'I don't want to upset people!'

Actor Miriam Margolyes on being controversial, life in the public eye and her latest projects

- RICHARD BARBER

Love her or loathe her, there are no half measures with Miriam Margolyes. To some, she's an endearingly eccentric English actor, happy to say whatever outlandish thought pops into her mind and, very often, from Graham Norton's BBC chat show sofa.

To others, she's something of a show-off, taking delight in using four-letter words and talking about bodily functions, seemingly for the sole purpose of shocking her audience.

Either way, at 82, Miriam has never been busier, never more famous. She says as much herself. So, what proportion of her current celebrity does she lay at Graham's door?

'Oh, about 90%,' she says. Clearly, he encourages her to be naughty. Not that she needs much encouragement. 'I've always been naughty. I remember my French teacher at school telling me I was naughty, although never wicked. I like that distinction.

Her favourite topics are money, sex, religion and politics. 'That's because each of them is likely to provoke people in one way or another. My raison d'être is connection and reaction. I don't want to upset people and, if I do, I upset myself. It's never my intention to offend. My motivation is to make people think.

Her first volume of autobiography, This Much Is True, was a Top 10 bestseller. Now she's written another, Oh Miriam!, which promises to repeat that success.