{"id":443046,"date":"2026-02-24T13:45:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T13:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/443046\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T13:45:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T13:45:08","slug":"bafta-winning-director-captures-margolyes-life-on-phone-over-2-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/443046\/","title":{"rendered":"BAFTA-Winning Director Captures Margolyes\u2019 Life on Phone Over 2 Years"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tMiriam Margolyes<\/a> Made Me Me follows its titular star from London to Australia and back, taking in trips to see old friends, her on-stage performances, and even an encounter with royalty.<\/p>\n

\n\tBAFTA-winning director Simon Draper filmed Margolyes on his phone over two years, but a doc was not part of the plan. He set out to make a podcast with the star, who is well-known in the UK and beyond as an actor and also for her lively appearances on TV and talkshows, usually turning the air various shades of blue. Margolyes didn\u2019t disappoint as she told Deadline the new one-off film was an accident of sorts.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI didn\u2019t know what the fuck was going on,\u201d she said about the early stages of the project. \u201cI would open the door, or take my knickers off, and Simon would be there filming. I was a willing participant, but very unaware, really, of what was happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOver time it became apparent that what started as research for a podcast was becoming something else. What ultimately turned into a one-off film has been picked up by the BBC<\/a>, which will play it on iPlayer and BBC Two.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt is a story about Margolyes, but also reveals Draper\u2019s story. He has a long list of credits, but like many freelancers in the UK television biz, was having a hard time finding work when this project evolved. His story is one that will resonate with many in the industry.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI just instinctively tried to keep busy by doing something that I\u2019ve trained in,\u201d he explains. \u201cIt was taking something that I felt comfortable doing, trying to document things, with the hope that I might be able to make a podcast with Miriam.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cGwyn Jones is the editor and he looked at the podcast rushes and the material and he said: \u2018You haven\u2019t got a podcast, you\u2019ve a film here, mate. I didn\u2019t know it at first, but it was a film about how Miriam transforms lives, including mine.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the doc Margolyes sparkles when in company, whether that be royalty, celeb, or Director Simon. It\u2019s not all laughs in the film, there are tender moments, including when she visits a sick school friend, but throughout, she is effortless on camera. It transpires that it\u2019s because she wasn\u2019t really making an effort for the sake of the camera. \u201cI love being with people, I need people\u201d Margolyes says. \u201cI didn\u2019t have any brothers and sisters, and I am a very good friend. I take friendship very seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe star, who can currently be seen in Oscar-nominated short <\/a>A Friend Of Dorothy, adds: \u201cI\u2019m just very good at being who I am. I don\u2019t find it difficult to be Miriam. I answer questions honestly and thoughtfully. Sometimes I\u2019m naughty and funny, and sometimes I\u2019m sad and reflective, just like everybody else, but I find it very easy to put my emotions and my thoughts up front.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAt this point on our Zoom interview, Draper talks to directly Margolyes: \u201cYou gave me the opportunity, Miriam, to just see what happens,\u201d he says about the making of the doc.<\/p>\n

\n\tBack in interview mode and talking to Deadline, he explained that filming a doc on a phone had its advantages. \u201cSo much of TV and film has got such a predictable ending that the real excitement here was not knowing what\u2019s going to happen next.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMiriam allowed me to tag along and because I didn\u2019t have the constraints of crew, it started to sort of become this thing where I realized you could have a brutally honest portrayal of my relationship and friendship with her. Crucially, it had humor, but it also had depth. It had this authenticity, which is what Miriam\u2019s all about.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe adds: \u201cWhat was great was being able to not hinder it with the normal conventions of documentary making. I was making it up as I went along, but also knowing that it wasn\u2019t futile, because every time we met, I\u2019d learned something new, or I\u2019d be reminded of Miriam\u2019s personality.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLana Salah, Creative Director at Rex TV<\/a>, took to the project and the indie label got on board as Miriam Margolyes Made Me Me morphed into to a full-fledged doc. Rex is part of production and distribution group Zinc Media. With a BBC sale already in the bag the film is being sold internationally by Zinc Distribution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Miriam Margolyes Made Me Me follows its titular star from London to Australia and back, taking in trips…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":443047,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[96,33428,161076,2839,161077,56,54,55,161078],"class_list":{"0":"post-443046","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-miriam-margolyes","10":"tag-miriam-margolyes-made-meu00a0me","11":"tag-movies","12":"tag-rex-tv","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom","16":"tag-zinc-media-group"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=443046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443046\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/443047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=443046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=443046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=443046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}