She could hold a line, a moment or a look, seemingly forever. Maggie Smith’s command of time – whether holding a theatre audience spellbound or holding screen audiences rapt – was matchless.
She was a mistress of calculated exaggeration for dramatic or comic effect, yet nothing she did was at the expense of truth. Even at her piercingly funniest, she let you see the emotion that underpinned and caused the laughter.
