Many of the tributes to Prunella Scales included pictures from Lamb House during last year’s royal visit to Rye. The actress died last week at the age of 93 following a long illness.
Although most people associate Prunella Scales with Sybil Fawlty in Fawlty Towers, she will forever be imprinted in my head as Miss Mapp in the Channel 4 adaptation of EF Benson’s novels. I covered these in a previous article.
I saw her briefly, once during filming in 1984 and the second time last year after the reading event at Lamb House at which Queen Camilla was a guest. I encountered Prunella standing outside Lamb House with her husband, actor Timothy West. I spoke to her briefly and thanked her for her role in the series. I told her that, in my mind, she WAS Miss Mapp.
She played the part so beautifully. It was very moving to see her in Rye 40 years later. She is a great loss to British acting, however, she will now be with her beloved husband who predeceased her by almost a year.
Image Credits: Kim Rye .