{"id":61367,"date":"2025-09-13T09:29:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-13T09:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/61367\/"},"modified":"2025-09-13T09:29:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T09:29:08","slug":"i-can-do-naughty-stories-but-im-more-than-just-a-potty-mouth-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/61367\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I can do naughty stories… but I\u2019m more than just a potty mouth\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWe live in sh**e times, don\u2019t we, darling?\u201d says Miriam Margolyes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve just been talking about the thrill of performing in front of a live audience<\/a>, and how this is the joy that revives and delights her most.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s funny to realise that that\u2019s what I love, but it is. It is exactly what I love. It\u2019s what I want to do. I want to entertain. I want to bring a smile to the lips of people who are quivering with nerves, anxiety, disappointment and fear.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is where the sh**e times come in. Margolyes is about to embark on her From A to Z tour to promote The Little Book of Miriam, which the Oxford-born actress \u2013 \u201cnever actor\u201d \u2013 cheerfully admits has been designed \u201cwith your smallest room in mind\u201d. She\u2019s not had any trouble selling tickets.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that\u2019s very gratifying. I mean, I don\u2019t sell tickets like Taylor Swift<\/a> sells tickets, but selling tickets like Miriam Margolyes sells tickets is okay. I\u2019m happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Audiences want more from her than just the gasp-provoking \u201crudery\u201d she has generously served up while appearing on programmes like The Graham Norton<\/a> Show, she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey want what they know I can do, which is naughty stories. But they also do ask for the things that I want to tell them about the state of the world. They ask, \u2018How do you feel about Israel<\/a>? What do you think about Nigel Farage<\/a>?\u2019 So I\u2019m think I\u2019m getting across to them as a whole human being and not just a potty mouth. They can see that there\u2019s a person here who is concerned about the world that I live in. I\u2019m pleased about that, because I don\u2019t want just to be a sort of silly-billy, and I\u2019m not.\u201d<\/p>\n

In The Little Book of Miriam \u2013 which gives alphabetical glimpses into her life \u2013 she highlights the sense of optimism she felt when she was an anti-apartheid campaigner in the 1960s. Does she really feel more pessimistic now?<\/p>\n

\u201cI honestly do. I\u2019m sorry to say it, but I do. I feel scared that the wrong people are in power in many countries, and that lies are being peddled about groups of people. It\u2019s very disappointing, because I was brought up in an atmosphere of confidence, and that\u2019s not there any more. We don\u2019t have that. We\u2019re scared, we\u2019re frightened.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"MiriamMiriam Margolyes on The Graham Norton Show in 2023 with, from left, Sarah Snook, Greta Lee and Boy George. Photograph: Isabel Infantes\/PA <\/p>\n

Margolyes, who is Jewish, has regularly spoken out against Israel\u2019s actions in Gaza. This has attracted the condemnation of a British group called the Campaign Against Antisemitism, which has called for her to be stripped of her OBE<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople always think of me as a kind of, you know, funny lady. Someone who\u2019s going to make them laugh and forget the worries they have. And I hope that I can and that I do. But it would be a lie if I ignored the things that are going on in the world, and especially the things that are connected to me,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do these Israelis think that their actions are doing? They\u2019re making the hatred last forever and ever. If you were a young Palestinian seeing your parents being killed and the devastation of your country, and then you see reports that it\u2019s likely to be made into a seaside resort for a foreign entity, what can you feel but rage and hatred? And these are emotions that sustain and continue.\u201d<\/p>\n

She notes again that, as far as her public persona is concerned, she\u2019s not supposed to be angry, that she\u2019s \u201csupposed to be a little roly-poly sunshine baby\u201d. Her readers, however, will know that \u201croly-poly\u201d is the adjective she loathes most.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, I do hate it profoundly. It\u2019s the worst, because it is not only a harsh description, but a belittling description. It reduces me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Targets entertainingly skewered in The Little Book of Miriam \u2013 her third book in five years \u2013 span from star signs, queue-jumpers and limelight-hogging actors to requests to fart on demand, people who don\u2019t own up to farting in a lift, the concept of moderation and the car park at Sydney Opera House. Things she loves, meanwhile, include onions, tennis, being famous, having young lodgers, doing things on impulse, \u201car**hole\u201d as an insult, the phrase \u201cas the actress said to the bishop\u201d, and the works of Charles Dickens.<\/p>\n

\n

Maureen [Lipman] won\u2019t speak to me now, because of Israel, you know, but we were very good friends at that time<\/p>\n

\u2014 \u00a0Miriam Margolyes<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For the past two years, her Margolyes & Dickens show has sold out at the Edinburgh fringe, and she is still recovering from August\u2019s string of performances as she speaks to me over Zoom from her London home and explains her admiration for his vivid writing.<\/p>\n

