Wonderfu! ♥

Nice story loved..thanks Susan

This is brilliant, and so sad. Thank you

the heartbreaking lament of someone trapped....moving but deeply sad.

Thankyou 🎉

rewatched this after a few years and found it as brilliant as ever. A wonderful actress and brilliant writing. The best of British indeed xxx

How the fuck does someone even memorize a monologue this long

3:21 😢 "... the rare and dessicated conjunctions that occur between Geoffrey and me..." ❤❤❤😢

You have meant a great deal to me Dame Maggie Smith, thank you for all that you have given us over the years. Rest in peace❤

She's brilliant

saw Maggie perform this in 2004 in Perth, Australia and weirdly my main memory is of the box of cornflakes on stage, i laughed out loud and said "special K"😆 i noticed she touched the box, i think she heard me lol

“A booby trap, a health hazard…”

Wow..... Fabulous monologue for sure ---- but so so bleak.

you were a gift throughout my life and to the world. thank you and rip, great lady...😔

So beautiful ❤

“I could only find 10p…” 💀🤣

She is so brilliant in this.

From the U.S....Thank you! Seeing this for the first time. Just days after her passing, it was such a lovely gift that this could be shared with those who treasured her life work.

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.

"Odd, I never liked going to one church and I end up going to two. I call it bad taste and I wouldn't do it t a dog but that's the thing that nobody ever says about God; he has no taste."

Im in my 50s I feel about the same age as Maggie was here, and I was about 18 when this was made. She was already an "older woman" in the 80s and only just now finally gone.Old age is long.

RIP DMS

She is mesmerizing to watch and listen to.

Honoring her genius!

So beautful to experience the art of Maggie Smith as a way to say goodbye and thank you. Oh, the lentils.

We bid farewell to an amazing actress😢

Amazingly beautiful, and heartbreaking.

Best ever God bless you Maggie!

I had the absolute priviledge of seeing Dame Maggie on stage in my home town performing this live. What a memory. Vale, good lady Dame.

The epitome of sarcasm and pessimistic brilliance! I love Dame Maggie forever ❤️. Glad to have shared this time on earth with Maggie.

A great example of the genius of Maggie Smith, Rest In Peace Dame Maggie.Also a great example of the genius of Alan Bennett...

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.

And yesterday she passed away, surrounded by loved ones.😢

Good bye dear Maggie. You were loved.

r.i.p.

Here's to you, Dame Maggie, and thank you so much for the decades of unforgettable greatness! 😭

RIP dame Maggie

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.”

we lost a true legend today - a master

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".

Brilliant!

Excellent compilation!

You just can't beat the "great dames" of Britain! Incredible!❤❤❤

Gosh! What an incredibly intelligent, sensitive and beautiful performance! An artist of the highest degree!❤❤❤

An oldie but goodie. Seeing this series when originally broadcast in 1987 turned me on to the genius that is Alan Bennett

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.

Genius writer, absolutely masterful performer

Wonderful! Thank-you ❤

Really puts you off drinking!

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.