PRUNELLA SCALES LEFT £3.1M ESTATE IN WILL

Prunella Scales, known for her role as Sybil Fawlty in the BBC sitcom Fawlty Towers, left a net estate of £3,166,554 following her death in October 2025 aged 93. Official probate filings show a gross estate of £3,376,585. Probate was formally granted on 11 August 2026. Scales was living with dementia at the time of her death and passed away peacefully at her London home.

The actor's estate was distributed among her family and charitable organisations. Her sons Samuel and Joseph each received 40 per cent of the net sum, while her stepdaughter Juliet received 20 per cent. Scales also bequeathed funds to her goddaughters. Charitable beneficiaries included The Snipe Charitable Trust (£10,000), the Royal Horticultural Society and the Campaign to Protect Rural England (£1,000 each), and the Combined Theatrical Charities Appeals Council for the King George V Fund For Actors (£5,000). Scales was married to actor Timothy West for 61 years.

Scales was best known for playing the long-suffering wife of hotelier Basil Fawlty in Fawlty Towers, a BBC sitcom comprising 12 episodes that ran from 1975 to 1979. The show is widely regarded as one of the most significant British comedies. Her sons announced at the time of her death that she had been watching Fawlty Towers the day before she died.