Timothy West and Prunella Scales were devoted to each other until the very end - facing Prunella's dementia battle as a united team.
Dad's Army and EastEnders star Timothy, who has this week passed away at the age of 90, adored wife Prunella - even telling their moving love story in his 2023 memoir Pru and Me.
The couple enjoyed a unique and wonderful life together, full of professional successes and family joys. But they were also very open about the highs and lows of living with Prunella's heartbreaking vascular dementia diagnosis.
In an interview with BBC Breakfast, the couple who married in 1963 after meeting on the set of period drama, She Died Young, spoke of how their 60-year relationship had changed in the aftermath of Prunella's diagnosis.
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Getty Images)Bradford-born Timothy said: "It hasn't really been hard work has it?". It was at this point that Prunella, 92, chipped in: "No, he is the person I love and I enjoy being with..." In response, Timothy then quipped: "That is about it I think!" In the same emotional interview, Timothy shared that he'd first noticed the signs of Prunella's dementia as far back as 2001, after noticing that his wife appeared to be "not totally with it" during the opening night of a theatre production.
Timothy recalled: "I went to see the first night and it was good, much enjoyed by the audience and then I went to see it again and I thought 'She's not totally with it'. We went to see a specialist and he said I am sorry this is just something that happens to you when you get older. It is not going to get any easier but we cope with it and we manage."
Prunella was eventually diagnosed in 2014. Reflecting on the years that followed, Prunella shared: "I have got to know him better and better and better." Timothy added: "I know that things are going to change a little bit, but it has been a long time and we have managed pretty well really. I don't think we ever think 'Oh no'."
Showing admirable positivity in the face of her illness, Prunella then said: "I have been asked to live the rest of my life with somebody I respect very much and agree with a lot of things and argue with about a lot of things quite happily."
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PA)Timothy's children Juliet, Samuel and Joseph West made the following statement via his agent: "After a long and extraordinary life on and off the stage, our darling father Timothy West died peacefully in his sleep yesterday evening. He was 90 years old.
"Tim was with friends and family at the end. He leaves his wife Prunella Scales, to whom he was married for 61 years, a sister, a daughter, two sons, seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. All of us will miss him terribly. We would like to thank the incredible NHS staff at St George’s Hospital, Tooting and at Avery Wandsworth for their loving care during his last days.”
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