In case anyone cares, the music over the closing credits is Unde et Memores by W H Monk. Often used for the hymn "And now, O Father, mindful of the love".
Maggie Smith later performed this monologue on stage in the West End. She had such a great command of the audience that she managed to double the laughs, often simply with a look that created anticipation of a wicked observation to come, and therefore provoked a laugh where there certainly wasn't one in the script. It was a masterclass in comedy.
For the masses who only know and love Maggie Smith for her old dowager bitches, for her flying hands and rubber wrists (all of which is lots of fun, no argument), HERE is the genius under the camp. She hardly moves her body, and it is impossible to look away. She knows this wistful woman who has no self-pity right down to the slightest nuance, and never does she seem to be saying "Watch me Act!" The monologues of her pastor's wife are rich with irony and loss, but not bitter. Her change in the final scene made me almost cheer at the screen.
Thinking of everyone who has come to this on hearing of her passing today. Not Harry Potter, or Dowton Abbey or Marigold Hotel but this. Her at her superb best. Vale Dame Maggie Smith.
R.I.P. Dame Maggie. Just heard the sad news. Thank you for the sheer joy of your phenomenal talent. So few actors are equally good at drama and comedy, and Maggie Smith was so brilliant at both, as beautifully demonstrated in this monologue. As Alan Bennett said, "she can turn on a dime." In an article in The Telegraph after her death, the British stage director Nicholas Hytner, who directed her in several productions, had a beautiful comment that sums up her talent so well: " The performing arts matter, and the greatest performing artists, the ones so in command of what they are doing, are so naturally skilled and so honest that they make life bearable, and understandable. “Sarah Siddons, Ellen Terry. Of course, we never saw them. But Maggie is definitely in that line.”
Maggie Smith has the ability to hold us in the palms of her hands, while she mesmerizes, entrances and manipulates our feelings and psyche. There is no one like her. Bravo Ms Maggie Smith.
Not the Wind in the Willows. Transforming the alter into a scene from Bambi.. a booby trap..Riotous laughter from here for sure. O love Dame Maggie Smith's delivery of scabious wit so quietly... She is boundless with talent.
I am thrilled to find this on RU-vid. I remember this from the original broadcast. There are so many lines I remember but when I watched it again I realized Maggie's pauses are as poignant as the words.
Dame Maggie put on an acting clinic with this. The moment towards the end when her voice catches when she talks about Mr. Ramash leaving, was absolutely brilliant. It only lasted about two or three seconds, but it was absolutely powerful.
I just watched this again and noticed that there is an empty glass on the kitchen table in the opening shot. The writing, the performance and the direction are all in perfect alignment.
Written by the fabulous Alan Bennett as part of what became his Talking Heads series. Brilliantly acted by Maggie Smith and other wonderful British actors.
This is why I am addicted to RU-vid. I'd heard about "Talking Heads" but had never seen any episodes. I have seen Dame Maggie in many films and saw her onstage once. If I see her name, I will watch. But this is a side of her I'd never experienced, which makes it all the more stunning. I knew Alan Bennett was an incisive writer...this is ... I count myself beyond fortunate for having seen this tonight.
I had the pleasure - thrill, actually - of seeing Maggie Smith onstage when I lived in NYC. In Tom Stoppard's "Night and Day" and Noel Coward's "Private Lives". In those plays as in this one, she was extraordinary.
Saw it on stage some 20 years ago. It was one half of a performance called Talking Heads. Along with this play Margaret Tyzack performed a piece called Soldiering On. Both of them were exquisite. They don't make them better than this.
I am mesmerized... The talent here is simply out of this world. What an amazing, awe inspiring performance. I feel as if I am in a hypnotic trance. She is absolutely majestic. Thank you so much for posting this.
My God, it's been YEARS since I first saw the "Talking Heads" series, and for my money "Bed Among the Lentils," starring the incomparable Maggie Smith, is the best of them, though Patricia Routledge's "A Woman of No Importance" runs a close second. I don't think I have ever seen Maggie Smith give less than a wonderful performance in anything she has done. And to do so in a solo monologue is a miracle of the actor's art.
“...Why the vicar’s wife has to go to church at all. A barrister’s wife doesn’t have to go to court, an artist wife doesn’t have to go to every performance”
Heaps of kudos given to Maggie's acting and Alan's writing, and rightly deserved so. But I also like to give credit to the director and the camera work done on this as well as the music by the great George Fenton. None of them had that outsized ego to stamp some narcissistic individuality on this piece that could have ruined it altogether. Instead they tread very lightly and give the lightest of touch to it and the rest of the series, resulting in the perfect touch. Nothing unnecessary, nothing over dramatized (camera, pacing, music, etc), so what we get is the masterpiece in perfect form, no gilding of the lily here. Very tasteful really. Thank you for this.
