
Birthday
1932/06/22
Day of death
2025/10/27 (93 years old)
Gender
Female
Place of Birth
Sutton Abinger, Surrey, England, UK
Also know as
Prunella Margaret Rumney West Scales, Prunella Margaret Rumney Illingworth, پرونلا اسکیلز
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.

(1994) Wolf
as Maude Waggins

(2007) The Shell Seekers
as Dolly Keeling

(1996) Emma
as Miss Bates

(1987) The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne
as Moira O'Neill

(1962) Waltz of the Toreadors
as Estella Fitzjohn

(1954) Hobson's Choice
as Vicky Hobson

(2006) Mr. Loveday's Little Outing
as Lady Moping

(1996) Breaking the Code
as Sara Turing

(1991) A Question of Attribution
as H.M.Q.

(1998) Stiff Upper Lips
as Aunt Agnes

(1992) Freddie As F.R.O.7.
as Queen (voice)
(2002) A Day In The Death Of Joe Egg
as Grace

(1989) A Chorus of Disapproval
as Hannah Ap Llewellyn

(1988) Consuming Passions
as Ethel

(1987) What the Butler Saw
as Mrs Prentice

(2013) The Phone Call
as Joan

(2005) Fawlty Towers Revisited
as Herself

(1999) An Ideal Husband
as Lady Markby

(1994) Second Best
as Margery

(2014) 50 Years of BBC Two Comedy
as Self

(1990) Dirty Beasts
as Narrator

(1990) Revolting Rhymes
as Narrator

(1983) The Wicked Lady
as Lady Kingsclere

(2012) Run For Your Wife
as Woman in Pub

(2009) Fawlty Towers: Re-Opened
as Self / Sybil Fawlty

(1976) The Littlest Horse Thieves
as Mrs. Sandman

(1997) An Audience with Alf Garnett
as ---

(1958) Room at the Top
as Council Office Worker (uncredited)

(2000) The Ghost of Greville Lodge
as ---

(1989) Beyond The Pale
as Milly

(1978) Doris and Doreen
as Doris Rutter
(1975) The Apple Cart
as Queen Jemima

(1954) What Every Woman Wants
as Mary

(1995) An Awfully Big Adventure
as Rose
(2001) Station Jim
as Queen Victoria

(2007) What the Pythons Did Next...
as Self
(1996) Lord of Misrule
as Shirley

(1988) Natural Causes
as Celia Bryce

(1994) Fair Game
as Marjorie

(1992) Howards End
as Aunt Juley

(1982) Outside Edge
as Miriam

(2011) Horrid Henry: The Movie
as Great Aunt Greta

(1978) The Boys from Brazil
as Mrs. Harrington

(1978) The Hound of the Baskervilles
as Glynis

(1999) Mad Cows
as Dr. Minny Stinkler

(1982) The Merry Wives of Windsor
as Mistress Page
(1953) Laxdale Hall
as Morag McLeod

(1992) My Friend Walter
as Aunt Ellie

(1990) The Tale of Little Pig Robinson
as Fleecy Flock

(1986) Home Cooking
as Judith

(2014) Sub Rosa
as Madame

(1987) When We Are Married
as Annie Parker

(1985) Absurd Person Singular
as Marion Brewster-Wright

(1984) Slimming Down
as Mrs. Shrigley

(1977) The Achurch Letters
as Florence Farr

(1989) Bosses From Hell
as ---

(1989) Communicators From Hell
as ---

(2025) The Cancellation Of Fawlty Towers
as ---

(1954) The Crowded Day
as Customer
(1983) Singles
as Gail

(1973) Seven of One
as ---

(1997) Midsomer Murders
as Eleanor Bunsall

(1981) Bergerac
as Gloria Gibbins

(1975) Fawlty Towers
as Sybil Fawlty

(1961) Marriage Lines
as ---

(1996) Dalziel & Pascoe
as ---

(2014) Great Canal Journeys
as Self

(1985) Mapp & Lucia
as ---

(1997) Keeping Mum
as Marjorie
(1986) Unnatural Causes
as Judith

(2003) The Royal
as Red Admiral
(1988) Thompson
as ---

(1976) Lucky Feller
as ---

(1996) Dennis the Menace and Gnasher
as Mrs. Duffel

(1978) An Audience with...
as Self

(1986) Casualty
as Jocelyn Anderson

(1995) The World of Lee Evans
as Mother

(1994) The Rector's Wife
as Marjorie Richardson

(1995) Signs and Wonders
as Elizabeth Palmore

(1996) Silent Witness
as Anne Parker

(1999) Loose Women
as Self

(1952) Pride and Prejudice
as Lydia Bennet

(1965) Thirty-Minute Theatre
as Marie

(2004) Agatha Christie's Marple
as Mrs Mackenzie
(1985) Theatre Night
as Mrs. Prentice

(1981) Never the Twain
as Susan Peel

(1974) Playhouse
as Florence Farr

(1965) BBC Play of the Month
as Queen Jemima

(1977) Target
as Diana Blake

(2002) Dickens
as Elizabeth Dickens

(1988) After Henry
as Sarah France
(1995) Look at the State We're In!
as Storyteller