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Harry Potter legend Miriam Margolyes talks life at 85
“It’s a rock star tour,” she declares with a twinkle in her eye. “But I’m not a rock star, I’m a little old lady. I’m only 4ft 10. There aren’t many people on the stage shorter than me.”
The Oxford-born actress uses sticks to help her on stage and has a wheelchair to hand, just in case, and worries that she’s not going to be good enough, she says.
Meeting her today over Zoom, she is as sweary as she is on TV, dryly asking the PR to tell her lodger who is loitering visibly in the garden to ‘f*** off’, before calmly turning back to me to relate amiably, in her cut-glass accent, some of the more pertinent parts of her latest book, Miriam’s Full English, which she suspects will be her last.
The actor and bestselling author – she has written three previous memoirs – who achieved international prominence with her portrayal of Professor Sprout in the Harry Potter film series, has been described as a ‘national treasure’ but thinks ‘national trinket’ is more accurate.
“It’s flattering to be thought of as any sort of a treasure, national or international, but I’m happy with anybody who listens to me and likes me and doesn’t try to rubbish me.”
While Margolyes has been an actor on stage and screen for a considerable time, she agrees that she’s become more famous in recent years.
“I didn’t know it was going to take so long. I always thought I’d be famous but I didn’t know I’d have to wait till I was in my 80s. And I think I deserve it because I’m a nice person. I’m kind and I think kindness is probably the most important thing of all.
“I do feel very grateful for the fact that I haven’t been sidelined, as many older women are, but I’ve never been beautiful. I’ve never been gorgeous. I’ve never been sexy.
“I’m just very lucky that television started to do things called chat shows and I got invited on to them and I started to show off, which is what I do, and it’s made me famous.”
Chat show host Graham Norton has described her as ‘TV gold’ and she’s delighted that he will be interviewing her at the Royal Albert Hall during the book tour.
“It makes me nervous now when I go on his programmes because I don’t want to disappoint.”
In her new book, she turns her unflinching gaze on the British and what makes us tick.
The book covers everything from queuing to farting, accents, eccentricities, the weather, sex and smut. It is, as you’d imagine, full of quick wit, disarmingly candid observations and plenty of swearing.
“I am habitually foul-mouthed,” she agrees, admitting that she swears as much off-screen as on it.
“I’ve got a very posh voice and that’s because I was born in Oxford and I live a middle-class life. But it cuts you off from people if you sound middle class from the people who aren’t middle class and that, I think, is one of the reasons why I swear, because I think that makes people understand I’m just like them.
“I use swearing as a conduit to that world that otherwise I might not reach.”
While much of the book pokes fun at the peccadillos of British society, there is a serious message that the country has lost its way.
“It seems to me that we are surrounded by slippery politicians and liars and they are affecting our lives in a way that I don’t remember happening before.
“I think that politics, particularly, has overwhelmed people, and the evil of three men particularly, Trump, Netanyahu and Putin, have undermined people’s belief in the future, in the decency of the current world we live in, and the fear of the future.
“I don’t have children. I never wanted children. I’m not sorry I don’t have children but people who have children write to me and say, ‘I don’t know what to do about my grandchildren, about my children. How can I help them? How can I protect them?’”
In the book she also disparages politician Nigel Farage (who she nicknames Niggle Garage), and former prime minister Boris Johnson. Left wing she may be, but Margolyes also fires some criticism at past Labour politicians.
Known for being disarmingly honest in her anecdotes and opinions, she insists she never sets out to shock.
“I’m an intelligent Oxford-born, Cambridge-educated woman. I don’t set out to shock. I’m quite amused if I do and I think if I’m interviewing people it’s quite useful because if people are shocked, they will respond immediately and that’s what I want.”
These days she turns down a lot, including Celebrity Traitors which her friend Stephen Fry tried to persuade her to do, she reveals.
“I thought about it because I really like Stephen, I think he’s a force for good. But in the end, I thought, I just can’t quite bring myself to do it.
