Samuel West has revealed he lost sleep over planning the memorial for his late mother, actress Prunella Scales, admitting it is difficult to sum up her life in such a short service.
The All Creatures Great and Small star returned with friend Ade Edmondson for another episode of Channel 5's Sam & Ade Go Birding. During the episode, set in West Wales during breeding season, the pair discussed their own family lives, with Samuel opening up about his mother's death in October 2025.
Insomnia and memorial worries
Samuel admitted he had been awake since 3.20am, partly due to thoughts about the memorial. His co-star Ade shared his own experience, saying: "I used to not be able to sleep, I used to have quite bad insomnia and now I take a pill, it just sort of quietens my mind, I just lie there thinking."
Samuel then confessed: "I've got to get my mum's memorial over, that's the main thing at the moment." Ade sympathised, saying: "I can see how that can be. It could keep you awake."
Prunella Scales died aged 93, having been diagnosed with vascular dementia in 2013. She was best known for playing Sybil Fawlty in the classic sitcom Fawlty Towers.
Memorial details revealed
Opening up on his fears, Samuel said: "It's quite a difficult life to sum up in an hour and 20 minutes, I want to do it as well as I can." Ade explained that the memorial is "not actually for her" but for her friends and family, "to share the sense of her going".
Samuel revealed that her co-star John Cleese and former Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock would be speaking. He said: "I want her to be remembered as a friend of progressive causes, and so does he [Kinnock]. And Cleese wants us to show a bit of Fawlty Towers because he thinks she's a genius comic actress, which she was. And then Joe [Samuel's brother] and I will give a eulogy that's about remembering her as a loving, supportive person over all our lives, really."
Family reflections
Samuel also revealed he "called her mummy for a bit and then ma, never called her mum". In the episode, he and Ade discussed parenting, with Ade admitting he had a "trickier" relationship with his own parents.
Ade reflected: "I think I was. It's hard, we both worked an awful lot whilst our kids were small. I enjoyed having girls, it's made me a different person, I think. I've got a trickier relationship with my parents. Whenever I have sort of faced parental difficulty, I have always thought, 'What would my dad do?' Because I must do the exact opposite if I want my kids to love me."
Sam & Ade Go Birding airs on Thursdays on Channel 5 at 7pm.
