Quiz

Achieved her greatest success on TV as the nosy, shrewish wife "Sybil Fawlty" on the classic John Cleese comedy Basil e Sybil (1975).

In January 2013, she revealed that she had begun to suffer from short term memory loss and was unable to remember the years in which her sons were born or the year she married her husband, Timothy West. In March 2014, West announced that his wife was suffering from mild Alzheimer's disease, however, by August 2015, her condition had worsened to the point where she could no longer remember any details about their wedding or their married life together.

She was awarded the CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the 1992 Queen's Birthday Honours List for her services to drama while her husband, Timothy West, was awarded his CBE in the 1984 Queen's Birthday Honours List.

Had a photographic memory.

British classical stage actress trained at both the Old Vic Theatre School in London and the Herbert Berghof Studio in New York.

Longtime friend of Basil e Sybil (1975) co-star, comedian John Cleese.

Her stage name "Scales" was actually her mother's maiden name.

She played Queen Victoria in Looking for Victoria (2003). Her son Samuel West had previously played Prince Albert Victor Edward, Duke of Clarence, Queen Victoria's grandson, in both Edward the Seventh (1975) and The ripper - Nel cuore del terrore (1997) while her husband Timothy West played the eponymous role of Queen Victoria's eldest son and eventual successor in the former.

Fronted British TV advertising campaign for Tesco as a fussy mother alongside her long-suffering daughter played by TV comedienne and actress Jane Horrocks.

In October of 2003, she became seriously ill and was taken to the hospital for emergency heart operation (angioplasty).

There is a musical band named Prunella Scales.

She has 2 sons Sam who is an actor and Joe.

She won a scholarship to the Old Vic at 17.

She was awarded the Freeman of the City of London in 1990.

Has a slightly crooked nostril after being hit in the face in a hockey match.

Her first job was as an ASM at the Bristol Ol Vic.

Her mother was an actress and her father a salesman,.

She was awarded the Patricia Rothermere Award at the 2001 London Evening Standard Theatre Award for her contributions to British Theatre.

She was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of East Anglia in 2000.

She was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of Bradford in England in 1999.

Daughter of Catherine (née Scales), an actress, and John Richardson Illingworth, a cotton salesman.

Owns a narrow boat which they use for touring canals.

Her biography, Prunella, written by Teresa Ransom, was published by UK publishing imprint John Murray in 2005.

She met her husband, Timothy West when they were relatively unknowns in the television production She Died Young. He was already married but they got together after his divorce.

Toured Europe in 1959 with the Oxford Playhouse Company as Olivia in Twelfth Night and as Hermia in A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Made her stage debut in Traveller without Luggage at the Theatre Royal, Bristol, in 1951.

In Pride and Prejudice (1952), she played the cousin of her future father-in-law Lockwood West.