Dame Maggie Smith: 'I have no idea where the urge to act came from'

The actress, 84, grew up in Oxford and trained at the city’s playhouse as a teenager before embarking on a career that took her to Broadway and the West End.

Dame Maggie, below, said: “Honest to God, I have no idea where the urge came from. It was such a ghastly time and we didn’t go to the theatre. I got into terrible trouble once because the neighbours took me to the cinema on a Sunday. But I had a wonderful teacher, Dorothy Bartholomew, who also taught Miriam Margolyes, and who encouraged me.”

In April she returned to the stage for the first time in 12 years to star in one-woman show A German Life at the Bridge Theatre. The performance earned her the Natasha Richardson Award for best actress, in partnership with Christian Louboutin, at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards last month. It was the fifth time she had won the prize.

This week’s ES Magazine features exclusive backstage pictures by Alex Bramall from the awards, hosted at the London Coliseum by Evening Standard proprietor Evgeny Lebedev along with American Vogue editor-in-chief Dame Anna Wintour and Helen McCrory and Damian Lewis.

Dame Maggie said she had her doubts about the role: “I suddenly felt twice as old as I actually was. And also, when you haven’t done a show for a long time, there’s something pretty dumb about doing it totally on your own.”

The show required her to remain on stage alone for one hour and 40 minutes. But she was not troubled by the huge script, saying: “It was actually easier to learn than Downton Abbey, because it wasn’t fragmented. I wasn’t just ordering tea or something.”

The 65th Evening Standard Theatre Awards, in association with Michael Kors, took place on November 24. standard.co.uk/theatreawards #ESTheatreAwards