Miriam Margolyes is pottering in her kitchen when she spots me on her computer screen.
“I’m good,” she says, when asked how she is this morning. “I’m slightly frazzled because I have to go to Bradford today, but on the other hand, I’ll have a curry afterwards, and that always cheers me up.”
Sitting down at the table, the sun shining in through the window to her right and her long-term partner Heather Sutherland sitting off-screen to her left, we are catching up to discuss Miriam’s return to the Edinburgh Fringe after 12 years away.
© PA“It’s a big adventure for me to do Edinburgh,” she smiles. “Of course, I’ve done it before, but I’ve never been so old. I’m 83. It’s quite something.”
The Bafta-winning actor is reviving her one-woman show about her literary hero, Charles Dickens.
“The first iteration of it was in 1986, when it was called Wooman Lovely Wooman, What A Sex You Are. The theatre hadn’t even been built when we arrived. I was bloody angry. I think we did it at Ricky Demarco’s place. I’m friendly with him now, but I could’ve killed him.”
‘I’m always scared before I go on stage’
She is returning in 2024 with a “best bits plus a Q&A” show, on the suggestion of the company behind her latest book tour.
“I’m a bit scared,” she admits. “But I’m always scared before I go on stage. Everybody gets scared, but I know I’m good at Dickens. I love him. I have the right personality not to be cowed by the energy that’s required to deliver a Dickensian character. He’s Georgian, not Victorian, and the Georgian period was a rollicking, rumbustious, violent, excessive time. And I have all those qualities.
“Oh,” she says with a start, interrupting herself to pick up a letter from the table. “Have you seen this?” she asks Heather. “I must read you this. A letter from the King arrived yesterday.”
She waves the official correspondence in the air and begins reading it, but warns me the content cannot be printed. It is a highly complimentary letter, so much so that Miriam stops to look at Heather and chides – “Are you listening to this?”
Once she is finished, I tell her it’s a wonderful letter. “Wonderful? It’s f***ing great, dear.”
‘Nobody ever thought I would be on Vogue’
Another wonderful thing to have happened to Miriam this year is appearing on the cover of Vogue.
“Nobody ever thought I would be on Vogue,” she exclaims. “It never crossed my mind in my wildest dreams. It’s amazing. Amazing. I mean, a fat little Jew with no neck on the cover of Vogue is ridiculous.
“It’s a lovely thing to happen, but it’s a strange wallop to come in the middle of my age of growing old.”
An actor since the 1960s, Miriam’s CV of high-profile roles is extensive. A Bafta win in Martin Scorsese’s The Age Of Innocence, and Blackadder, Romeo + Juliet and Call The Midwife, to name a few.
Her fame has never been greater than it is now.
“There is no question about that, and I credit Graham Norton, and, to a lesser extent, Harry Potter. But most of the talent in England was in Harry Potter. I had a lovely character I enjoyed playing, but I’m only in two of the films. I should have been in all of them, but for some reason I wasn’t.
“And then it happened that I was asked to be on chat shows, and that somehow made me interesting and visible to people.
“I never quite understood what chat shows were, and I still don’t. They are a kind of merchandising, aren’t they? They’re for people to sell themselves. But sometimes I’m asked to be on it when I’m not selling anything. Sometimes it was just for a chat and that was delightful, and I met interesting people.”
No filter
The reason she has become a favourite on chat shows, I suggest, is for her seemingly unfiltered honesty.
“Yes, I think it’s the fact I’m often direct and indiscreet, although I try to make the indiscretions all about myself rather than other people.
“But if I don’t like somebody, I will say so. I don’t pretend to be what I’m not.
“When you’re an actress and you’re acting, you can pretend to be what you’re not, but when you’re being yourself, you mustn’t pretend. I think it’s very silly. And it’s more interesting for people to see you as you really are.
“Some people think I’m tremendous and some people think I’m absolutely vile, but at least they’re dealing with the truth.”
Be it chat shows, magazine covers, writing or acting, Miriam shows little sign of slowing down.
© BBC“I think every actor wants to be working because if we’re not then who are we? We’re just an unemployed person. I love doing it. That’s what I want – I want to be an actress. I want to keep going for as long as I can.
“I’m making a film in New Zealand in November. I’ve turned down two other films because I think I want to stay in one place for a little while and be with Heather, because we need to be together. I’m very conscious of all the people who have died recently.
“And when you get to be in your 80s, you know you’re going to die. Of course, you know in other ways when you’re younger, but when you’re 83, you f***ing really do know it.
“And I’m not very mobile as I have spinal stenosis, which means I need a stick or a walker or wheelchair. It’s a nuisance because I like to be active. I’m going to start chair yoga.
“The other thing is, I’ve to keep my legs elevated to waist height, otherwise the fluids all go down and I end up with swollen ankles.
“So life gets quite complicated when you’re old, but I’ll make it useful, because I haven’t been frustrated in that way before. I’ll learn from something new coming into my life. I can f***ing well do without it, but I have to learn to deal with it.”
‘Wonderful’ Fringe
When asked if there are any unfulfilled ambitions, she says she would love to have been able to ice skate. Those days are gone, she concedes, but she would like to travel with Heather and to record more Dickens audiobooks.
For now, though, she is focused on her return to the Fringe after so many years away.
© Paul Stewart“It’s magic and joyous and the centre of the universe,” she says. “Wherever you look, something fabulous is happening. I can’t understand those with the petted lips and the folded arms who say there’s too many people in the place. It’s only for three f***ing weeks. Let people be joyous – we need it.
“This is the place where people have the chance to show something and to share something, to meet other artists and be fertilised by other cultures. It’s wonderful.
“It’s a privilege to appear but I am nervous. I hope people will come – I hope I’m still a commercial viability.”
With that, it is time to go to Bradford, but not before she makes sure to check one important detail.
“Don’t forget how to spell my name. It ends with yes. M-A-R-G-O-L-Y-E-S.”
No need to worry. When you’re a national treasure, people don’t forget your name.
‘Glasgow – place of my heart’
As the only child of a Scot, travelling north of the border has always felt like coming home for Miriam Margolyes.
Her paternal grandfather came to Leith from Belarus, before relocating to Glasgow. Her dad, Joseph, was born in 1899 and brought up in the Gorbals. He became a doctor and moved to London, and Miriam was born in Oxford.
In a perfect Glaswegian accent, she says: “Glasgow is the place of my heart. I love Edinburgh but I’m not actually involved with Edinburgh; I’m involved with Glasgow. That, for me, is family. It’s home.
“I’ve known some wonderful Scotsmen. I spoke to Stanley Baxter, who is 98, on his birthday. He was a genius – people should be aware of that. I know and love Billy Connolly – everyone loves Billy – and Bill Paterson, Brian Cox, Johnny Bett.
“I love Alan Cumming. We’ve had great fun. I spoke to him a couple of days ago and he told me he’s getting a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame. He always talks about himself as an international star and I say, ‘Oh, f*** off, Alan’, but he really is.”
As host of the US version of The Traitors, The Good Wife actor’s profile has never been bigger in the States.
“I wouldn’t do anything like that. I have standards,” Miriam laughs.
Margolyes & Dickens: The Best Bits, Pleasance @ The EICC – Pentland, August 7-15
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