When TV director Simon Draper decided to produce a podcast with Miriam Margolyes, he kicked into motion a series of encounters that ended up changing his life in an unexpected way.
In 2024, Draper, whose credits include Rob & Rylan’s Grand Tour, had no work on the horizon and thought a project with one of his former collaborators – the 84-year-old national treasure, former Harry Potter star and outrageous anecdote-teller Margolyes – would be a good creative use of his time. (He previously worked with the comedian and actor for 2016 documentary The Real Marigold on Tour, in which she visited a retirement home in Florida – and swiftly got booted out for getting in a row with a resident about Trump.)