‘She told me you shouldn’t put anything in your ear smaller than your elbow’: readers on Maggie Smith

Dame Maggie Smith during filming of the Graham Norton Show at the London Studios, south London. Photograph: Matt Crossick/PA

‘I sobbed at every curtain call’

As soon as I heard her utter the line from California Suite: “Discreet? […] you did everything but lick his artichoke,” I knew my life was changed for ever. I was 11 years old – it’s a love affair that has lasted nearly 50 years. I saw her 10 times on stage and sobbed at every curtain call. Her performance in The Way of the World was the most electrifying performance I ever saw on stage. I will miss her terribly. Somehow life seems a little hollow without her in it.