“I won’t do anything like that. I don’t like programmes where you have to choose people to be in or out. I don’t like competitions.
“I’ve been offered huge sums of money to do the jungle and that Strictly thing.”
Margolyes doesn’t need reality shows – in recent years she’s made travelogues, is about to film a documentary series in Australia, while her new road trip movie, Holy Days, about three nuns, made in New Zealand, has been released just before her book is published.
More than 60 years after her career began, she is still performing. She predicts that spinal stenosis will confine her permanently to a wheelchair soon. Does she feel old?
“I do sometimes, but not all the time. Sometimes I feel quite larky and that’s why I like performing. When I’m actually on stage and looking at an audience, I feel joy.”
Her book tours invite a Q&A from the audience. What’s the most common question she’s asked?
“It’s usually who is the nastiest person that I’ve had to deal with, or who is the best f***, or who’s the best kisser, or something intimate like that.
“I don’t like questions about my partner because I love her very much. She’s nothing to do with showbusiness and she told me that it’s infuriating when she looks at Google and just finds stuff about me, which should be about her. She looks under her own name and it’s all about me.”
In the book, she offers a manifesto for a happier and saner future, putting forward positive ideas such as ‘Adopt a granny’, ‘Talk to strangers’, ‘Take your earphones out’ and ‘Be brave’.
Her worries of the world fade, at least temporarily, when she’s on stage.
“When I step on stage now, usually I have sticks in my hands but there’s a roar, a real roar, and I don’t think many performers get that who are not world famous or really rock stars. But there’s such an affection in that roar and they are all smiling and clapping. Aren’t I lucky?”
Miriam’s Full English: A Grand Tour Of All Our Best Bits by Miriam Margolyes is published by John Murray on September 3, priced £25.
Miriam’s Full English tour visits various cities across the UK and Ireland from September to December 2026.
On Wednesday, September 2, it was the Concours judging and private viewings to dominate the agenda for the day.
Twelve Concours classes were held across almost a century of motoring, including The Golden Age of Motoring, 100 Years of Carrrozzeria Touring, La Dolce Vita, 60 Years of the Lamborghini Miura and Passione Ferrari.
Two new classes also made their debut for 2026, Rare Breeds of the Digital Age and Hypercar Heaven, which recognise the growing importance of contemporary performance cars within the international collector market.
Judging will take place across Wednesday and Thursday, with the show field bringing together a 70-strong collection of classics, supercars and hypercars from around the world.
Some of the cars include Aa Maserati 8C 3000, Alfa Romeo Sprint Berlinetta, a one-off Maserati 3500GT Spyder Prototipo by Vignale, a very early Porsche 356 Split Window Coupé, Aston Martin DB3S, Lamborghini Miura P400S, Bizzarrini 5300GT, Ferrari 250 GT Series 1 Cabriolet, Bugatti EB110 Prototype, Aston Martin Valiant Prototype and the extraordinary Bugatti Bolide, one of just 40 produced worldwide.
Helen Pike has decided to step down as Master of Magdalen College School at the end of the 2026/27 academic year, the school in east Oxford announced in March.
MCS is one of the top performing schools in the country, ranking in the top 20 independent secondary schools in The Sunday Times Parent Power Schools Guide 2026.
READ MORE: UK private school headteacher to leave after 11 years
The new academic year will start next week, with Ms Pike preparing for one more year in charge before she hands over to her successor, who will take over in September 2027.
The first female Master at MCS, Ms Pike guided the board of governors to one of the most significant decisions in the school’s history, to become fully co-educational from 2027.
While there has been a co-educational sixth form at the school for 15 years, the school last month announced it will become fully co-educational over the coming decade.
Ms Pike said earlier: “I love MCS, and it is a perennial privilege to lead this remarkable school.
“Being Master of MCS is a brilliant job, and I am declaring my intention early in order to give MCS the very best opportunity to find the right Master for September 2027. I shall continue to do all in my power to further the fortunes of this wonderful school until then.
