Charles Dickens. I’ve read all his novels. My favourite book is probably Little Dorrit, Bleak House or Great Expectations. He is a window into the 19th century, sharp about people, and his characters burst off the page so you feel you know them. And he is extremely moral — you know where he stands with each character.
Philippe Sands’ The Last Colony. It’s brilliant. I gave his book East West Street to the King for his birthday. He hasn’t replied yet, but I think he would have enjoyed it. I love the King; I admire and know him. I think we have a rapport — I hope he would say we do.
Little Dorrit. It’s both funny and sad, and is a key to Dickens’ life because his whole family went to jail and it’s about how we’re all marked by the things that happen in our lives — the way we never escape.
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The book I couldn’t finish
Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past. I got bored. Maybe it was a bit too French for me. I didn’t care enough about the people.le
The book I’m ashamed I haven’t read
Tristram Shandy. I would like to have attempted it. I hope I will — I like to think anything is possible, even at 84.
My favourite film 
Arletty in Les Enfants du Paradis
ALAMY
Les Enfants du Paradis. The acting, the story, the power of the characters — you’re thrust into the world of bohemian Paris and showbiz people. Arletty was one of the greatest actresses who ever lived. A Nazi sympathiser it seems, but God she was a good actress.
My favourite play
King Lear. There’s an agony, a daring, and the character of Lear is so unbearably tragic. He’s so foolish and wrong. And the fool is witty and heart-rending. It engages all my emotions and that’s what I want — I want to feel alive when I’m at the theatre.
The box set that I’m hooked on
Sarina Wiegman with the England team
JONATHAN MOSCROP/GETTY IMAGES
I recently watched Unforgivable, which I thought was very good. It’s about paedophilia — not a world I know anything about, but I felt that it was truthful and beautifully acted. But I just watch sport now. I love tennis. And of course I was watching the ladies’ football. The English had more longing — they just weren’t going to give up. I’m just crazy about them. As for the coach, Sarina [Wiegman], she’s my pin-up.
My favourite TV series
Television is not my art form. I’ll say something I was in which I thought was very good: The Girls of Slender Means, made in the 1970s.
My favourite piece of music
Sinead Campbell-Wallace as Floria Tosca and Noel Bouley as Baron Scarpia in a 2022 production of Tosca
JOHN SNELLING/GETTY IMAGES
I love opera. Any Italian opera would be my favourite. Tosca, anything by Verdi or Donizetti. I love hearing people sing because I can’t. I have no music in my soul. I love The Merry Widow — it conjures up a world that’s gone and I’m very conscious of all the things that have gone. I’m not really conscious of what’s here and now.
The last TV show that made me cry and laugh
Reruns of Barry Humphries. He was a genius and a friend. I miss him terribly.
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The lyric I wish I’d written
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes by Jerome Kern and Otto Harbach. It’s poetry.
The poem that saved me
Shakespeare’s song “fear no more the heat of the sun” in Cymbeline. It’s an acknowledgement that life goes by and that we have to accept what happens.
The instrument I play
My voice.
The instrument I wish I’d learnt
The cello. It’s mournful and beautiful and has a more sonorous sound than the violin, which can be a bit scratchy sometimes.
The music that cheers me up
Anything by Gilbert and Sullivan; Three Little Maids from School Are We.
If I could own one painting it would be
Rembrandt’s Self-Portrait with a Golden Chain (c1635)
FINE ART IMAGES/HERITAGE IMAGES VIA GETTY IMAGES
One of Rembrandt’s self-portraits. He was unafraid to paint the sadness in his life. He painted himself unvarnished — I think that’s quite hard to do when it’s your own face. I think of all these women who put Botox in their faces in order to conceal the lines of life. That to me is a travesty.
The place I feel happiest
A little village called Montisi in Italy.
I’m having a fantasy dinner party. I’ll invite these artists and authors 
Dame Edna Everage, aka Barry Humphries
GIE KNAEPS/GETTY IMAGES
Charles Dickens, Barry Humphries, Colm Toibin, Amitav Ghosh, Joan Rivers, Eileen Atkins and Vanessa Redgrave.
And I’ll put on this music
None, absolutely not.
The show I’m looking forward to
Nina Conti’s ventriloquist act. She’s f***ing amazing.
The play I walked out on
The Lehman Trilogy. I couldn’t believe in the characters or the story — I just didn’t care. [I didn’t think it was antisemitic], that didn’t occur to me. But I mean almost everything is antisemitic because the English don’t like Jews. People get a bit confused between Israelis and Jews and they think that all Israelis are Jewish, which they’re not, and all Jews are Israelis, which they’re not. If you ask me what is the worst thing in the world at the moment, I would say Gaza. That doesn’t make me antisemitic, it just makes me moral.
Overrated
Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones
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The Rolling Stones. Too noisy.
Underrated
The playwright and actor Stewart Permutt, who died not very long ago. He was wonderful and had a particular vision of expressing himself and characters. He was a genius unrecognised.
The Little Book of Miriam by Miriam Margolyes is out now (John Murray £16.99 pp320). To order a copy go to timesbookshop.co.uk. Free UK standard P&P on orders over £25. Special discount available for Times+ members