\u201cDickens opens the 19th century to us. Although it was 200 years ago, we can peep in through his windows and experience what it was like. We can actually travel through time into another world with him, through his brilliance, and that is exciting to me. This is how people talked. This is how they lived their lives, not very differently from ours.\u201d<\/p>\n

But there is one difference between Dickens and modern writers, she says \u2013 the extent to which good and evil are clearly delineated.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you want to go into a morally clear atmosphere and understand what is good, what is evil, and why and how evil works, Dickens will tell you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Margolyes was conceived in an air raid. Her father and pregnant mother fled Plaistow in east London in early 1941 as German bombs were blitzing the city. The family settled in Oxford, where her high-minded, conscientious father was a GP and her funny, shrewd, theatre-loving mother let out the rooms above his surgery to students. Her parents were loving and attentive, she says, and wanted their only child to have every advantage they had been denied.<\/p>\n

She misbehaved at school, though she writes in her autobiography, This Much is True, that it was after she went to Newnham College, Cambridge, in October 1960 that she truly became herself, taking up pipe-smoking, making left-wing friends and swearing \u201call the time\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"MiriamMiriam Margolyes: ‘You mustn\u2019t take yourself too seriously. And that\u2019s something all artists tend to do.’ Photograph: Carole Barghi <\/p>\n

Women were only allowed to be \u201cguests\u201d, not members, of the Cambridge Footlights, the sketch comedy troupe seen as a launch pad to an acting career, and she found the atmosphere toxic. The only woman performer in a Footlights show called Double Take in 1962 \u2013 an era when no one wanted \u201cthe girl\u201d to be funny \u2013 some rather ungentlemanly future luminaries of British light entertainment treated her as though she was invisible.<\/p>\n

Double Take nevertheless led to her first professional roles in BBC radio dramas, which in turn proved the catalyst for a long screen acting career that has encompassed the best of British television from Blackadder to Call the Midwife, as well as Hollywood film credits such as Martin Scorsese\u2019s The Age of Innocence and Baz Luhrmann\u2019s Romeo + Juliet.<\/p>\n

She proudly subscribes to No\u00ebl Coward\u2019s \u201clearn your lines and don\u2019t bump into the furniture\u201d school of acting, she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou mustn\u2019t take yourself too seriously. And that\u2019s something all artists tend to do. We think that we carry the world on our shoulders.\u201d<\/p>\n

In The Little Book of Miriam, she writes that she \u201cdoesn\u2019t really want to talk about Harry Potter any more\u201d \u2013 she was Prof Sprout in the films \u2013 so I ask her instead about the first drama series I saw her in: the mildly devastating 1987 television adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett\u2019s classic riches-to-rags novel A Little Princess, in which she played the meek sister of Maureen Lipman\u2019s cruel Miss Minchin.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaureen won\u2019t speak to me now, because of Israel<\/a>, you know, but we were very good friends at that time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

I\u2019ve obliterated America from the map \u2013 from me \u2013 because of Mr Trump<\/p>\n

\u2014 \u00a0Miriam Margolyes<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We also chat about her belated entry into the Doctor Who universe in 2023. Decades after the fourth Doctor, Tom Baker, campaigned for her to be cast as his companion in the late 1970s, the show\u2019s producers finally came calling, asking her to voice a winsome, wheedling monster known as the Meep.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was great fun. I was very chuffed to be asked to do that,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

She is keen to attend a Doctor Who fan convention \u2013 \u201cyou make good money, and you meet all these weird people\u201d \u2013 though she won\u2019t go to one in the US.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot now, under any circumstances. I\u2019ve obliterated America from the map \u2013 from me \u2013 because of Mr Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n

She remains in demand both as a voice actor and on screen and spent a large part of 2024 and this year in New Zealand \u2013 \u201ca gorgeous place\u201d \u2013 making her latest BBC travelogue and playing a nun in an upcoming film called Holy Days alongside \u201ctwo absolutely brilliant actresses\u201d, Jacki Weaver and Judy Davis.<\/p>\n

More usually, she splits her time between the UK, Australia and Italy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know anybody who leads a life like mine, so I haven\u2019t got any examples to learn from,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy partner [Heather] and I own a house in Australia with her sister, and we own a house in Italy, with a friend of ours. I own a house in London, on my own, and she owns a house in Amsterdam, which she shares with my ex-boyfriend and his second wife. So my life is somewhat complicated, reeling around between these residences, all of which are beautiful, unpretentious and delightful.\u201d<\/p>\n

She fell in love with Heather \u2013 a historian and \u201cincredibly private\u201d person originally from Canberra, Australia \u2013 in 1968, two years after realising she was a lesbian, and the couple have been together for 57 years. Recently, they both published a book in the same year: \u201cHers was about trade in Southeast Asia and mine was about me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Margolyes has held dual UK and Australian citizenship since 2013, though she and Heather have never lived together for long periods.<\/p>\n

