Why Prunella Scales almost rejected Fawlty Towers Sybil role? Timothy West once recalled wife almost turning down John Cleese

The entertainment world mourns the loss of Prunella Scales. The actress, whose portrayal of Sybil Fawlty in Fawlty Towers remains one of British comedy’s defining performances. In an article written by her husband, Timothy West, and published by the Daily Mail in September 2023, West reflected on how close Scales came to rejecting the role that would later immortalize her.

“At the time she was offered the role, Pru and I had spent two decades mostly acting in the theatre, she’d been in one successful TV series – Marriage Lines alongside Richard Briers – a decade before, and done the occasional one-off TV play, but television wasn’t really her thing.” shared West.

When the Fawlty Towers scripts arrived in early 1975, Prunella Scales wasn’t immediately convinced. “I don’t really know what to make of this thing, here, you have a look,” she told West after reading them. The scripts had been sent by John Howard Davies, a director who had worked with John Cleese on Monty Python’s Flying Circus. It was Davies who suggested Scales for the part of Sybil.

West remembered reading the first episode and wondering aloud,

“‘How on earth did two people like that ever get married in the first place? They quite clearly hate each other.’”

Prunella Scales had the same thought. She later called Davies to arrange a meeting at the BBC. Before leaving, she told her husband,

“‘It’ll depend on the answers I get to my questions. I need to know more about her. And about him. I need to know more about everything, really.’”

Her curiosity led to one of her most adored performances in British television, a role she almost turned down.

How a single question helped Prunella Scales bring Sybil Fawlty to life:

Whether she appeared in an advert or on stage, Prunella Scales approached every role the same way: if she couldn’t form a complete picture of her character’s world, she wouldn’t take the part. To her, that was the only way to do the work justice. The meeting with director John Howard Davies went smoothly. He explained why he wanted Scales for Fawlty Towers and mentioned that John Cleese had been particularly supportive of the idea.

“John Cleese is a big fan of Marriage Lines, apparently,” Prunella Scales told her husband when she returned home. “Really?” replied Timothy West. Timothy West recalled thinking,

“I’m surprised. It’s not very surreal or subversive.”

Even West was puzzled. As he later admitted,

“Oh, dearie me. I mean, even Prunella thought her character was terribly one-dimensional, so what on earth did Cleese see in this rather archaic TV series?”

Prunella Scales shared what she’d been told:

“He likes the way Richard Briers and I play off each other, apparently. Anyway, he wants me to go and see him at his flat tomorrow. I wasn’t keen at first as he’s in bed with flu, but John Howard Davies persuaded me.”

By the time she arrived at Cleese’s flat the next afternoon, Prunella Scales had almost decided to accept the role, provided Cleese could answer one crucial question: how on earth did Basil and Sybil ever get together?

“Oh God, I knew you were going to ask me that,” Cleese said, pulling a pillow over his head.

“To be honest, I don’t really know. Do you have any ideas?”

“Well, sort of, in as much as I’ve come up with a theory as to how I think two people like that could get together and how they’ve come to own and run a hotel,” Scales replied.

“Fire away,” Cleese said.

Scales’s theory was simple yet sharp. As she told West later that day, she imagined that Sybil came from a catering family who ran a pub somewhere along the South Coast. “Somewhere like Eastbourne,” she said. Sybil worked behind the bar when Basil, freshly demobbed from National Service, walked in.

She was drawn to his posh charm; he, in turn, to her lively, flirtatious manner. They decided to open a hotel together, an idea that quickly turned into a burden.

“She’s been fooled by Basil’s flannel, and too late, she realises that she is landed with an upper-class twit. Whereupon the rot sets in because he has all these posh and potty ideas about how to run a hotel, and she has a great deal more practical experience and know-how. But behind all her apparent disenchantment with Basil, there is some real affection for him.” Scales explained.

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To West, the idea felt entirely believable. And as it turned out, it did to John as well. In the end, it was that same curiosity and insistence on understanding her characters that made Prunella Scales unforgettable. What began as hesitation became one of television’s most enduring performances, sharp, funny, and deeply human. Nearly fifty years later, her voice still cuts through the noise of sitcom history: the crisp reminder that great comedy is born from honesty.

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