Effortless skill, mixed salads and a certain impatience with life: Michael Palin remembers Maggie Smith
Smith’s costar in two 80s comedies shares his memories of an actor blessed with an instinctive grasp of her craft
• Dame Maggie Smith obituary
• Appreciations by Michael Billington, Peter Bradshaw and Mark Lawson
• A life in pictures
• Her 20 best films
• Memories from Michael Palin, Mike Newell and Nicholas Hytner
• Share your tributes
To work with Maggie Smith, as I did in The Missionary and A Private Function, was to be in the presence of pure acting gold. Maggie was so skilful and intuitive. She could portray the maximum of emotion with the minimum of effort. Nothing was ever wasted with Maggie.
The slightest glance could contain so much information, the smallest gesture be loaded with such significance that you had to be absolutely on your toes to stay with her. The two films we made together were comedies, and Maggie’s impeccable comic timing was an absolute joy to watch and a privilege to be part of.