Miriam Margoyles - very outspoken lady

Definitely marmite

I really enjoyed her Australian travel documentary, in some of her interviews she goes too far down the smutty road.

GrannyGravy yes she is a smutty lady - also watched her on the India Seniors travel documentaries… she does entertain but only in small doses for me.. but a surprise to be in VOGUE

I like her - her innuendos make me laugh 😂🤣🤣😂

Can’t stand her : rude, intrusive and out to shock.

Yes I agree just small doses, more than that she becomes tiresome.

Bea65

GrannyGravy yes she is a smutty lady - also watched her on the India Seniors travel documentaries… she does entertain but only in small doses for me.. but a surprise to be in VOGUE

The Vogue pictures were stunning.

Fashion isn’t just for slim young things!

I am very wary of people who 'say it like it is' , they usually come across to me as a boorish loudmouth without any thought of the consequences of their actions. If a younger person behaved like that they would be pilloried.

So...I'm not a fan!

I like her - she often says what I am thinking but am far too polite to actually say!

This is my review of her book .... it's a bit long, sorry, but might interest some ....

This Much is True by Miriam Margoyles
How to write a review of this famously crudely outspoken actress’s autobiography that will pass muster for a parish magazine? Deep breath – here goes!
Margoyles was born at the end of the war, the only child of second generation British Jewish parents. Her father, who hailed from Glasgow, was a doctor and her mother, to whom Margoyles was devoted, bought and sold property - and was, by all accounts, a force of nature. Both parents had high aspirations for their daughter, aspirations that were steeped in snobbery – they wanted her to meet the right people and to speak with the right accent, hence many years of elocution lessons and a place at the prestigious Oxford High School. She must have been an impossible pupil, who perpetrated an incessant stream of practical jokes and insolences, and was not slow in voicing her opinions. She recognized herself as being short and fat and hopeless on the sports field but found other ways of making her mark.
When Cambridge was mooted as the next destination, Margoyle’s mother invited Isaiah Berlin to dinner and brazenly asked him to sign the university sponsorship form – she did not know him; he did not know Miriam – but he kindly obliged. With a mother like that, who could fail?
She arrived on her first day at university smoking a pipe – a calculated decision intended to make an impression. Of course, as an aspiring actress, she joined the Cambridge Footlights, but sadly at a time when women were not welcome. The men ignored her with a “studied cruelty.” Sharing a stage with famous names like Cleese, Oddie and Chapman was not a joyful experience. She describes them as “total shits” Only Brooke-Taylor later apologized.
She name-drops incessantly, having rubbed shoulders with the famous both on stage and in film, and modelled nude for Augustus John as a student. She does not hold back on her opinions of these people and thrives on undermining their images - she is also thought to be the first person to use a certain 4 letter word on TV, whilst representing Newnham College on University Challenge in 1963.
However, her behind-the-scenes descriptions of the process of acting are fascinating, the cast becoming a temporary family with the same passions and animosities - and the sad parting when the run is over. We know her best in character roles, but it is interesting to learn that she kept herself in luxury in the US for many years by means of voice-overs for cartoon films and adverts.
When she “came out” to her parents, she caused immeasurable distress, and she is plagued with guilt over her mother, whom she adored, and who shortly after had a stroke from which she never fully recovered. “I realise now that telling people things they can’t deal with is an indulgence.” But it does not seem to have stopped her voicing her opinions, however personal and potentially hurtful, at the drop of a hat.
Margoyles can be sensitive and insightful about literature and theatre and about life - “We are all scared. We are all secretly shaking with fright inside, uncertain of what we should be doing, saying and thinking; anxious about what our lives are going to be.” But moments later she falls victim to the irresistible desire to be outrageous and plummets once more into fart world. One minute she is whipping off her top at an interview and thwacking her substantial boobs onto the table, the next she waxes lyrical on the subtleties of the acting process and the beauty of Shakespeare’s words and characterizations.
She is fiercely proud of her Jewish heritage, in spite of her atheism (“I think laughter is better than God.”) – “I push being Jewish down people’s throats; it’s my way of saying: Hitler did not win ….” Wherever she is she joins the local synagogue and she keeps all the Jewish feast days and traditions. “I can’t let it be. Why should I let it be when, in my lifetime, six million people were murdered because of it?” And she is equally vehement about the fate of the Palestinians when the Zionists reclaimed Israel: “That’s where, as a people, we Jews fell down, and where Hitler won. He changed us from being a compassionate nation into a destructive, uncaring and inhumane one. The tragedy of the Palestinians is just as much the tragedy of the Jews.”
In spite of insistently declaring herself to be gay (her partner Heather has been in her life for over 50 years), she has a bizarre relationship with the male member (“Such an odd dangler to have”) and, if she is to be believed, doles out frequent casual manual and oral favours to random unknown men in passing. It is interesting to speculate as to why she feels the need to do this – and to brag about it.
This book created something of a stir when it first came out as Margoyles claims that her US therapist (wow- what a job that therapist had taken on!) had assisted in the death by suicide of 42-year-old cellist Jacqueline du Pré, rather than her dying of multiple sclerosis , as stated on her death certificate. Where does the truth lie? – is this simply another Margoyles attention-seeking ploy or is she relating the truth?
The entire book suffers with this paradox – we know Margoyles will do anything to be noticed, so how much of it are we to believe? She has been seduced by her own outrageous image and, whilst insisting that this is not all she is, she will belie this in her next sentence. She is a strange mixture of the frankly rude (plonking herself down on a man’s lap in the tube because he would not get up for her) and the warmly sociable – “Most people like to pounce on an empty [park] bench, but I long for human communion – that to me is Holy Communion.” There is much here to enjoy with fascinating insights into an actor’s life and the strange world they inhabit – all overlaid with an insecure character who has created a persona that she cannot quite shake off, and probably does not really wish to – she is making a very good living out of it. So here we have her: a talented actress, compassionate, caring, thoughtful, full of life, inquisitive, politically aware – does she really need the “potty mouth” that has now become her trademark?

