regularly cast in comic roles, alongside comedy giants like Richard Briers and Ronnie Barker, her abilities ranged far more widely than that.

Prunella Margaret Rumney Illingworth, who was born on 22 June 1932, had a seven-decade acting career.

Her career break came with the early 1960s sitcom Marriage Lines, starring opposite Richard Briers. Scales also played Queen Elizabeth II in the British film A Question Of Attribution, a role which earned her a Bafta nomination.

In 1973, Scales teamed up with Ronnie Barker in the series called Seven Of One, and in 1991 she starred alongside West on the West End stage in Long Day's Journey Into Night.

Scales married West in 1963, and had two sons; the elder being the actor and director Samuel West.

She was a lifelong supporter of the Labour Party and appeared on their party political broadcasts during the 2005 and 2010 general election campaigns.

She also used her status to help charities, including the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families Association (SSAFA).

Dementia caused her 'gradual disappearance'

In January 2013, she revealed her short-term memory was fading and her husband later confirmed that Scales was living with vascular dementia.

West 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 the TV series Great Canal Journeys until Scales' dementia reportedly progressed to the point where they had to stop in 2020.

The pair appeared in several more specials, where they looked back at their travels.

Scales is survived by her sons, Samuel and Joseph West, stepdaughter Juliet West, seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Gandah:
FTC again omoo what is going on today

DrAda:
Definitely before my time. Rest in peace ma

SpaceX:
naptu2 na old man, I can't recall watching the movie abi na series?

nairalanda1:
That means poor old basil is going to run the hotel all by himself

RIP

Uchesis:
Gen Zs stay away from this thread


I just remembered Mr Spencer and Alo-Alo

naptu2:
This is an incomplete list (I'm tired of typing). I might try and complete it tonight.

But do you remember:

The Professionals (Ci5. Bodi & Doyle)

Starsky And Hutch

Las Vegas (Dan Tana)

Hawai 5-0 (Steve McGarrett)

Monty Nash

Dan August

Randall And Hopkirk

The Avengers (John Steed And Emma Peal)

The New Avengers

The Persuaders

Miami Vice

CHiPS (Punch And Baker)

Van Der Vaulk

---

The Invisible Man

The Six Million Dollar Man

The Man From Atlantis

Bionic Woman

Wonder Woman

The Incredible Hulk

---

Good Times

The Jeffersons

Sandford And Son

Different Strokes

---

Flying High

The Love Boat

---

Fire House
SWAT

General Hospital

The A Team

---

The Rising Damp (Rigsby)

Steptoe And Son

Only When I Laugh

The Many Wives Of Patrick

Father, Dear Father

Doctor In The House

Mixed Blessings

Love Thy Neighbour

A Sharp Intake Of Breath

Keep It In The Family

Mind Your Language

Some Mothers Do Have 'Em

The Kids From 47a

---

Secret Service

Terra Hawks

Captain Scarlet

---

Dominic

The Flaxton Boys

Oliver Twist

The Prince And The Pauper

Tom Grattan's War

Folly Foot

Wurzel Gommage

---

Sura Di Tailor

Jagua

Ojo Ladipo Theatre/Awada Kerikeri/Aluwe

The Masquerade

The New Masquerade

Koko Close

Second Chance

Basi And Company

---

Winds Against My Soul

Adio Family

Mirror In The Sun

Mind Bending

Ripples

Telemovie

Behind The Clouds

Supple Blues

Checkmate

Fortunes

Mega Fortunes.

---

Things Fall Apart

Magana Jari Ce

(I can't remember the name of this series, but it was very similar to Magana Jari Ce)


Queen Amina

The Pot Of Life

---

The Bobby Benson Show

The Bala Milla Show

The Art Alade Show

The Yom Yem Show

Princess Afi Ukwa Show

---

The Village Headmaster

The New Village Headmaster

For Better Or For Worse

---

(Jimi Odumosu presents) The Cult Of Natas

The Reign Of Abiku

Willy Willy

---

Sandoka

Robin Of Sherwood

King Arthur

Ivanhoe

Alice In Wonderland

---

Casper And His Angels

Captain Caveman And The Teen Angels

Scooby Doo

Clue Club

Blue Falcon And Dog Wonder

Jana Of The Jungle
The Little Shmoo

The New Shmoo

naptu2:
[size=14pt]Television[/size] Generic tv belts.


British sitcoms
(7:30 on NTA2 Channel 5, weekend afternoons and 7pm weekdays on LTV)

The Many Wives Of Patrick, Father Dear Father, Only When I Laugh, Keep It In The Family, Love Thy Neighbour, Mixed Blessings (Nigerians will add "starring Muriel Oduntan), The Rising Damp, Allo Allo, Fawlty Towers, Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em, Mind Your Language, Doctor In The House, A Sharp Intake Of Breath, Dad's Army, Yes Minister, Yes Prime Minister, Are You Being Served?, Steptoe And Son, On The Buses (LTV overshowed the movie version, "Holiday On The Buses" ), The Benny Hill Show

and (sitcoms whose names I've forgotten)

The sitcom in which some kids are shown playing hopscotch in the opening credits.

The sitcom in which two 18th century warships are shown in the end credits, fighting a battle in which one of them is sunk.

DrAda:
Seems like a series. Just hearing about it for the first time. Did people have TV back in the 1970s that showed series or were they buying casettes that had the series in them?

Seems the op must have come from a well to do family to know about this series back in the day.

