A MASTER of the acting craft, Timothy West played everyone from Shakespeare’s King Lear to Stan on EastEnders. Yet perhaps his most cherished moments on screen were as himself — pootling in a boat on Channel 4 series Great Canal Journeys with Prunella Scales , his beloved wife of 61 years. Intelligent and witty Timothy, who died in his sleep on Tuesday aged 90, displayed a devotion to his wife that brought a lump to the throat.
Intended as a travelogue, Great Canal Journeys instead became a reflection on the couple’s decades-long love story — undimmed after Fawlty Towers star Prunella’s dementia diagnosis in 2013. After a canal ride to Langollen, Denbighs, where they had spent their honeymoon 50 years before, she said: “We just fit, somehow. He never bores me.
When he talks, it’s interesting or entertaining.” Modest and gently spoken, he said: “She can’t remember things very well. But you don’t have to remember things on the canal.
You can just enjoy things as they happen — so it’s perfect for her.” Read more on Timothy West ‘Incredible talents’ He is survived by Prunella, 92, their two sons — actor-director Samuel and teacher Joseph — and his daughter Juliet from an earlier marriage to actress Jacqueline Boyer. His children said in a statement yesterday: “After a long and extraordinary life, our darling father Timothy died peacefully in his sleep yesterday evening.
Tim was with friends and family at the end.” Timothy Lancaster West CBE.