\"MargolyesMargolyes in the BBC show A New Australian Adventure last year. Photograph: Southern Pictures\/Helen Barrow <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re still loving and close and we want to spend the rest of our lives together in one place. I hope we manage to do that,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Their home in Tuscany, which they bought in the early 1970s, is \u201cwhere we\u2019ve decided we want to be\u201d, but as a consequence of the \u201cinsanity\u201d of Brexit, she can now only spend 90 days in any 180-day period in Italy.<\/p>\n

Farage, a \u201csenior culprit in this matter\u201d, gets both barrels. In the week we speak, the Reform UK leader has been busy outlining his plans for mass deportations from Britain if elected.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s dismaying and it\u2019s baffling and it\u2019s very bad for everybody. I\u2019m worried about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

She\u2019s incredulous, too, that Farage is active on Cameo, the website where Margolyes and other entertainers charge small sums to deliver personalised video messages to fans.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat the f**k is he doing on Cameo? It\u2019s not a proper thing for a politician to be on. I do it because I earn some money from it, and I do it well, and I cheer people up. What\u2019s he doing it for?\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0\u2018Up the \u2019Ra!\u2019: Nigel Farage duped into using republican slogan in birthday video messageOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

She\u2019s looking forward to returning to Ireland for her sold-out dates in Dublin, Cork and Belfast. Her past visits include a blissful, hitchhiking adventure in 1963 and a TV road trip in 2022 to make Kite Entertainment\u2019s two-part RT\u00c9 documentary series Lady Gregory: Ireland\u2019s First Social Influencer alongside Senator Lynn Ruane. <\/p>\n

\u201cOh, she\u2019s exceptional. I foretell that she will be the president one day,\u201d Margolyes says of Ruane. \u201cReally, we haven\u2019t got anyone like her in England. We are sadly lacking.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"MiriamMiriam Margolyes: ‘Recently, there has been some activity to try to make out that I\u2019m dying.’ Photograph: Carole Barghi <\/p>\n

There is \u201ca magic\u201d about Ireland that she attributes to both the pain of the colonised past and the power of Irish writers to illuminate the human experience \u2013 two years ago, she met the poet Colm Keegan and \u201cthought he was a genius\u201d, so she has invited him to read at her upcoming Dublin show.<\/p>\n

Margolyes, now 84, has become more political as she\u2019s got older \u2013 or, as she puts it, she\u2019s \u201cbillowed\u201d, rather than mellowed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re lucky, that is the way it should be. We shouldn\u2019t just dwindle into the depths. We have to pulsate. We have to experience. We have to be alive as long as we can. Recently, there has been some activity to try to make out that I\u2019m dying. There\u2019s been reports from newspapers who should know better. Unchecked, unnotified. [They] never came back to me. And so I was reading about my own death with some surprise, I may say,\u201d she says, laughing.<\/p>\n

It was even suggested in one report that she was unlikely to still be alive for the Edinburgh fringe run she has just completed.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut so far I am confounding all expectation and continuing to live and work at a ferocious rate.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0\u2018You have a very strong accent\u2019: Miriam Margolyes hits peak Brit Abroad mode with Lynn RuaneOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

She did have \u201can amazing heart procedure\u201d two years ago and she has a condition called spinal stenosis, which affects her mobility and means that if she does more acting jobs, they will have to be \u201csitting down\u201d roles.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it doesn\u2019t stop me. You know, I\u2019m writing, I\u2019m still talking, I\u2019m still travelling. I\u2019m all systems go.\u201d<\/p>\n

I ask if she has regrets.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, I do indeed have regrets. I regret I didn\u2019t lose weight when I was much younger. I regret that I didn\u2019t do pelvic floor exercises earlier. I regret certain plays that I turned down, and other ones that I did. But then, you know, everybody regrets something. I don\u2019t have major regrets. I found the person I needed in my life, because I did definitely need someone. And I found her, and I kept her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cautioning in advance that she might find the term horrifying, I ask if she thinks she might even be a role model.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know, because I haven\u2019t fixed my ideas about everything yet. I\u2019m still a work in progress. I don\u2019t know if people should admire me and follow me, because I\u2019m still working it out. I like to think that I\u2019m a good example. It\u2019s good for people to see someone in a wheelchair, you know, doing extraordinary things, talking to extraordinary people, going to cemeteries. Going to cemeteries and coming back from them, that\u2019s the thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Little Book of Miriam by Miriam Margolyes, published by John Murray, is out now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWe live in sh**e times, don\u2019t we, darling?\u201d says Miriam Margolyes. We\u2019ve just been talking about the thrill…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61368,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[18,117,3761,19,17,71,361,5206,20567],"class_list":{"0":"post-61367","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-gaza-strip","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-israel","14":"tag-magazine","15":"tag-miriam-margolyes","16":"tag-nigel-farage"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}