I have six streaming platforms but i usually end up on youtube watching this sort of obscure masterpiece.
@joshdrayton12303 жыл бұрын
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.
@peterbreughel44404 ай бұрын
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.
@sollion27 жыл бұрын
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.
@DavidBrowningBYD3 жыл бұрын
Heh heh heh....you said palms, like Palm Sunday!
@wtamax48133 жыл бұрын
Dame Maggie Smith, if you please. 💜
@ladya88697 жыл бұрын
Dame Maggie smith is beyond brilliant
@credenza14 жыл бұрын
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.
@nickbigd3 жыл бұрын
I cherish all Maggie Smith performances, but this one has stuck in my head. My old VHS tape is long gone. So happy to find the performance here.
@laursey19694 жыл бұрын
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.
@annazaman96576 жыл бұрын
The flower arrangement scene retold is brilliant. The sarcasm that drips from her lips.......
@jotripodi98724 жыл бұрын
Just another reason why I love Maggie Smith.... I held on to every word she spoke
@grai8 жыл бұрын
Incredible how Alan Bennett makes the story so sad and so funny at the same time And genius level acting from her of course
@timforbes49678 жыл бұрын
+grai It's called Talent!
@2legit648 жыл бұрын
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.
@conversacionesconmipadre4 жыл бұрын
Dame Maggie Smith is one of the few that deserves to be called Dame in absolutely every sense of the word. She is a national treasure!
@ShearsOfAtropos8 жыл бұрын
always worth a rewatch, I will never get tired of this. The ending lines give me chills
@barbaraandrews76158 жыл бұрын
I was riveted by Dame Maggie in this. Such a small story and a large one at the same time.
@judybourgeois52028 жыл бұрын
I am thrilled to find this on KZbin. 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.
@Scottsteaux638 жыл бұрын
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.
@cor81297 жыл бұрын
I could not agree more.
@clarequilty49628 жыл бұрын
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.
@uhuhyup53282 жыл бұрын
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.
@Broadwaybuff-pi1qg Жыл бұрын
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.
@shirleysavitts96474 жыл бұрын
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.
@avidreader1116 жыл бұрын
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.
@robertperry8147 жыл бұрын
A wonderfully written piece done by a geat actor. Perfection.
@MsSoundguy7 жыл бұрын
This is why I am addicted to KZbin. 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.
@stephenwilliams68095 жыл бұрын
MsSoundguy %zzzzz
@mattecow4 жыл бұрын
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.
@idrissaebrahim32614 жыл бұрын
Her timing is perfect, everytime, she is just amazing
@kestalphillips18136 жыл бұрын
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.
@fkd19638 жыл бұрын
A master class in how to act for the television camera. Bravura.
@shirleysavitts96475 жыл бұрын
The rendition of flower arrangements at the church was just too tongue in cheek funny. Dame Maggie is unequivacable in any and all roles.
@Tenortalker8 жыл бұрын
She is magical!
@boleyn1238 жыл бұрын
Have been looking for this for years. My original tape was worn out. She was stupendous. Without doubt the greatest actress of our time. Cheers.
@timforbes49678 жыл бұрын
+mark prescott You can get it on DVD or CD.
@boleyn1238 жыл бұрын
Tim Forbes Ta mate, will start looking around. Cheers.
@Larkinchance6 жыл бұрын
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!
@thecobaltroom6 жыл бұрын
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.
@septemberrain31978 жыл бұрын
WOW!! I love her, I just love her playing....more please :-)
@willworkforwages8 жыл бұрын
Not surprisingly, Dame Maggie is extraordinary Thanks you for posting this.
@bealtainecottage9 жыл бұрын
Brilliant Maggie Smith!
@dsantamaria7132 жыл бұрын
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! ♥️♥️
@wandajames62343 жыл бұрын
The INCOMPARABLE Maggie Smith. Superlative writing, unbelievably talented delivery.
@Currabell8 жыл бұрын
Genius. Writing and performance.
@ewalden10808 жыл бұрын
I've been looking for this film for years. It doesn't seem to be listed on most film collections, not even Netflix. It is a gem!!
@EricNorton6276 жыл бұрын
Eleanor Walden Amazon has both "Talking Heads" series in a DVD box set for around £15, I believe. Well worth the money!
