Prunella Scales

Did you mind that Sybil Fawlty took up a disproportionate amount of the attention people pay to you?

I do do sometimes worry, because if if somebody recognizes in the streets, sometimes they say 'Oh, aren't you nice?' in terms of pain and surprise. So maybe, you know, I I did too good a job with with with Sylvia. Mind you, I don't even think she was a dragon. I thought she was a saint and a a heroine, but others don't see it that way.

Do you think Sybil changed your life in a fairly fundamental professional way?

Yes, it opened doors rather than closing them, I think, yes. Uh people say, you know, did it limit your … your work and I don't think it did. In the theatre, it's always an advantage to have been connected with a a well known television series because it means that the theatre going public may be going to take that giant step from the pavement into the building in order to see what else you can do.

Your mother was an actress; what did your father do?

Well, my mother gave up the act in which she married my father, because my father was ex army, but he was a salesman. He was nothing to do with the theatre, although he loved the theatre very much, and obviously had fallen in love with an actress. … They did have a a mortgage just before the war, but they sold their house at a loss when the war came, and my father joined up. And they never owned their house again. They never owned their own house. They never owned their own car. They were really very, very hard up. But I got every encouragement from both of them when I said I I wanted to be an actress.