Miriam Margolyes

Margolyes was born in Oxford on 18 May 1941,^[1] the only child of Joseph Margolyes (1899–1995), a Scottish physician and general practitioner from the Gorbals area of Glasgow,^[2] and property-developer Ruth^[3][4] (née Sandeman; 1905–1974),^[5] daughter of a second-hand furniture dealer and auctioneer at Kirkdale, Liverpool, who later relocated to London.^[3] The maternal family surname changed from Sandeman to Walters before Margolyes' birth.^[3][6][7] She grew up in a Jewish family.^{[3][8][9][10]} Her ancestors moved to the UK from Belarus and Poland. Her maternal great-grandfather, Symeon Sandmann, was born in the Polish town of Margonin, which Margolyes visited in 2013. Her paternal grandfather Philip Margolyes was born in a small shtetl called Amdur (now Indura) in Belarus, which at that time was part of the Russian Empire.^[3]

Margolyes attended Oxford High School and Newnham College, Cambridge, where she read English.^[11] There, in her 20s, she began acting and appeared in productions by the Cambridge Footlights.^[12] She represented Newnham College in the first series of University Challenge, where she may have been one of the first people to say "fuck" on British television;^[13] she claims to have used the word in frustration on the show in 1963.^[14][15][a]

With her versatile voice, Margolyes first gained recognition for her work as a voice artist. In the 1970s, she recorded a soft-porn audio called Sexy Sonia: Leaves from my Schoolgirl Notebook.^[18] In 1972 she played alongside Tony Robinson in the educational TV show Sam on Boffs' Island. She performed most of the supporting female characters in the dubbed Japanese action TV series Monkey. She also worked with the theatre company Gay Sweatshop and provided voiceovers in the Japanese TV series The Water Margin (credited as Mirium Margolyes).

In 1974, she appeared with Kenneth Williams and Ted Ray in the BBC Radio 2 comedy series The Betty Witherspoon Show.^[19]

Margolyes's first major role in a film was as Elephant Ethel in Stand Up, Virgin Soldiers (1977). In the 1980s, she made appearances in Blackadder opposite Rowan Atkinson: these roles include the Spanish Infanta in The Black Adder, Lady Whiteadder in Blackadder II and Queen Victoria in Blackadder's Christmas Carol. In 1986, she played a major supporting role in the BBC drama The Life and Loves of a She-Devil. She won the 1989 LA Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Flora Finching in the film Little Dorrit (1988). On American television, she headlined the short-lived 1992 CBS sitcom Frannie's Turn.^[20] In 1994, she won the BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Mrs Mingott in Martin Scorsese's The Age of Innocence (1993).^[21]

In 1989, Margolyes co-wrote and performed a one-woman show, Dickens' Women, in which she played 23 characters from Dickens' novels.^[22] In 2005 Margolyes hosted a ten-part BBC Four documentary, Dickens in America, which retraced Dickens's 1842 journey across the United States of America.^[23]

Margolyes played Aunt Sponge and voiced the Glow-Worm in James and the Giant Peach (1996). She played the Nurse in Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet (1996). She voiced the rabbit character in the animated commercials for Cadbury's Caramel bars^[24] and provided the voice of Fly the dog in the Australian-American family film Babe (1995).^[25]

She played Professor Sprout in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) and again in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 (2011). In a 2011 interview on The Graham Norton Show, in regard to her Potter costars, Margolyes said that she got on well with Maggie Smith, but rather bluntly admitted that she "didn't like the one that died", referring to Richard Harris.^[26]

In 2004, Margolyes played the role of Peg Sellers, the mother of Peter Sellers, in the Golden Globe winning film The Life and Death of Peter Sellers.^[27][28]

Margolyes was one of the original cast of the London production of the musical Wicked opposite Idina Menzel in 2006, playing Madame Morrible, a role she played again on Broadway in 2008.^[29]

In 2009, she appeared in a new production of Endgame by Samuel Beckett at the Duchess Theatre in the West End.^[30]

Margolyes voiced the role of Mrs. Plithiver, a blind snake, in the 3D-animated-epic film Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole (2010).

In 2011, Margolyes recorded a narrative for the album The Devil's Brides by klezmer musician-ethnographer Yale Strom.^[31]

Margolyes played recurring character Prudence Stanley in the Australian-based TV series Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries from 2012 to 2015.

