Miriam Margolyes on the role she will be ‘most remembered’ for

Virgin Radio

27 Apr 2022, 15:17

Mariam Margolyes has admitted she believes her role as Professor Sprout in the Harry Potter franchise will be the one she is most remembered for.

The actress has appeared in a huge variety of films and theatre productions over her 60-year career and even won a BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress for Martin Scorsese’s The Age of Innocence in 1994.

Margolyes has been a part of many other high-profile films, such as Baz Luhrmann’s 1996 adaptation of Romeo + Juliet, where she played the nurse and has appeared in the BBC series Call the Midwife as Mother Mildred.

Her one-woman show Dickens’ Women also won her great critical acclaim- however, Miriam believes it is a much smaller role that she has been made famous for.

Speaking to Alan Yentob on BBC’s Imagine, Margolyes said: “It’s a very humbling thing actually, to realise that the part for which I will be most known and most remembered is one scene really.”

She added: “I’m just an infinitesimal part of a franchise.”

The actress appeared as Professor Sprout, the Herbology teacher, in Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets in 2002 and during her scene, she was teaching Harry and the class how to correctly handle screaming Mandrakes before seeing to a fainting Neville Longbottom.

She appeared once again in the franchise finale Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows: Part 2 but had no lines.

Elsewhere in the episode, Miriam talks about some of her other career highs and appearing in the likes of Blackadder. Offering further insight into her time as an actress are some of the people in the industry that know her the best, including Richard E Grant, Charles Dance, Dame Eileen Atkins, Patricia Hodge, Tony Robinson and Dame Vanessa Redgrave.

See what she had to say when she joined the Graham Norton Show with Waitrose last year.

Imagine… Miriam Margolyes: Up for Grabs is available to stream on BBC iPlayer now.