Quotes from Prunella Scales

It breaks my heart to hear of our theatres struggling to survive. As well as playing a vital role in community life, they're guardians of our heritage and should be cherished.

I can't bear the idea or concept of being a 'celeb.'

My elder son and his wife keep bees, and my younger son has bees, too.

I had quite a healthy childhood in the countryside, but I did have double pneumonia aged eight, and was one of the first patients to be given antibiotics.

It's strange how 'Fawlty' has become a perennial. I keep meeting new generations of schoolboys who know the lines better than I did when I said them. The program has sensational sales in video. I'm mercifully on a small percentage.

I got a job right out of drama school as assistant stage manager at the Bristol Old Vic. I've been lucky enough to stay in work ever since.

Contrary to popular belief, actors are extremely supportive of each other.

Gertrude's Secret' is highly entertaining. Some of the monologues are very funny, some very surprising and some painful.

What is it about royalty - even if you're a confirmed republican - that is dramatically interesting?

I don't like being recognised. Shopping, I often wear glasses and a scarf.

I love long runs. I never feel ready to go till about the second Wednesday matinee.

The thing I simply hate about my job is any 'celeb' coverage.

Being out of work is very depressing. But luckily I haven't been there for a long time.

I've always been fascinated by dialects and accents. In fact, I've rarely played straight English parts. I play character parts - and always will.

I always say I want to die on the eighth curtain call. Eight will mean the show's been rather a success.

Hobson's Choice' may have been in black and white, but it was a David Lean production filmed at Shepperton with Charles Laughton in the lead. So it was a big film - and it felt like it.

My very first school was a primary school in Surrey. I remember being taught to read by the traditional ABC, instead of look-say - that is, whole words at a time - which was fashionable when my children were at school.

I have worked for Tesco and am grateful to them but in principle I believe in individual shops.

I think protecting rural England is more important than any work I do as an actress.

I'm afraid my own approach to everything is exactly the same: Who am I? What do I want? What are the circumstances - difficult or non-difficult? What are the obstacles, physical and non-physical? Finally, given who I am, the circumstances, the obstacles, what do I do? That's the only thing you do. You've got to do the action.

I think local shopping areas and markets are terribly important, both for tradespeople and the local feeling of an area.

In my extreme youth I did a terrifying diet - drinking 40 cups of liquid a day.

In 1954 I was on Broadway for five months in 'The Matchmaker' and went once a week to the classes of Uta Hagen, a theatrical guru whose teaching in retrospect illuminated the whole of my training at the Old Vic.

I don't think theatrical marriages are necessarily less stable than others; I think this is a slight misapprehension.