Celebrating the staying power of our naughtiest national icon

What gives an actor staying power? Who would have thought the star of gentle sitcom A Fine Romance, Dame Judi Dench, would go onto play M in the James Bond movies? Or that Joanna Lumley, aka Purdey in The New Avengers, would be given a late-life career boost as Bolly-soaked Patsy in Ab Fab?

But if anyone has defied convention it’s the ubiquitous Miriam Margolyes. I first encountered her as Nurse Hopkins in the TV adaptation of Fay Weldon’s The Life and Loves Of A She-devil. Admittedly not appropriate viewing for a nine-year-old, she stuck in my young mind. She next appeared as Lord Edmund Blackadder’s puritanical aunt in my all-time favourite comedy, Blackadder.

Often brash, and usually vulgar, she was unlike anything I had encountered. Over three decades later she is now known to a new generation thanks to her role as Professor Pomona Sprout in the Harry Potter franchise.

Aside from talent, it’s difficult to pinpoint what gives one actress longevity over countless others, but reading Margolyes’ life story gives us some clues.

In our interview on pages 6&7, she recounts her grandparent’s early life as immigrants in Glasgow’s Gorbals, her time at Cambridge University where she says she was “ridiculed” by her fellow Footlighters and her close relationship with her beloved mother, who has been her biggest influence.

What comes across is a woman very much in touch with her roots and someone who is firmly, and unapologetically, herself. Maybe that’s been her secret weapon all along.