*** Just recalled that Nigeria was blessed back in the day so much so that a dollar was going for less than a naira.

jaszplus12:
You just mentioned two very mad comedies from the past!! Phew!! The days of pure innocent fun!!

jaszplus12:
Oh, it was aired on national TV. Lots of comic series back then were on national TV so everyone had access, unless you didn't enjoy comedies...

naptu2:
[size=14pt]Television[/size] Favourite TV belts.

These are specific (special) tv belts, not the generic ones.

1) LWT

Basically, television stations began their daily transmission at 5pm and went off air at midnight every weekday. At weekends they, at first, started transmitting at 12pm and went off air at midnight. Later (in the 1980s) they would start transmitting at 9am (on weekends), go off air at midday, resume at 4pm and close for the day at midnight. Then came LWT.

(After the frequency battle between the Federal Government/NPN/Radio Nigeria/NTA2 Channel 5 vs Lagos State Government/UPN/LTV was resolved)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMIKJG3uUWQ
Ernie Watts - Chariots Of Fire

That was the signature tune of Lagos Weekend Television (LWT).

LWT ran nonstop from 7pm on Friday evening till 7am on Monday morning. You'd hear the saxophone playing Chariots Of Fire and you'd know that Lagos Television (LTV) had transformed into Lagos Weekend Television (LWT).

LWT showed movies almost all night long. Nobody cared about copyright then, so they could show any movie that they wanted. The evenings (8:30-11pm) were dedicated to crime/detective series like:

Skarsky and Hutch
Hawai Five-O
Dan August
Monty Nash
The Proffessionals (CI-5)
Etc.

Then it was movies all the way until 6 or 7am.

At 6/7am they showed great shows like:

The Invisible Man
The Six Million Dollar Man
Bionic Woman
The Man From Atlantis
Secret Service (my favourite)
Wonderwoman
Incredible Hulk (Lou Ferigno & Bill Bixby)
etc until around 9am.

It was so much fun from 1981-1986. Then the LWT studio got burnt and that was the end of that.



Super 7:20 Belt

NTA2 Channel 5 went commercial in 1987 and made a lot of changes that set them apart from other stations. They began transmission at 4pm each day, instead of 5pm, developed several eye catching idents (♪Your reach out station, NTA2, NTA2 Channel 5♬), broadcast a new and more modern arrangement of the national anthem (on the keyboards, rather than a brass band) and created the Super 7:20 Belt.

The Super 7:20 Belt began at 7:20pm and ended at 8pm. Silverbird Productions owned the rights (in Nigeria) for most of the programmes that were shown.

The programmes that were shown included:

Frank's Place (starring Tim Reid)

The Cosby Show

A Different World

Brush Strokes

The Oprah Winfrey Show

The Arsenio Hall Show

New Trends (fashion show hosted by Ime Oge James)

The Fresh Prince of Bel Air

Video Soul (Donnie Simpson)

Video Vibrations

Family Matters

and a british sitcom about a London cab driver, who bumps into an old (female) friend from his teenage years. She is now a successful businesswoman, but she pretends that she's a secretary and that her actual secretary is her boss. She does this in order not to embarrass the taxi driver.

The Super 7:20 Belt ran from c1988-1993.



Cadbury's Breakfast Television

This was a syndicated programme belt that was produced for Cadbury by the Silverbird Group. It was broadcast for roughly 2 hours on Saturday mornings. It featured a mix of cartoons and sitcoms, with the occasional movie on the last Saturday of the month or at public holidays. It ran from 1993-early 2000s. It featured these and other programmes:

Cartoons

---

Spiderman And His Amazing Friends
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Biker Mice From Mars
Freakazoid
Animaniacs
Pinky & The Brain
Dungeons & Dragons
X-Men
Justice League
Batman: The Animated Series
Superman: The Animated Series

Sitcoms

Rags To Riches
George
Living Single
Out All Night
The Jamie Foxx Show
Getting Personal
The Parenthood
In The House
Suddenly Susan
Sparks
On Our Own
Family Matters
Nick Freno: Licensed Teacher


and many more.

Cadbury's Breakfast Television was cancelled after the Cadbury/Bunmi Oni financial crisis of the early/mid-2000s. By that time, The Silverbird Group, the producers of the programme belt, had already established their own tv station.


Tv Africa

TV Africa was a pan-african free-to-air tv content provider/distributor which aimed to displace Multichoice as the largest pan-african tv company. It provided a mix of cartoons, sports, sitcoms and drama series that were rebroadcasted on free-to-air terrestrial channels across Africa. I can't remember most of the programmes, but their programme line up included:

Taxi Driver
Home Sweet Home
English Premier League

TV Africa was in air from the late 1990s to the early 2000s, but its business model was not good enough to enable it challenge Multichoice and it was eventually liquidated. Successor companies invluded Proudly Africa Media (in West Africa) and One Media (in Southern Africa).


African Broadcasting Network (ABN)

ABN's programmes were rebroadcast on AIT in the early 2000s. They showed soap operas and sitcoms. I can't remember any of their soaps, but their sitcoms included:

The Parkers
Cosby (not to be confused with The Cosby Show)
Kids Say The Darndest Things
Damon
Becker
Taina
One On One
Everybody Loves Raymond

naptu2:
7am on Saturdays from 1985 till 1990 was always time for Headliners on OGTV. Headliners was basically a newspaper review show, so we'd listen to all the stories in the papers and decide which paper we would buy before the newspaper vendor got to our house. Various wrestling shows, including Canadian wrestling and the WWF were shown immediately afterwards until 9am when other stations began broadcasting.

MichaelSokoto:
dat short waiter too collect endless slaps from him oga hand tru out all episodes!