She says her often disarming manner ensures people are “not afraid” of her. “When they talk to me, they’re not guarded – they just speak how they feel and that’s very valuable on television, and very rare, I think. You know, I was extremely moved, for example, by the people who couldn’t read,” she says of an older couple she met in Tasmania. It’s one of the series’ more sobering moments, when the statistics of adult illiteracy in Australia are revealed.
“That’s something that I would call political – I’m not afraid to say the numbers. And they are shocking. But it was just wonderful to see middle-aged people making their lives better,” Margolyes says. “I really did find that moving – and hopeful, because while that sort of thing can happen and work, then things can improve. You know, I’m at the moment living in England, which is in the most awful state, and it is almost entirely created by the corrupt inadequacies and incompetence of those in power.”
She’s pleased about Boris Johnson’s resignation; she’s been in trouble several times for her candid opinions of the disgraced PM, for saying she hoped he might die from COVID, among other things. Most recently, I believe, for referring to him as ‘c—’.
“Oh yes, that’s right – I’ve done that many times. And I absolutely stand by that. He’s everything that I totally disapprove of. He’s a philandering, adulterous, incompetent, corrupt politician – there isn’t a single thing there that you could approve of.”
As an Australian citizen (she has a home in NSW that she stays at with her Australian partner of 53 years, Heather, who lives in the Netherlands; they see each other a handful of times a year), she was also pleased with our recent federal election.
“I voted Labor, of course,” she says. “Australians are not stupid – it takes them a while to make up their minds, but I think everybody, whether they voted Liberal or not, were just disgusted. They just thought, for f—’s sake, let’s get rid of him! And I was very happy about that.”