@russellgrenning13174 жыл бұрын
I have never seen the sublime Maggie Smith do better than this - ever! She is a truly wonderful, fabulous actor.
@JonathonWoodgate6 жыл бұрын
I have no words to describe how gloriously and deliciously brilliant this is...
@louisecross5 ай бұрын
Genius writer, absolutely masterful performer
@Cor61969 жыл бұрын
Perfection on every level!
@seau20076 жыл бұрын
An amazing actress. Timeless
@jerseydiaries3893 жыл бұрын
Bennet. Smith. Absolute legends. Both still with us. ❤❤❤
@TheLongislandlimey2 ай бұрын
An oldie but goodie. Seeing this series when originally broadcast in 1987 turned me on to the genius that is Alan Bennett
@rongruber58553 жыл бұрын
Alan did an outstanding job on these monologs.
@robinnes26629 жыл бұрын
Absolutely sublime, both script and performance.
@mihaelatudor24173 жыл бұрын
Maggie Smith, we - the lesser mortals - salute you !!!!!
@Neldidellavittoria8 жыл бұрын
Brilliant. Thanks for the upload.
@TheCaithleen8 жыл бұрын
Amazing! Brilliant!!! So Maggie!
@macgiollafhionntog8 жыл бұрын
my gawd the woman is a national treasure
@pdgf7 жыл бұрын
Kate McClintock she's a global treasure! 😃
@jerrykitich33183 жыл бұрын
Let's split the difference and say she's a national treasure in every nation on the earth.
@jerseydiaries3893 жыл бұрын
Amen!
@elainebarnes27726 жыл бұрын
Will always love Dame Maggie Smith...just feel bad for not discovering her many many yrs ago. Thank you for sharing!
@NorthernFella8 жыл бұрын
so so so amazing I'd forgotten how powerful these are. The script and the perfromence as well.
@joanneburns3258 жыл бұрын
Brilliant!
@sunshine90166 жыл бұрын
Superb writing... Brilliant performance!!
@christinemartin63 Жыл бұрын
Holy Mother of God! She is unworldly--so nuanced, so good. What a performance.
@Broadwaybuff-pi1qg Жыл бұрын
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.
@christinemartin63 Жыл бұрын
@@Broadwaybuff-pi1qg Indeed ... how right you are!
@annazaman96576 жыл бұрын
Poor Mrs vicar
@chocksoldier43768 жыл бұрын
Excellent. Was good to see it again after all tis time. Thanks Penny.
@andrewcarr42565 жыл бұрын
Marvellous
@jags.33892 жыл бұрын
“...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”
@carolinebarnes68322 жыл бұрын
'Jeffrery's bad enough but I'm glad I wasn't married to Jesus.' What a great opening line!
@jessiejames74925 жыл бұрын
the lady in the yellow van the two of them again. i love that film. watched it so many times. class act both of them
@stevesandford14374 жыл бұрын
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
@Mari-yw7qi7 жыл бұрын
maggie smith is the most amazing woman!
@jopieris57038 жыл бұрын
Thanks. seen Allenl Bennet's monologues.enjoyed it very much. thanks again,
@patriciamackinlay64956 жыл бұрын
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
@mariacalzadaperez27152 жыл бұрын
Superb Smith. Superb Bennett!!!
@DavidBrowningBYD3 жыл бұрын
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.
@harmoniabalanza2 жыл бұрын
oh Meryl Streep could do it. 30 years ago.
@Broadwaybuff-pi1qg Жыл бұрын
@@harmoniabalanza She's American, and while good at accents, just wouldn't understand the entire world of this woman the way Maggie does.
@jameswane80447 жыл бұрын
Thank you, that was fabulous.
@ferdiriordan17 жыл бұрын
Outstanding.Thank you for posting.
@rodd224 жыл бұрын
"The Sermon was about Sex - I didn't actually nod off though I had herd it before" ......the best soliloquy ever - too funny xxxx
@jon_co7 жыл бұрын
Brilliant performance.
@frazzleface7535 жыл бұрын
The tension and stifled acrimony of flower arranging.