In 2014, she voiced Nana in the Disney Junior animated series Nina Needs to Go!^[32]

In January 2016, Margolyes appeared in The Real Marigold Hotel, a travel documentary in which a group of eight celebrities traveled to India to see whether retirement would be more rewarding there than in the UK.^[33] The series was reprised for two Christmas Specials The Real Marigold On Tour, from Florida and Kyoto.^[34] She narrated the 2016 ITV documentary about Lady Colin Campbell entitled Lady C and the Castle.^[35]

In December 2017, Margolyes appeared in the second season of The Real Marigold On Tour to Chengdu and Havana.^[36] She appeared in the first episode of the third series, in which she traveled to St Petersburg with Bobby George, Sheila Ferguson and Stanley Johnson.

In January 2018, Margolyes hosted a three-part series for the BBC titled Miriam's Big American Adventure, highlighting the citizens of the United States and the issues facing the country.^[37] She voiced Queen Oofeefa in the film Early Man.

Since 2018, Margolyes has portrayed Mother Mildred in the BBC One drama, Call The Midwife.

She played Miss Shepherd in a 2019 production of The Lady in the Van for the Melbourne Theatre Company in Melbourne in Australia.^[38]

In October 2021, she played Lillian opposite Helen Monks in the BBC Radio 4 sitcom Charlotte and Lillian, where she introduced her autobiography This Much Is True.^[39] On 5 November she appeared on BBC One's The Graham Norton Show, where she discussed the book, explaining that it was written only because she "was paid an enormous amount of money". On 16 September the book was published by Hachette Books.^[40]

In April 2022, Margolyes was the subject of the BBC documentary Miriam Margolyes: Up for Grabs in the Imagine... series, where she was interviewed by Alan Yentob.^[41]

In November 2023, Margolyes appeared the voice of The Meep in "The Star Beast", the first of three Doctor Who 60th anniversary specials.^[42][43]

She appeared on BBC Radio 4's The Museum of Curiosity in February 2023.^[44] Her hypothetical donation to this imaginary museum was "Charles Dickens and all his works".

Margoyles spent many years living for long periods in Australia,^[45] and became an Australian citizen on Australia Day 2013, while retaining her British citizenship.^[46]

She is a lesbian,^[47] and referred to herself as a "dyke" live on national television and in front of Australian prime minister Julia Gillard in 2013.^[46] Since 1968, she has been in a relationship with Heather Sutherland,^[25][48] an Australian retired professor of Indonesian studies.^[49] As of 2012^[update] they were dividing their time between homes in London and Kent in England, Robertson, New South Wales in Australia, and Montisi in Italy.^{[50][51][52][53]} In November 2023, Margoyles revealed on The Graham Norton Show that she and Sutherland had never lived together, but she wanted to do so as they were now both old and did not have much time left. She had been living in London and Sutherland in Amsterdam for a while.^[54]

Margolyes is a patron of My Death My Decision, an organisation in the UK which seeks a more compassionate approach to dying, including the legal right to a medically assisted death, if that is a person's persistent wish.^[55]

Margolyes is a supporter of Sense (the National Deafblind and Rubella Association) and was the host at the first Sense Creative Writing Awards, held at the Charles Dickens Museum in London in December 2006, where she read a number of works written by talented deafblind people.^[56]

She is also a campaigner for the respite care charity Crossroads.^[57]

Margolyes' political activism started at university. "I came from a very middle-class Jewish background, always Tory-voting", she later said. However, in the 1970s, she joined the Workers Revolutionary Party with other actors and Equity members such as Vanessa Redgrave, Frances de la Tour, and Tom Kempinski.^[58]

Margolyes is a member of the Labour Party and is registered to vote in Vauxhall. In August 2015, she was a signatory to a letter criticising The Jewish Chronicle's reporting of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn's alleged associations with antisemites.^[59] In November 2019, she endorsed the Labour Party in the UK general election because of their policies on the National Health Service.^[60][61] Later in the month, along with other public figures, she signed a letter supporting Corbyn and describing him as a "beacon of hope in the struggle against emergent far-right nationalism, xenophobia, and racism in much of the democratic world".^[62]

