The spectacle of Lindsay Duncan being not nice – selfish or truculent or evil to her core – will never get old. She just looks so angelic, and takes such a palpable delight in playing a character who isn’t, it’s like watching someone break out of prison.
I speak to her by Zoom. She is at home in London. She has a new ring light, which makes her look extremely radiant (I believe that’s the point), and she is really pleased with it, having just seen herself in the forthcoming comedy drama Truelove: “Let’s be frank,” she says. “It’s such a shock when I don’t look as I do in my bathroom mirror, which is perfectly acceptable.” I say, because of course I do, that she looks great in Truelove, just maybe a little grumpy, and she laughs that off. “I can’t be accused of being vain, in the respect of work. But this ring light, I think it might be a good thing.”
