British Comedy Guide
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Fawlty Towers. Sybil Fawlty (Prunella Scales). Copyright: BBC
Prunella Scales

Prunella Scales

  • 92 years old
  • English
  • Actor

Press clippings Page 3

I remain to be convinced about this television transfer for a perennial Radio 4 comedy drama that still stars to this day Prunella Scales and Patricia Routledge. Here Maureen Lipman and Anne Reid take on the roles of fractious ladies of a certain age, Irene and Vera, who strike up an often minty correspondence after meeting at a wedding. I just can't see how the concept (running on Radio 4 as part of Woman's Hour since 1997) can work on TV. I also object to the recasting (although if you absolutely have to, Maureen Lipman and Anne Reid are clearly going to be top notch), and the pedigree behind the production is about the best - this served as one of Geoffrey Perkins final projects before his sad death last year. I am willing to be talked round on this one...

Mark Wright, The Stage, 2nd February 2009

Prunella Scales presides over a bunch of misfits who seem permanently to inhabit her living room. Most have had bad experiences with men, which is par for the Lane course, though this does not stop them ogling the visiting male therapist. The writing is often sharp but the direction of the show is so far unclear.

The Times, 8th June 1995

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