Timothy West and Prunella Scales’ romance – wife’s affair, tragic news and sad death

One of the saddest details to emerge after acclaimed actor Timothy West on November 12 aged 90 was that his wife Prunella Scales is too ill to comprehend he is gone. Her actor son Samuel told The Sunday Times: “All I am going to say is .”

Fawlty Towers legend Prunella was diagnosed with vascular in 2014 and prior to his death Timothy had devoted himself to caring for her. The couple were married for 61 years and they shared intimate details of their relationship publishng their love letters in the 1995 book I’m Here I Think, Where Are You? Last year Timothy gave further insight into their life together as they navigated Prunella’s diagnosis in the book Pru & Me.

The couple met in 1961 when Timothy was signed up for a supporting role in a Regency era drama called She Died Young. Prunella played a bishop’s daughter is taken adantage of by a cad. Their love of letter writing began on the set. On Loose Women last year, Timothy revealed that when he and Prunella were in between takes, they would spend their time doing crosswords and writing letters to one another. “We love writing letters about something that the other person might have missed or not quite understood. We would make each other laugh and make each other find out about things,” he told the panel.

In the early days of their relationship ther notes also served as a cover. Tim was married to hsi college sweetheart Jacqueline Boyer and the couple had a daughter Juliet. To avoid scandal, Prunella would pretend to be a giddy fan in her letters. One note written after a passionate assignation said: “Dear Mr West, I thought you were lovely in Oxford this week. I saw you several times, oh you were good. It made all the difference to my life!” She signed the letter Miss H Green.

Tim and his wife eventually agreed to divorce – ironically because she admitted to having an affair, and Tim left her. However, due to the conventions of the day Timothy agreed to paint himself as the bad guy and he took the blame in official documents. Prunella was referred to as “Miss X”.

Now free to marry, they got engaged whie sitting at traffic lights in Brighton on the morning Timothy received his decree nisi. He slipped a ring on to her finger but the romantic moment was ruined as he lights changed and they had to drive on before they could kiss.

They wed in 1961 and had two sons – actor Samuel and Joeseph, a translator. At the time of Timothy’s death the couple also had seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Both had busy and successful careers which often meant time apart. in 1988 at a party to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary Timothy quipped: “When you think of how much time we spend working and how much time Pru spends asleep, we’ve actually only lived together for about a year. But she seems a very sweet girl and I shouldn’t be at all surprised if it worked out very well.”

It wasn’t all hearts and flowers though and they admitted to having explosive arguements with Timothy confessing that she was better at forgetting them than he was. “There was a notorious one early on in which I apparently pulled out some of Pru’s hair, which she then kept in an envelope,” he recalled.

“I thought the hair was something I could reproach him with and say, “Look what you did last time we had a row!” she confirmed.

In Pru & Me Timothy recalled noticing problems with Pru’s membory as far back as 2001 as she started to struggle with her lines. “This was so unlike her. It was just a moment’s hesitation, and no one else in the audience noticed, but I did,” he wrote. She was only 69. It would be 2013 before she was finally diagnosed with vascular dementia. They were told she would not improve, and the best they could hope for was that her decline was gradual.

Around the same time they were approached by Channel 4 abut hosting a series about narrow boating – one of their fvourite hobbys. Speaking to in 2023 Timothy said the prospect of being paid to potter around in boats seemed “too good to be true”. “A whole new adventure for us in our 80s!” he exclaimed.

The couple hosted the heartwarming travelogue, which saw them touring UK and overseas canals together, from 2014 to 2019. Sadly, they were forced to quit the show as Prunella’s health failed. They were replaced by Gyles Brandreth and Sheila Hancock.

Despite Prunella’s condition, until the day Timothy died. In Pru & Me, he wrote: “[We] have exactly the same conversation every day of the week and it’s something I never tire of. Repetition doesn’t really exist in Pru’s world and the look on her face when she enters the room and sees me sitting there on the sofa waiting for her makes me realise just how much I love her.”