Margolyes was very critical of the British Government's handling of the coronavirus pandemic. She considered it "a public scandal" and "a disgrace". With the Prime Minister hospitalised suffering from COVID-19, Margolyes said "I had difficulty not wanting Boris Johnson to die."^[63]

In a 2022 interview with Radio Times, Margolyes came to the defence of J. K. Rowling, commenting that "There is a spectrum and people can be anywhere along that. There isn't one answer to all these trans questions".^[64] In November 2023, Margolyes said during another appearance on The Graham Norton Show that her position had changed after a discussion with Zoe Terakes, a trans Australian actor, and that she no longer believed that grammar was paramount over making someone happy by using their preferred pronouns.^[65]

On 15 October 2022, after being interviewed by Justin Webb about the recently deceased Robbie Coltrane on BBC Radio 4's Today, she commented to the presenters that she had never expected to be in a seat that had just been vacated by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt. She said, live on air, "When I saw him there I just said, 'You've got a hell of a job, the best of luck', and what I really wanted to say was 'Fuck you, you bastard!'"^[66][67]

She is a signatory of Jews for Justice for Palestinians.^[68] Margolyes said, "What I want to try to do is to get Jewish people to understand what's really going on, and they don't want to hear it. If you speak to most Jews and say, 'Can Israel ever be in the wrong?' they say, 'No. Our duty as Jews is to support Israel whatever happens.' And I don't believe that. It is our duty as human beings to report the truth as we see it."^[69]

On 6 April 2024, a video by Margolyes was published by The Jewish Council of Australia criticising the Israeli government on its ongoing invasion of the Gaza Strip and calling on Jews to "shout, beg, scream" for a ceasefire. In her 2.5 minute video she said:^[70][71]

... I have never been so ashamed of Israel as I am at this moment. To me, it seems as if Hitler has won. He's changed us Jews from being compassionate and caring and do unto others as you would have them do unto you into this vicious genocidal nationalist nation, pursuing and killing women and children. Of course, I condemn the Hamas action, of course I do. But what we are doing, Jewish people over in Israel, is shocking, embarrassing and wicked and I cannot understand why all Jewish people, particularly members of synagogues, do not want immediately to stop what is going on. And in the name of humanity, I call upon all Jews to shout, beg, scream for a ceasefire. ...

Margolyes has been accused on several occasions of making racist comments or jokes. During a 2012 appearance The Graham Norton Show, Margolyes said to will.i.am "I'm just fascinated by you, because, unfortunately, I don't know many black people in show business”, and went on to state that it was surprising that a rapper would be philanthropic.^[72] In 2016, Margoyles was accused of making a racist joke which left a black man reportedly "humiliated" at the London Film Convention.^[73][74]

During a 2022 appearance on This Morning, Margolyes responded to one caller to "lose weight", telling another "not to mix with other cripples".^[75]

In 2023, Margoyles discussed her negative experience filming Little Shop of Horrors with Steve Martin,^[76] something which Martin has publicly disputed.^{[77][clarification needed]}

In 2024, Margoyles enraged adult Harry Potter fans by stating, "I worry about Harry Potter fans because they should be over that by now. It was 25 years ago, and it’s for children."^[78] Harry Potter fans responded on X (formerly Twitter), one saying "Nobody has a right to try and shame people into not enjoying something they harmlessly enjoy."^[79]

Author and comedian David Walliams says he used Margolyes as a model for the title character in his children's book Awful Auntie after an argument with her during a stage production, though he stressed that he has nothing against her and is a fan of her work.^[80]

Wallace & Gromit – Beryl

Notes

• The Thief and the Cobbler (1993) – the voice of the Maiden from Mombasa (original version only; the character was not heard at all in the re-edited versions and another actor was never available in all the re-edited versions)
• The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004) – Peg Sellers – note this film was shown in cinemas in the UK, Ireland, and Australia – it aired on cable television on the HBO network in the US.

Margolyes was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2002 New Year Honours for Services to Drama.^[101]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Miriam Margolyes.

• Official website
• Miriam Margolyes at IMDb 
• Miriam Margolyes at the BFI's Screenonline
• Dickens' Women tour site
• Miriam Margolyes at Women in Comedy
• Miriam Margolyes discography at Discogs