Miriam swears in sign language

Miriam Margolyes has told how she has fun getting her signers for the deaf to demonstrate swear words to her Edinburgh Fringe audiences.

The actress, 83, is appearing at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe for the first time in 12 years, with her one woman show, Margolyes & Dickens: The Best Bits.

Speaking on BBC Scotland’s “Edinburgh Unlocked”, she insisted she is a more than just a “foul-mouthed old biddy”, but admitted that swearing is fun.

She said: “(A lot of people know me now) as a foul-mouthed old biddy. I know, I know. But there’s a lot more to me than that.

“I’m not just that. I can be that, and sometimes I’m that too much. But I’m not just a foul mouth you know. It worries me, that. But (swearing) is funny.

“It is funny. One of the things that I so enjoy is I have deaf signers with me, doing British Sign Language. And I ask them at the beginning of the show, ‘I’ve got a few words for you, can you demonstrate it to the audience so they know what’s to come?

“So I say ****, ****, ****, ****, ****. And it’s terrific. I think that might offend. In fact, I’m bloody sure it will offend.”

Margolyes, who played Professor Sprout in the Harry Potter films, has spoken previously about her Scottish heritage. Her grandfather was a jeweller with a shop in St Enoch Square in Glasgow, and her father was born in the Gorbals in 1899.

She said it was “an emotional thing” to come back to Scotland and to bring her show to Edinburgh audiences.

She added: “I want to have a go. Even though I’m 83 and crippled, and forgetful, I want to see if I can still entertain…

“I’m just happy that people still want to see me and that I can still convince someone I’m worth watching.”

https://www.pleasance.co.uk/event/margolyes-dickens-best-bits