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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
National
Laura Harding

Fawlty Towers’ Prunella Scales left more than £3m in her will, probate records show

Prunella Scales, best known for Fawlty Towers, left more than three million pounds in her will following her death aged 93.

The actor, who was living with dementia, passed away peacefully at her London home in October 2025.

Official probate filings show a gross estate of £3,376,585, leaving a net sum total of £3,166,554.

Her estate will be shared between her sons Samuel and Joseph and stepdaughter Juliet. Her sons receive 40 per cent each, with her stepdaughter receiving 20 per cent.

Scales also bequeathed funds to her goddaughters, along with charities including The Royal Horticultural Society, The Snipe Charitable Trust, The Campaign To Protect Rural England and The Combined Theatrical Charities Appeals Council for The King George V Fund For Actors.

Official records show that probate was formally granted on11 August 2026.

The Snipe Charitable Trust, which provide grants to charitable organisations and furthering education and training of young persons in the arts. is to receive £10,000.

Timothy West and Prunella Scales were married for 61 years (PA Archive)
Timothy West and Prunella Scales were married for 61 years (PA Archive)

The RHS and the Campaign to Protect Rural England will receive £1,000, while the Combined Theatrical Charities Appeals Council will receive £5,000.

Scales was best known for her role as Sybil Fawlty, the long-suffering wife of hotelier Basil Fawlty, in the BBC sitcom Fawlty Towers.

The show, made up of only 12 episodes, ran from 1975 to 1979 and is considered one of the best comedies of all time.

Announcing her death last year, her sons said she had been watching Fawlty Towers the day before she died.

Scales was married to actor Timothy West for 61 years. He died in November 2024.

Together the couple filmed 10 series of the Channel 4 programme Great Canal Journeys, which saw them travel across the UK and other parts of the world exploring different waterways, and the couple also talked openly about Scales’ vascular dementia diagnosis.

Prunella Scales was best known for her role as Sybil Fawlty, the long-suffering wife of hotelier Basil Fawlty, in the BBC sitcom Fawlty Towers (PA Wire)
Prunella Scales was best known for her role as Sybil Fawlty, the long-suffering wife of hotelier Basil Fawlty, in the BBC sitcom Fawlty Towers (PA Wire)

Their last journey for the programme was broadcast in June 2019.

Among her many roles, Scales also played Queen Elizabeth II in Alan Bennett’s A Question Of Attribution, a role which earned her a Bafta nomination, and in 1973 Scales teamed up with Ronnie Barker in the series Seven Of One, also for the BBC.

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