“I look forward to a new phase in my own professional life, one that builds on all that I have enjoyed and achieved in my career during the past 30 years.
“Having encouraged many cohorts of pupils to take sensible risks and to do something creative and different when the time feels right, I am doing just that.”
During Ms Pike’s tenure, MCS has been recognised as a Top 20 Independent School and South East School of the Year by the Sunday Times and won Independent School of the Year for Social Mobility.
Thanking her in his letter to the school community, chair of governors, Bob Price, said earlier this year: “Helen is an outstanding leader and will go with our sincere gratitude and warm thanks for her exceptional headship.
“She will leave the school in excellent shape for her successor.”
Recruitment for a replacement for Ms Pike is now under way.
Last month, Ms Pike congratulated pupils on their “outstanding success” in this year’s A-Level exams, after more than a quarter of pupils (43) achieved three A*s or more and 25 secured all A*s.
In total, 39 pupils from the 2026 cohort are heading to Oxbridge, while 22 have secured places to study medicine.
As part of the school’s expansion plans, MCS is preparing to build a new Science, Library and Partnerships building.
A spokeswoman said the new building will offer an exciting opportunity to reimagine the senior school site as staff look ahead to full co-education.
She added earlier: “With a vision to create a sector-leading science building in the centre of Oxford, the development will enable us to support an ambitious and forward-looking science curriculum, expanding to the emerging and rapidly advancing areas of robotics, AI and Big Data.”
Holding banners which read ‘For f**k’s sake, just stop oil’, the demonstrators took to the road in Parliament Square at noon today (Wednesday, September 2).
This was as Andy Burnham faced his first Prime Minister’s Questions, and many of the protestors glued themselves to the road.
The group demanded that the UK government stop approving all further oil and gas developments, and sign a Fossil Fuel Treaty to stop oil and gas extraction.
READ MORE: Witney firefighters called out to over 50 incidents in one month
Just Stop Oil say that the police are expected to arrest all those blocking the road, and that one lane has been left free of glued-on action takers to permit access for emergency vehicles.
Andy Burnham is due to make a decision on whether to allow more drilling for oil and gas in the North Sea.
Reverend James Crote, a Baptist Minister and grandfather from Chesterton near Bicester, said: “Today is my grandson’s first birthday. I have to take action for the sake of his future.
The 69-year-old added: “The government has been dilly-dallying about whether to say yes or no to the Rosebank oil field but, if we want a future for our children, there is no choice – it has to say ‘no’.
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“I am here as a Christian Minister because the Church has to speak out and demand that the government stops approving further oil and gas developments now. It’s time for us all to say ‘For God’s sake, Just Stop Oil’.”
Data from the Met Office indicates that 2026 was the hottest summer in UK recorded history, beating 2025, which was the previous hottest summer on record.
2026 was also one of the driest summers on record, delivering record-low food harvests.
Climbing temperatures have triggered wildfires across the country, and national fire chiefs said the wildfire risk facing the UK is “like nothing we have seen before”.
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Taking action, grandmother Victoria Ann Lynch-Staunton from Leamington Spa, said: “What is happening is beyond a tragedy.”
The 71-year-old added: “I beg everyone to join Just Stop Oil or governments will continue to prioritise endless growth and corporate profit over billions of lives – yours and your children.
“Wake up and smell the coffin. It is the responsibility of all of us to act now!”
A Just Stop Oil spokesperson said today: “We are all Just Stop Oil.
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“Every single person who fears deadly wildfires, devastating droughts, and spiralling food shortages is Just Stop Oil.
“The first duty of government is to keep the public safe – but by greenlighting oil and gas drilling, they endanger our survival while corporates and billionaires laugh their way to the bank.
“Every one of us feels alone and powerless in the face of this insanity, but we know there is massive political and public support for our demand.
“So we’re inviting everyone to join us at an online call on 3rd October 2026 – because it’s when we work together that we are powerful and win.”
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