The accomplished classical actress had a perfect ear and the ability to effortlessly pull off demanding jokes. Her performance as Sybil alongside John Cleese in Fawlty Towers was one of sitcoms’ finestFawlty Towers actor Prunella Scales dies aged 93Prunella Scales: a life in picturesShare your tributes and memories of Prunella ScalesPrunella Scales portrayed two of Britain’s greatest monarchs on TV: Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth II. She was the first dramatic actor to play the latter on television, and won a Bafta nomination for doing so.However, Scales, who has died aged 93, knew that public memory of her would be shaped by another woman. One who made those two royals look powerless – the self-declared domestic and hospitality industry empress, Sybil Fawlty, wife of Basil, owner of the worst hotel in Torquay in Fawlty Towers, in which she co-starred with John Cleese, who also co-wrote with Connie Booth. Continue reading...
Wednesday 29 October 2025
.theguardian - 1 days ago
‘Perfection’: how Prunella Scales’s Sybil Fawlty is one of TV comedy’s best characters
Latest News
Microsoft reports strong earnings even as Azure outage brings down Xbox and investor pages
- .theguardian Australian man living in Washington DC pleads guilty to selling trade secrets to Russian broker
- .theguardian Vietnamese arrivals in UK by irregular means will be fast-tracked for deportation, says No 10
- .theguardian Tributes paid after death of Mary McGee, who helped end Ireland’s ban on contraception
- .theguardian ‘We’ve got to look at the future’: Edwards to turn to next generation after World Cup exit
- .theguardian Arsenal v Brighton, Swansea v Manchester City and more: Carabao Cup clockwatch – live
- .theguardian ‘This was a slaughter, not an operation’: the favela reeling from Rio’s deadliest police raid
- .theguardian The Guardian view on hospices: investment in end-of-life care is a national priority | Editorial
- .theguardian God has sent me here to do something good... : Shafali ahead of ICC Women s WC semis against Australia
- newzealandnews The Guardian view on Argentina’s election: one step closer to becoming a Trumpian client state | Ediorial
- .theguardian I won’t apologise for The Lost King – Leicester University’s treatment of Philippa Langley is a profound injustice
- .theguardian Football Daily | Shamrock Rovers’ long, slow stumble towards League of Ireland title glory
- .theguardian Trump is often angry but rarely hurt – yet Canada has managed to pull it off | Emma Brockes
- .theguardian Julius Eastman: A Power Greater Than review – Davóne Tines celebrates the maverick musician
- .theguardian Akram Khan Company: Thikra – Night of Remembering review – forget the meaning, feel the colour and emotion
- .theguardian Pro-Palestinian students threaten to sue US university amid antisemitism definition controversy
- .theguardian I’m the worst player on my social sports team. Why does it feel so good to be bad at something?
- .theguardian The UK bond markets have become a political trap that strangles public spending. But there’s a way out | Sahil Dutta
- .theguardian No half-assed performance: how playing with a live crowd turns video games into performance art
- .theguardian Ôm mô hình tên lửa Đông Phong trong cuộc thi khiêu vũ trên băng, VĐV TQ bị Liên đoàn Trượt băng Quốc tế điều tra
- dkn The baffling appeal of the candy-coloured waterpark: Massimo Siragusa’s best photograph
- .theguardian Are you a ditherer, sharer or pre-preparer? What your menu ordering style says about you | Polly Hudson
- .theguardian Vội vàng lấy lòng ông Trump? Trung Quốc âm thầm mua 3 lô đậu nành Mỹ trước “Hội nghị Trump-Tập”
- dkn Hội đàm với ông Lee Jae-myung, ông Trump được Hàn Quốc trao huân chương và tặng “Vương miện Vàng”
- dkn 49 ngày Vu Mông Lung: Công chúng bùng nổ! ‘Đồ tể’ Triệu Lệ Hoa lộ mặt! Đàn quạ lớn lượn vòng trên Trung Nam Hải! Cơn ác báo lớn hơn còn ở phía sau!
- dkn Mitchell, Santner guides New Zealand to series-clinching win over England in Hamilton
- newzealandnews World Insights: Xi s S.Korea visit expected to consolidate economic cooperation, boost partnership
- newzealandnews She should embrace this opportunity... : Bishop s message to Shafali ahead of ICC Women s WC semifinal against Australia
- newzealandnews Depth, humanity and ice cream: Daniel Radcliffe to make Broadway return in Every Brilliant Thing
- .theguardian Shohei Ohtani had an off night at the World Series but he still breaks baseball logic
- .theguardian Agyemang injury to defensive frailty: key takeaways as England start World Cup buildup
- .theguardian Nhân sự tiếp tục chấn động sau Hội nghị TƯ 4, Kiểm toán trưởng Quân ủy TƯ và những người khác “gặp chuyện”
- dkn Share your views on a Tory MP’s proposal to deport large numbers of legally settled UK immigrants
- .theguardian Pound slides on bleak outlook for UK public fi mortgage approvals hit nine-month high – business live
- .theguardian Bị cáo buộc vi phạm thỏa thuận hòa bình, Hamas hứng chịu đòn đáp trả mạnh mẽ từ quân đội Israel
- dkn Triệu Lộ Tư chấm dứt hợp đồng thành công, không phải trả phí bồi thường “khủng”, nguyên nhân được tiết lộ
- dkn Tin đồn chợ đêm lớn nhất Hà Nam bị đóng cửa, người bán hàng rong và quản lý đô thị xảy ra xung đột
- dkn Defence lawyers would have used Tories’ statements to dismiss China spy case, attorney general says
- .theguardian Vụ “Đứa trẻ hoang dã” ở Vân Nam tiếp tục lan rộng, chủ mưu bị nghi liên quan đến buôn bán trẻ em xuyên quốc gia
- dkn Revealed: Israel demanded Google and Amazon use secret ‘wink’ to sidestep legal orders
- .theguardian Sau khi TT Trump trừng phạt “Thái tử”, Myanmar ném bom dữ dội KK-Park, hơn nghìn người tháo chạy sang Thái Lan
- dkn
‘It sounds like witchcraft’: can light therapy really give you better skin, cleaner teeth, stronger joints?
