Miriam Margolyes

Margolyes opens up about her achievements and anxieties as Alan Yentob's Imagine programme reminds us of how lucky we are to have her.

Margolyes is pathologically honest, admitting here that she once struck her paralysed mother when the stress of being her carer became too much. Margolyes explained that she had just wanted to cheer everyone up at the end of a long day. Her subsequent career in the spotlight, we learned, was about “seeking attention and approbation and love”.

The latest Imagine movie…, Miriam Margolyes: up for grabs (TBEN One), was a quietly revealing portrayal. That doesn't seem very relevant for an actress.

Her later career in the spotlight, we learned, was “seeking attention, approval and love.” Margolyes explained that she just wanted to cheer everyone up at the end of a long day. Margolyes has spoken of the pain and humiliation she felt as a teenager at school dances, a “fat and unsightly” wallflower who was never asked to dance.

CHRISTOPHER STEVENS: Miriam Margolyes is an actress of extraordinary talents - a brilliant mimic, a fine reader and a rambunctious scene-stealer.

Her tears appeared to be self-pity, not regret. Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell traced two families torn apart by the post-war Child Migrant schemes, which took children from care homes and sent them to the far side of the world. He has been presenting these arty biographies for years, but his interview style has not advanced beyond a list of prepared questions. Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell traced two families torn apart by the post-war Child Migrant schemes, which took children from care homes and sent them to the far side of the world, in ITV's Long Lost Family Special: Shipped To Australia He doesn’t probe, he just offers prompts. She recalled how mortified they were when she came out to them as a lesbian in the 1960s, and how they made her swear to stop sleeping with women (she broke her promise).

As Alan Yentob's Imagine program reminds us of how fortunate we are to have Miriam Margolyes, she opens up about her accomplishments and fears.

She was as candid about everything else, from her job worries to s**, admitting to being both baffled and excited by her newfound celebrity as she approaches her ninth decade. Blackadder, Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet, Call the Midwife, Harry Potter, many Dickens adaptations, and her Bafta for The Age of Innocence are just a few examples of her amazing career. Margolyes described her shame and agony as an adolescent at school dances, where she was a “fat and ungainly” wallflower who was never invited to dance.