All Creatures Great and Small star Samuel West has given an update about his mother – Prunella Scales – and her dementia battle.
Scales was diagnosed with vascular dementia in 2014 but it was over a decade earlier that her husband Timothy West admitted he spotted the first signs of something being out of place.
Since then, both Scales’ husband and son have been keeping her fans updated on her journey and health battle during press interviews.
Samuel – who plays Siegfried Farnon in the Channel 5 series – recently shared a heartfelt update on his mother’s battle whilst discussing the new series of All Creatures Great and Small.
Joining Lorraine Kelly, the host asked: “How are your lovely mum and dad? I love them.”
“They’re fine, they’re fine. My mother went on a cruise the other day, I’m not sure if she knew where she was,” Samuel admitted.
Lorraine jumped in: “It doesn’t matter,” before the star added: “But she enjoyed getting there.
“She said: ‘I don’t always know where I’m going but I enjoy getting there’ and I thought if that is her philosophy, that might have to be mine as well.”
Despite her diagnosis, Scales continues to work, recording new voiceovers for a production at the Tabard Studio Theatre in West London.
She is now set to reprise her role as Queen Victoria, recording new voiceovers for a production at the Tabard Studio Theatre in West London.
Scales first stepped into the role of Queen Victoria 44 years ago, performing it in An Evening with Queen Victoria both in London and around the world until 2007.
The veteran actress, who has played Queen Victoria over 500 times, recently admitted she still worries about being liked in new roles.
Speaking to The Times, she said: “You go to a different place and you think, ‘Oh God, these people won’t like me.’ You have to cope with that every time.”
She candidly discussed the effects of ageing on her memory and daily life, adding to the same publication: “As one gets older, one’s memory and living from minute to minute changes, doesn’t it? You get less efficient.
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“My memory is less good. I mean, I forget to do things and, that’s age, the same as everybody else,” however, the actress still has a pragmatic outlook on her condition.
While Scales has enjoyed a decorated career on the screen and stage – notably as Sybil Fawlty alongside John Cleese in Fawlty Towers – she and her other half’s time on-screen in recent years has been on Channel 4’s Great Canal Journeys.