@joycealdrich3 жыл бұрын
Who, in our current "cavalcade of stars," can equal this performance. Few, if any, I suspect.
@Broadwaybuff-pi1qg Жыл бұрын
Emma Thompson is the only one I can think of who is equally good at comedy, tragedy and subtlety. I'd love to hear her do it.
@Broadwaybuff-pi1qg Жыл бұрын
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.
@josephlewis15927 ай бұрын
I also loves her in My House in Umbria. Brilliant
@ashleybellofsydney3 жыл бұрын
It is a formidable talent to make the everyday humdrum seem like revelation.
@darlynbuchwitz64738 жыл бұрын
This is beautiful.
@tansy98878 ай бұрын
Wonderful! Thank-you ❤
@SUPER_WOLFMOON6 жыл бұрын
Amazing!
@nancyyen13 жыл бұрын
Oh my gosh so enraptured by her presence
@michele82085 жыл бұрын
Magnificent actress
@happylindsay44755 жыл бұрын
My heart is broken.
@oliviaotter16132 жыл бұрын
Superb, thank you for putting these on .fantastic and thought provoking.
@lolabow54213 жыл бұрын
AMAZING + Thank God for Mr Ramesh Ramesh
@olive37008 жыл бұрын
If you despise your husband, his work, and everything he stands for, it might just be time for a divorce.
@EricNorton6276 жыл бұрын
Olive As unhappy as she is being the neglected vicar's wife, one has the impression her life would be even emptier and unhappier without even that.
@limeykl6 жыл бұрын
Easier said than done when this was written
@virginiafry98545 жыл бұрын
A divorced Anglican priest is forced to give up the priesthood!
@newtonwhatevs8 ай бұрын
Really puts you off drinking!
@brendairwin2574 жыл бұрын
Wow!! Heartbreaking and so real!
@miriamwilson95423 жыл бұрын
A true wonder! Love her!
@rupafitzgerald31243 жыл бұрын
Wonderful
@jamesfeeney30163 жыл бұрын
BRILLIANT
@kelman7279 жыл бұрын
Judith Hearne redux.
@annainspain5176 Жыл бұрын
She never blinked once during the long prayer.
@tiffanyclark-grove19894 жыл бұрын
yep, that was great
@paulbrucker33453 жыл бұрын
Brilliant. I've seen the "Talking Heads" monologues play at Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago and am familiar with Alan Bennett and many of his contemporary British writers who I really admire. Never heard of this piece. I was thinking how wonderfully written by Alan Bennett, how wonderfully delivered and acted by Maggie Smith and whoever the director was did a wonderful job behind the scenes. Then read in the credits afterward the director was none other than Alan Bennett himself.
@FigaroHey7 жыл бұрын
I've never seen Talking Heads. They are undoubtedly riveting, but... geez, they make life in the UK seem like the most grim, joyless, empty sort of existence.
@EricNorton6276 жыл бұрын
Figaro Hey! Where does human life exist without grimness, joylessness, and emptiness? It's all simply a part of being human.
@thomasamos5685 жыл бұрын
I think that's the point Alan Bennett is trying to make entirely.
@debra134 жыл бұрын
It has nothing to do with the UK specifically.
@Broadwaybuff-pi1qg Жыл бұрын
You're missing the humour in them.
@Broadwaybuff-pi1qg11 ай бұрын
There is a huge amount of humour in this. Did you not get the jokes?
@martinakemmerling42203 жыл бұрын
Also in the new talking heads
@nickwyatt9498 Жыл бұрын
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.
@fkd1963 Жыл бұрын
Smith is superb. Bye.
@nickwyatt9498 Жыл бұрын
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!
@Broadwaybuff-pi1qg Жыл бұрын
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 Жыл бұрын
Nope, they're remakes.
@Broadwaybuff-pi1qg Жыл бұрын
@@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 KZbin. Also from the 1980s.
@suzannerobinson6086 Жыл бұрын
👏👍❣️
@superdeluxesmell2 жыл бұрын
Wow, such pretension.
@fkd1963 Жыл бұрын
Pretension??
@superdeluxesmell Жыл бұрын
@@fkd1963 Yep
@Broadwaybuff-pi1qg Жыл бұрын
@@superdeluxesmell Nope. It's called good writing.