Timothy West and Prunella Scales' poignant final moments on TV before tragic deaths
Fawlty Towers icon Prunella Scales shared a heartwarming hobby with her late husband which became a huge success on Channel 4.
This is the poignant moment when actors Timothy West and Prunella Scales shared their last on-screen appearance together before their tragic deaths. On Wednesday (October 28), Prunella passed away after a decade-long battle with dementia that ended her 67-year acting career. The Fawlty Towers icon was diagnosed with vascular dementia back in 2013, but succumbed to her illness at the age of 93.
According to her son, Samuel West, she continued to work and travel around the world well into her 90s. The actress was best known for playing Sybil Fawlty, the stern wife of John Cleese’s Basil Fawlty, in the beloved 70s sitcom.
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The show ran for two series between 1975 and 1979 and is still considered to be one of the best British comedy series ever made. Meanwhile, her husband Timothy passed away last year, surrounded by family and friends, at the age of 90.
The couple showcased one of the happiest and longest marriages in showbiz, bravely facing up to illness through Prunella’s dementia battle. Their last on-screen appearance took place back in 2019 on Channel 4’s Great Canal Journeys.
The TV special took them on their last adventure together up the Oxford Canal, stopping off at the village of Cropredy before passing Wormleighton and reaching their final destination in the historic canal village of Baunston.
Timothy recalled being on the canal with Prunella in 1976, “when we knew nothing about it.” He confessed that messing about in boats gave the couple a new lease of life and developed into a shared hobby.
Since their children were small, it has provided them with endless delight, and their summers spent pootling along Britain’s waterways in their narrowboat inspired a gentle TV documentary in 2014.
As Timothy and Prunella celebrated their Golden Wedding, cameras followed them revisiting the Kennet and Avon Canal in Wiltshire, which they helped to restore in the ‘80s.
This was the first episode of the four-part series on More4, which soon became a huge hit with fans. Speaking about its success, Timothy said at the time: “We thought it would be seen by some old ladies on a wet Tuesday afternoon, but somehow it caught on.”
The duo began their adventures exploring the Rochdale and Llangollen canals before they started to look outside of the UK as their success grew. Soon, they had a primetime slot on Channel 4’s Sunday schedules, with the couple visiting Venice, Amsterdam, Stockholm, and Portugal’s Rio Douro.
The couple travelled to the Parana Delta in Argentina, Canada’s Rideau Canal, and the Mekong Delta in Vietnam. That sweetly ironic title, Great Canal Journeys, soon became an accurate description.
