Miriam Margolyes has reached breaking point. At 84, the veteran actress and comedian — often celebrated as an unlikely national treasure — admits she’s had enough.
‘I’ve kind of had it with England,’ she declares, launching into a frank tirade that is as unfiltered as ever.
Speaking from the garden of her South London home in Clapham, Miriam looks around at her increasingly wealthy neighbours. ‘I live in a street where everybody is wealthy, and the wealthier they are the worse they behave,’ she says without hesitation. ‘When I bought into this street they were just ordinary people. Now they’re millionaires and billionaires, constantly blowing leaves with noisy machines or adding yet another floor to their already four-storey homes. Absurd.’ 
But the sharp wit soon gives way to something more poignant. ‘I’ve let my body down. I haven’t taken care of it. I have to walk with a walker now. I wish I’d done exercise. It’s the most ghastly waste of time, except that it keeps you going. So, I’m foolish.’
When asked about Ozempic, the weight-loss drug sweeping Hollywood, her answer is firm. ‘Absolutely not. That’s for diabetics. You shouldn’t take medicine meant for people who are really sick. What I do think is we should not have food advertising on television.’
Her candour extends to her views on death. Miriam openly admits she would ask for assisted dying if she ever lost her independence. ‘I don’t want to go through a slowly diminishing period of pain and embarrassment. If a stroke meant I couldn’t speak, or I was doubly incontinent, or I lost my mind completely, I would ask to be put down. That’s because I want to be who I am. I don’t want to be less than I can be.’
Despite her health struggles, Miriam is far from slowing down. She is preparing for a one-woman Edinburgh show about Charles Dickens, a solo tour filled with ‘cherished memories, razor-sharp observations… and a little bit of smut’, plus her new memoir The Little Book Of Miriam. 
Written as an A-to-Z of her life, it offers anecdotes both hilarious and painful. ‘What do a***holes, apostrophes and ageing have in common?’ she teases. ‘They’re all entries in this informal and idiosyncratic dictionary of me.’
Yet one chapter of her life remains especially profound: her six-decade relationship with Australian professor Heather Sutherland. Though the two women have long maintained separate homes in London and Amsterdam, Miriam now hopes they will finally live together in their Italian house purchased in 1973.
‘We really do love each other,’ she says softly. ‘Heather is a remarkable, brilliant woman and every conversation is uplifting and surprising and sometimes angry — but she’s my person and I’m her person. We should live together when we’re old.’
Miriam admits they are beginning the process of leaving England, though Brexit has complicated matters. Heather already has European residency, while Miriam may need to become Dutch in order to live full-time in their Italian home.
Their love story began in 1968, though Miriam’s path to self-acceptance was anything but easy. She recalls the cruelty she endured at Cambridge’s Footlights comedy club, where future Monty Python stars John Cleese and Graham Chapman dismissed her as invisible. ‘They were nasty little p***** and I’ve never forgiven them,’ she says bitterly. ‘They meant to be hurtful.’
Even later, Miriam claims Cleese would belittle her in professional settings. ‘He’s not funny now, he’s just tired and bitter.’
Her parents’ reaction to her sexuality left deep scars too. Coming out in 1966, Miriam believes, broke her mother’s heart. ‘I feared it might have caused her stroke,’ she admits.
Despite these struggles, Miriam built a stellar career, spanning theatre, television, and Hollywood. Her films include Little Shop Of Horrors, Romeo + Juliet, Magnolia, Mulan, Happy Feet and the Harry Potter series, where she played Professor Sprout. She even won a BAFTA for her role in Scorsese’s The Age of Innocence after shocking the director in her audition by flashing her breasts.
‘I just lifted up my top. It made them laugh. That’s the wonderful thing about t***. They make you laugh.’
Today, she remains proudly Jewish, though non-religious, and outspoken on world affairs. Her memoir includes controversial words on Palestine: ‘We Jews have become the abusers. My heart is heavy – it means Hitler has won.’ The Campaign Against Antisemitism has since demanded her OBE be revoked — a suggestion she mocks.
Her admiration for the King and Queen is equally unfiltered. Despite her socialist leanings, she recalls swimming with Camilla, whom she describes as ‘totally delicious.’
As for rock legends, her opinion is less flattering. In her memoir she savages Mick Jagger for dating her then-24-year-old friend Sophie Dahl in 2001, branding him a ‘smug c***’ and accusing him of preying on a vulnerable young woman.
At 84, Miriam Margolyes is as funny, fiery, and brutally honest as ever — confronting her mortality while refusing to compromise her truth.
Source: Daily Mail