The director was also Alan Bennett. Nice that he was able to handle the adaptation of his own writing. So many writers aren't happy with what happens to their scripts after the directors take over.
When Maggie performed this in Perth (Australia), the audience was in stitches after the first line. I've never seen anything like it. Her timing is miraculous.
Wow. Lucky you. This is one of my favourite performances, not just of Maggie's, but of any actor! I've watched it so many times and still marvel at it. I didn't know she also performed it in theatres. Where was this?
I was lucky enough to see Dame Maggie perform this live..... she cracked up an entire theatre with the simple line, “Big day for you....” Only the best actors can do Mr Bennett’s lines justice.
A perfect combination of two great artists. And Bennett also directed it, and it's so beautifully filmed and staged here. Quietly and trusting the audience. Nothing flashy. Just great writing and a great actress.
Thank you for posting this. I first saw this when PBS aired it in the 1980s on Masterpiece Theatre, and it is still one of my favourite pieces and favourite performances ever. The brilliance of Alan Bennett's writing is both hilarious and heartbreaking as he creates this character from the Anglican church world he knew so well. And then he had the brilliance to cast Maggie. For me, along with Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne, this shows Maggie Smith's phenomenal range in a way that her more recent roles haven't. It shows her talent and timing so much more than she's been given the chance to do n her senior years. She's hilarious in Downtown Abbey and brilliant in her line delivery, but it doesn't need the range that this piece does. I have heard other actors do this role, both on radio and on stage in New York. Nobody has come anywhere close to what she does with it. She can go from a hilarious line to making you cry within a split second, and the final moments are devastating. Brava, Maggie! Bravo, Mr. Bennett, for your writing and superb direction.
I love her performances in these 'one-off' roles. She was excellent in The Lonely Passion Of Judith Hearne, and Love, And Pain, And The Whole Damn Thing.
I watched this years ago on PBS and have never forgotten the brilliance of the dialogue and of course, Maggie Smith. It occurred to me to look for it online and to my absolute joy was able to enjoy this masterpiece once again.
Maggie Smith as a highly intelligent woman trapped in a pedestrian existence as a vicar's wife. Mr. Rammish, the Young Hindi grocer briefly shows her a way out, only to move on. What a masterpiece!
This for me is one of my favourite performances by her, equalled only by the feature film The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne, in which she is also superb.
wonderful indeed ,clever words so brilliantly acted ,we believe evey word(I top of a thrill packed morning by taking around meals on wheels) .Thanks for posting
Allen Bennett's work is brilliant, added with the amazing talents of these outstanding Actors, I'm forever grateful for such magnificent performances... I watch them over and over, and never tire of them.. The dialog, and the emotion portrayed by the participants, are perfection personified! Bravo to all! ♥️♥️
I saw this several years ago on DVD--I must have rented it or something--and I'm amazed to see it again. I can not think of one American actress equal to this performance. Perhaps some of the great British dames of the theater could compare to Dame Maggie, but no American I can bring to mind in the moment.
What would drama be without the church, symbol to writers of every hypocrisy in life? I’m tired of them using the church for this when hypocrisy exists in the freest most liberal agnostics.
I can't help wishing they hadn't refilmed these. They have none of the freshness of the original Talking Heads, and not one play is improved upon. Don't really know why they did it. If you can, get hold of the real thing.
Absolutely. But did you see version 101 of Talking Heads? She was even better, as were Thora Hird et al. I still don't quite understand why they felt the need to redo them. Could be something quite basic like the original films degenerating or whatever. Please don't think I'm dissing Maggie - never!
This is actually "the real thing," when they were first produced for BBC TV in the 1980s. No other video version was done before this one. So not sure where you're getting your information.
@@nickwyatt9498 nope. this is the original. I actually taped it on my VHSmachine when it was broadcast in North America on Masterpiece Theatre in the 1980s, and this is the same performance. I know because I fell in love with this performance so much I showed it to many Anglican friends. I had heard something about them being redone in more recent years, but this performance dates back to the 1980s. I do recall reading that they were re-done recently, but this is the original. Alan Bennett himself also did one at the time, called A Chip in the Sugar, which was also filmed and is on RU-vid. Also from the 1980s.
PERFECT WRITING and PERFECT INTERPRETATION from GIANTS of their craft... (Maggie Smith particularly SHINES in that in that IT'S HARD to portray a character that SHE HERSELF feels indescribably ordinary, and even lost...) You end up loving her, wishing you could even just give her a hug... (That wouldn't be enough...) Not enough for HER either... (And it's not about the sex...) Anything but... Watching THIS, you become INVOLVED... (That's THEATRE...) xx SF
I want everyone who has enjoyed any of Dame Maggie Smith's shows/movies to be sure to see this. I remember watching this on Masterpiece Theater in the late 1980s and was so impressed with Ms. Smith's acting abilities. It, like any role she played, was done so well and believable. Rest in Peace Dame Maggie and thank you for everything.
