British actress Prunella Scales, probably best known as Sybil on Fawlty Towers has died.
If only Basil had popped upstairs and asked her to stop dying…
fawlty towers can have me laughing to tears no matter how many times i see it.
prunella and her husband timothy west were on cabin pressure, john finnamore’s radio show.
She was really excellent on that Fawlty Towers. “Yes, I know. Oh, I know Audrey, I know. I know. Yes, I know.”
“If you’re going to grope a girl, have the gallantry to stay in the room with her while you’re doing it.”
Sadly, she’d had dementia for a number of years, but still sad to see her gone. I can remember in her in several old movies early in her career, and she was really wonderful.
Prunella was Martin’s mum, right? Who was Timothy West?
Me, too.
Gawd, yes! That completely captures her character on Fawlty Towers! I loved her in it. RIP, Prunella.
Manuel (Andrew Sachs) also had dementia. I hope Polly is OK!
Well, he was always getting hit by Basil. There was also the moose head falling on him, and being punched by the Irish builder after Basil had him tell the guy he was a hhhhhhideous orangutan.
yes, she did wonderfully as martin’s mum. timothy west was arthur’s father gordon.
Every time I saw her name, I was sure it was a character’s name from Fawlty. RIP, Ms. Scales.
Same here. There is no TV series ever made that I’ve watched and re-watched as many times as Fawlty Towers – not even close. In fact, Fawlty Towers is permanently resident on my tablet. I don’t even know where the original DVDs are any more, but fortunately I ripped them to MP4s a long time ago.
Yes, Prue, as John Cleese fondly called her, was really terrific on that show. So sad that she’s gone. I saw Cleese on an interview show recently and, though he’s still pretty cogent and lively for his age, he’s definitely getting really old.
One of my favorite scenes:
Sybil: You could have had them both done by now if you hadn’t spent the whole morning skulking in there listening to that racket .
Fawlty: Racket?! That’s Brahms! Brahms 3rd racket!
“What are you doing?”
“I’m kissing you, dear.”
“Well, don’t!”
I have kind of mixed feelings over Fawlty Towers. Loved it when I originally saw it, but it seems almost too cruel at times now. Basil is thoroughly unpleasant, and I don’t wish him well, but sometimes his comeuppance is worse than he deserves. Even when he tries to do something nice it blows up in his face.
Fawlty Towers was one of four in our RV trip rotation, along with Seinfeld, Larry Sanders and Flight of The Conchords.
I was coming in here to post, “Oh, I knoooww…” But I see it’s been done.
So Sybil was seven years older than Basil? Never would’ve guessed.
I’m sorry she’s gone (and that she had health/cognitive problems).
Like others here I love her Fawlty Towers work. Such great timing. I got to see her onstage in the 1980s (in London) in, I think, Joe Orton’s What the Butler Saw. Great timing there, too.
That’s nothing - when Cleese appeared in The Great Muppet Caper, the actress playing his wife (Joan Sanderson) was 27 years his elder.