I used to like her but now her smuttiness and fart talk happens in every interview and programme she is on, it does not shock anymore nor is it funny, just predictable and pointless, an elderly person behaving like a naughty 10-year-old is not entertaining.

Wow Luckygirl3 great review of her book .. won’t need to buy it now😀

The difference is I like Marmite. 😁

Luckygirl - great review!

Thanks for the in depth review , Lucky girl .

Part of me admires Miriam's sheer chutzpah and part of me is irritated by her obsession with bodily functions .
She is clever and talented .
I'd like to see her doing more acting and less posing .

Does anybody else remember her in her first TV role in 'The Girls of Slender Means' from a Muriel Spark novel? I think it was in the 70s on BBC 2

I love marmite and I like the courage of MM and I most often agree with what she says in a much more educated way than me I really don’t care that it’s littered with ‘ gutter words’
I think she’s a top woman with a big heart, a big brain, and an even bigger mouth

She does seem to go for the shock tactic - I dislike this trait in comedy, when swearing, or using material designed to embarass, is used to provoke laughter. MM can be funny and creative in her work. Maybe the real Miriam is a less challenging creature, away from the spotlight.

I don't think I'm easily shocked but I read her book and when she said that when she was young she offered random strangers (men) a you know what because she was good at it, I must admit I was shocked.

What a fantastic review Luckygirl thank you! I really enjoyed reading it.

MM is an odd bird.
I don’t dislike her -she makes me laugh - but I don’t LIKE her either. She seems a bit insensitive (or uncaring) about embarrassing other people!

Yes, I’ve read her book and agree with the comments. I do like her but would find her intimidating i think. She is very obsessed with the nether regions which seems just a way to shock really.

I caught part of her one woman show when I was channel hopping one night and she was brilliant. I don’t know how actors of a certain age have such energy and am completely baffled how anyone of any age can memorise such large chunks of books and plays. As someone who feels that they’ve spent their whole life with their digestive system waging war against them I’m glad that she happily brings such matters out into the open!

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The only reason her lets see if I can shock you attitude is accepted is because of her beautiful voice.
I can imagine the outcry if, let’s say, Angela Rayner shared with us, she would be crucified 😱

That’s very true Meryl, or Stacy Dooley