The comic genius of Maggie Smith

‘She’d not uttered a word. Everything was registered in an ever more contorted grimace. Never forgotten. Pure comic genius.’ Photograph: Jane Bown

Dame Maggie Smith was already in her late 70s when I chaired a Q&A for the film Quartet, in which she co-starred with Tom Courtenay, Michael Gambon, Billy Connolly and Pauline Collins (Obituary, 27 September). After first warming up a distinguished panel, which included the film’s director, Dustin Hoffman, I threw it open to an audience of international press. From the middle of the throng, a young man from South America raised his arm and declared: “Dame Maggie, in my country we have a sandwich named after you.”

My panel looked at each other with some bemusement before Dame Maggie, at her most Downton Abbeyish and still sharp as a tack, retorted breezily: “Might that be ham, dear?”
Quentin Falk
Little Marlow, Buckinghamshire