- .theguardian‘The Rushmore story is hard to tell’: how an Indigenous park leader revealed the monument’s dark side
- .theguardianJimmy Carr’s Am I the A**hole? review – the idea for this comedy panel show is one of TV’s laziest
- .theguardian‘Dangerously outdated’: high court overturns ruling implying domestic violence would not affect children
- .theguardianUK reportedly faces more than £20bn hit from steeper productivity downgrade, fuelling tax rise speculation – business live
- .theguardian‘We want people to get lost!’ Princeton’s new museum survives scandal to deliver a mazey art ambush
- .theguardianDaisy May and Charlie Cooper’s NightWatch: their hilarious ghost show is a warm-hearted joy
- .theguardian‘Under the stuff I can’t throw out is the stuff my parents couldn’t throw out’: novelist Anne Enright on the agony of clearing her family home
- .theguardianYes, Keir Starmer is Britain’s most unpopular PM ever. That could liberate him | Polly Toynbee
- .theguardianAmazon strategised about keeping its datacentres’ full water use secret, leaked document shows
- .theguardian‘A medical miracle’: is period blood ‘the most overlooked opportunity’ in women’s health?
- .theguardian
Kremlin-linked operatives scramble to stop extradition of mercenary accused of plotting coup
- .theguardian Nhân chứng tội ác mổ cướp nội tạng sống, cựu bác sĩ quân y Trung Cộng: Bệnh viện Đại Lục đã trở thành lò mổ (Phần 3)
- dkn Nhân chứng tội ác mổ cướp nội tạng sống, cựu bác sĩ quân y Trung Cộng biết được bí mật kinh hoàng lớn hơn (Phần 2)
- dkn Nhân chứng tội ác mổ cướp nội tạng sống, cựu bác sĩ quân y Trung Cộng: Người lính bị mổ cướp tạng chưa đầy 18 tuổi (Phần 1)
- dkn Boston Kickout review – John Simm and Andrew Lincoln among 90s teens tearing around Stevenage
- .theguardian The most eye-catching English football fixtures that are yet to be played | The Knowledge
- .theguardian Five years, 40,000 kids and three pro cricketers – now Ace programme has bigger ambitions
- .theguardian All operational US liquefied natural gas terminals have violated pollution limits, says report
- .theguardian Do we really expect five-year-olds to sit at desks? I want a school that understands play is learning | Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett
- .theguardian Israeli strikes in Gaza kill at least 60 overnight as ceasefire looks increasingly fragile
- .theguardian Donegal to Dakar: the Irish play about British rule hitting home in post-colonial Senegal
- .theguardian Facing War review – cool customer of a Nato secretary general marshals world on the brink
- .theguardian Down Cemetery Road review – Emma Thompson is magnificent in this thriller from Slow Horses’ creator
- .theguardian A moment that changed me: I hated running – until I saw it through my daughter’s eyes
- .theguardian Stuffed yorkies and honey-roast duck with pears: Joshua Overington’s recipes for duck, Yorkshire-style
- .theguardian A clean slate : Sciver-Brunt taking nothing for granted ahead of ICC Women s Cricket World Cup 2025 semi-final clash
- newzealandnews From CBS to TikTok, US media are falling to Trump’s allies. This is how democracy crumbles | Owen Jones
- .theguardian After a year of student-led protests, the cracks in Serbia’s government have turned into fissures | Srdjan Cvijić
- .theguardian ‘It’s been a cesspit, really, my life’: war photographer Don McCullin on 19 of his greatest pictures
- .theguardian How a radical experiment to bring a forest into a preschool transformed children’s health
- .theguardian ‘No more children are going to die like you’: how Sheffield mother kept her promise to boys killed by father 11 years ago
- .theguardian Hurricane Melissa live updates: storm strengthens again to category 4 as it nears C ‘extensive’ damage in parts of Jamaica
- .theguardian Chữ Phồn thể củng cố chủ quyền văn hóa Đài Loan, làm suy yếu cuộc xâm lược bằng quyền lực mềm của ĐCSTQ
- dkn Điều tra Tập đoàn Thái tử: CFO quản lý ‘tiền bẩn’ kiểm soát công ty niêm yết thứ ba, mua biệt thự xa hoa trăm triệu đô la tại Singapore
- dkn Women s World Cup: England upbeat about Sophie Ecclestone being fit for semi-final fixture against South Africa
- newzealandnews Brought that magic with him : Bayern Munich boss Kompany heaps praise on young Karl
- newzealandnews Cameron Norrie hails ‘biggest win’ after roaring back to beat Carlos Alcaraz in Paris
- .theguardian Too many want to do Britain down – Labour will defy the doomsayers and beat the forecasts | Rachel Reeves
- .theguardian Quelling public disquiet worth extra cost of housing refugees in barracks, says No 10
- .theguardian Man who won damages over Richard III film calls for more regulation of fact-based drama
- .theguardian The Guardian view on press freedom in Italy: at a low ebb on Giorgia Meloni’s watch | Editorial
- .theguardian The Guardian view on state failure: Britain’s crisis is not just one of investment, but also of upkeep | Editorial
- .theguardian Man charged with rape of woman in Walsall after ‘racially aggravated’ attack, say police
- .theguardian Sources