Prunella Scales says she ‘loves it when people don’t’ ask her about Fawlty Towers

Actor, who played Sybil Fawlty in series, says she finds topic ‘boring’

Prunella Scales has made her stance clear on whether she likes talking about Fawlty Towers.

The 92-year-old actor best known for playing Sybil Fawlty, the stern wife of John Cleese’s eccentric Basil Fawlty in the hit Seventies sitcom, has said that she dislikes discussing the show.

When asked about Fawlty Towers in a new interview with The Times, the interviewer Andrew Billen remarks that Scales finds the topic “irritating”.

When the interviewer enquires whether people still ask her about her time playing Sybil, Scales replies: “Yes. It’s boring. On the whole, I love it when they don’t.”

Asked further whether she finds it harder to play comedy versus drama, she said she found the topic “boring” and replied: “Is the play good? Is the writing good? Do you understand the character? Go ahead. I mean, I don’t like this terrible analysis of one’s work.”

Scales then proposed they “change the subject or get another drink”.

Prunella Scales and Nicky Henson in 'Fawlty Towers' (BBC)

The original BBC series Fawlty Towers ran for two series of six episodes each, in 1975 and 1979. It is widely considered one of the best British comedy series ever made. It was written by Cleese and Connie Booth, and centred on the staff of a fictional hotel in Torquay, Devon.

Prunella Scales as Sybil Fawlty, Cleese as Basil Fawlty, Connie Booth as Polly Sherman and Andrew Sachs as Manuel (BBC)

Scales was diagnosed with vascular dementia, a common type of dementia caused by reduced blood flow to the brain, in 2013.

Timothy West, the actor’s husband, wrote of her condition in his recent memoir, Pru and Me. He wrote that the year before her diagnosis he had consulted their GP about her memory but had been told not to worry.

Speaking about her memory with The Times, Scales said it changes “minute to minute”.

“Well, as one gets older, one’s memory and living from minute to minute changes, doesn’t it? You get less efficient. My memory is less good. I mean, I forget to do things and, that’s age, the same as everybody else,” she said. “Oh, don’t go on asking me about things like that.”

Scales has continued to work, and alongside West, they filmed Great Canal Journeys, the Channel 4 series celebrating their love of narrow boating, which they embarked on in 2019.

Timothy West and Prunella Scales photographed in May (PA)

In her recent work, Scales makes a voice cameo in Queen, a stage dramatisation of Queen Victoria’s letters, which has just finished its run at the Tabard Studio Theatre in west London. She voices Queen Victoria.

Scales played the character more than 400 times in An Evening With Queen Victoria, a play written for her by Katrina Hendrey in 1979.

Scales has played Queen Victoria on several more occasions, including in the BBC drama-documentary Victoria: An Intimate History, which aired in 2003.

However, Scales said she doesn’t really enjoy playing royal characters.

Asked whether she likes playing Queens, she replied: “I don’t. When you say ‘like playing queens’ there aren’t any queens that I want to play but the queens I have played have all been interesting people with interesting jobs and interesting lives.”

She continued: “And that’s why I like playing them. I don’t like playing queens as such.”