Fawlty star Scales has ‘mild’ Alzheimer’s

Bradford-born stage and screen actor West, 79, talks about Scales’s condition in a new More4 documentary, Grand Canal Journeys.

The actress, now 81, is best known for her role as Basil Fawlty’s wife Sybil in the comedy Fawlty Towers but has continued to notch up screen roles.

West, who last year appeared in Coronation Street and has since joined EastEnders, tells the programme, which is broadcast later this month, that Scales suffers from “a sort of mild Alzheimer’s”, the Radio Times said.

Scales says that she is determined not to let the condition keep her from the stage.

“I always say I want to die 
on the eighth curtain call,” she says.

“Eight will mean the show’s been rather a success. I just hope I’m somewhere near the middle and have been reasonably good in the part.”

The pair celebrated their golden wedding anniversary last October with a trip down the River Thames on paddle steamer the Waverley.