Timothy West and Prunella Scales’ son says he is not sure who he is without them

Actor Samuel West has said he does not know who he is without his parents, actors Timothy West and Prunella Scales following their deaths.

The All Creatures Great And Small star lost his father, known for TV shows such as comedy drama Brass, sitcom Not Going Out and soaps Coronation Street and EastEnders, in November 2024 followed by his mother, who played Sybil in the BBC sitcom Fawlty Towers, who died last month at the age of 93.

West, also known for playing Peter Judd in Slow Horses, has said he thinks he may have gotten auditions as a result of who his parents were and acknowledged his “very lucky start” in helping him pave his own career in the film and TV industry.

Speaking about his parents and his own acting career, West told The Times: “I’ve been feeling enormously privileged, not just as a straight white man born into an industrialised society with parents who were reasonably well-off, but as somebody who went into the family business and knew my way around.

“I don’t think I got jobs because of who my parents are, but I’ve probably got auditions. I can’t separate my own career from the very lucky start I had. I’m not entirely sure I know who I am without them.

“I expect I’m about to find out.”

The couple also filmed 10 series of the Channel 4 programme Great Canal Journeys, in which they travelled across the UK and other parts of the world exploring different waterways, and talking openly about Scales’s dementia diagnosis.

West also plays Malvolio in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of Twelfth Night at London’s Barbican from next month, which he described as being the “most extraordinary thing” to help him deal with his grief.

He said: “I’m very grateful to the universe and I cannot imagine a job that’s been more supportive of grief and necessary joy than Twelfth Night with this group of people.

“The play has been the most extraordinary thing to be doing when bereaved because it is about the need for mourning, but it’s also about the need to get on with it and remember that there’s laughter and hope and drink and cakes and ale.

“Twelfth Night is the day when you take the decorations down, and this is a production for that feeling.”