Actress Maggie Steed

acclaiMed theatre actor Maggie Steed, 75, plays the veteran agent Stella Hart in amazon Prime’s ten Percent. She was Richard griffith’s wife in BBc1’s Pie in the Sky, and elizabeth in the tV adaptation of the emma Healey novel, elizabeth is Missing, with glenda Jackson. She lives in london with her dog Jack.

NEVER BELIEVE WHAT YOU’RE TOLD

GrowinG up i was never a ‘dolly bird’. i studied drama at the Bristol old Vic Theatre School, but wasn’t considered conventionally pretty enough to be an actress. The principal told me: ‘Darling, you won’t work until you’re over 30.’ i was 18. And i believed him. it’s the one piece of advice i give to students now. ‘never believe what you’re told.’

So i became a secretary at a film company. All sorts of women hide or put away their desires. They think ‘i won’t rock the boat. i’ll be a secretary and do amateur dramatics.’ we limit ourselves.

i was a terrible secretary. i threw away the filing. in the end, my sweet boss took me out and said: ‘we all love you but you can’t stay.’ i told him all i wanted to do was act, and he said: ‘ well i think you better do it.’ i owe him a lot.

Age 26, i joined a Theatre in Education group working with school kids which i loved. Later i worked in community theatre, got an agent aged 32 and acted with the royal Shakespeare Company and the national Theatre.

i’ve always wanted to break the mould as the circle of acceptability for women is very small. it was always: ‘Keep your voice down, darling, and take your pants off.’ Even Julie Christie was told she wouldn’t work past 25.

when my agent said: ‘You’re going to have to have your eyes done’, i was shocked. But i realised they had fallen so much the cameramen were struggling to light them, so i had them done. There’s no shame in doing what’s necessary to remain in the game at 75.

You never retire as an actor. Everyone is rediscovered all the time.

i always need a script to prepare for or i get depressed. i loved filming Ten Percent. i hope we do another series. And i’ve just done a couple of nice voiceovers for laxatives! i told my agent: ‘You know how you said my life would change..?’

n Maggie Steed is in Fisherman’s Friends: One and all, in cinemas now.