Prunella Scales, the celebrated British actress best remembered for portraying the sharp-tongued Sybil Fawlty in the classic sitcom Fawlty Towers, has passed away at the age of 93, her sons confirmed on Tuesday (Oct 28). Sybil, the quick-witted and domineering wife of John Cleese’s character Basil Fawlty, appeared in the show’s two seasons broadcast in 1975 and 1979. Set in a chaotic hotel in Torquay, the series grew into one of Britain’s most iconic comedies and gained a global audience.

The show remains a staple of television and continues to be widely referenced today. “Our beloved mother, Prunella Scales, died peacefully at home in London yesterday,” her sons said. “Remarkably, she had been watching Fawlty Towers the day before she passed.” Scales was married to fellow actor Timothy West for 61 years. He died in November last year. In recent years, she had been living with dementia.

In 2019, Fawlty Towers was voted the greatest British sitcom of all time by Radio Times. It was adapted into a stage show in Australia in 2016 and later transferred to London’s West End in 2024. On the show, Sybil became famous for her drawling catchphrase “Ooooh I knoooow” and her loud, cackling laugh, which Basil once compared to “machine-gunning a seal”.

Across a career spanning seven decades, Scales appeared in numerous productions from the 1950s onward, including the 1960s sitcom Marriage Lines. She also featured in the 1992 Academy Award-winning film Howards End, performing alongside her son, actor Samuel West. During the 2010s, she and her husband presented the travel series Great Canal Journeys, exploring waterways aboard their narrowboat. Born in Surrey in 1932, Scales trained as an actor at The Old Vic Theatre School in Bristol, marking the beginning of an extraordinary life in performance.