miriam margolyes road trip

Miriam Margolyes & Alan Cumming’s Friendship Goes Way Back

The pair have joined forces on a new show that sees them road-trip around Scotland.

Miriam Margolyes and Alan Cumming have taken holidaying in the UK to a whole new level, renting out a motorhome in Scotland’s Highlands and inviting Channel 4 and their fans. Miriam and Alan: Lost in Scotland premiered on Channel 4 on Nov. 16 but how did the two acting icons meet? Their roots run deep in Scotland and the pair have been showbiz pals for decades.

Miriam and Alan: Lost in Scotland opened in Glasgow where Margolyes and Cumming revealed they both have shared family history. However, they can’t quite remember where they first met.

When asked how they know each other Cumming told Channel 4, “Well we can’t quite remember exactly! It must have been in the early nineties because I shot this film with Ian Holm about FR Leavis ( The Last Romantics ) and that was who Miriam was taught by at Cambridge. At some point around that time, I was with Ian and we chatted to you [Margolyes] about FR Leavis so that was probably the first time, but we’ve met a lot over the years at various backstage things.”

He continued: “We’re sort of like showbiz friends who meet over the years at various things and can’t quite place it. I shot that film in 1991 so it’s been a long time ago!”

However, the pair can pinpoint the exact moment the idea for Lost In Scotland was born. Margolyes revealed that it came to her during an appearance on The Graham Norton Show . The pair shared the sofa that night with Daniel Radcliffe, Sharon Horgan, and Craig David. They had undeniably chaotic chemistry and Cumming said, “I’d been talking to Blink Films (the production company behind the series) about doing something about Scotland. They suggested perhaps I did it with someone else, so I suggested Miriam as I thought we’d make a good oddball couple! And then they had the idea of the van and it all went from there.”

In the series, the pair visit Cumming’s mum and family home where he speaks openly about his childhood growing up with an abusive father. Margolyes also sees the neighbourhood where her grandparents settled after they left Belarus to escape persecution. It was the place that her father grew up. They also tick eating Haggis, meeting Gaelic singers, and scaling Glencoe off their Scottish bucket list.

Travelling with a friend can be a little tense at times but Margolyes revealed that they enjoyed in so much they’d happily do it again. “I felt like I was on holiday with a glorious companion. It was delightful and I would do it again in a shot,” she said. “We could go anywhere you’d like. Let’s go somewhere we don’t know – let’s go to Tallinn or somewhere like Kentucky.”

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International Edition

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Miriam Margolyes is hitting the road with Alan Cumming

Miriam Margolyes rejoins us to discuss joining forces with friend Alan Cumming for an epic road trip around Scotland.

She’ll also be revealing why she’s more Lady Gaga than Madonna!

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Miriam's Big American Adventure

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Actress Miriam Margolyes embarks upon a road trip through the heartlands of middle America, from Chicago to New Orleans, to meet some of the people whose voices and votes are reshaping the n... Read all Actress Miriam Margolyes embarks upon a road trip through the heartlands of middle America, from Chicago to New Orleans, to meet some of the people whose voices and votes are reshaping the nation. Actress Miriam Margolyes embarks upon a road trip through the heartlands of middle America, from Chicago to New Orleans, to meet some of the people whose voices and votes are reshaping the nation.

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Miriam’s Big American Adventure

Fresh from The Real Marigold on Tour, Miriam Margolyes embarks on a road trip through middle America

Fresh from The Real Marigold on Tour, actress Miriam Margolyes embarks on a road trip through middle America. It’s not merely a celebration of all things USA, though.

Starting in Chicago, Miriam’s introduced to former Playboy Bunny Candace Jordan, who takes her to a glittering social event. But, eager to witness the side of the city that exists away from high society, Miriam then visits its most dangerous project to meet a former gang member.

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This programme airs in Scotland at 10.45pm.

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Irish Road Trip with Miriam Margolyes

Presented by Miriam Margoyles, this arts documentary series shines a new light on Lady Augusta Gregory, the brilliant, driven and complex woman whose work, influence and impact on Irish political and literary life has often been neglected in favour of those who she brought together around her dinner table and who drank her cellar dry.

• TheTVDB.com Series ID 436568
• Status Continuing
• First Aired March 27, 2023
• Recent March 27, 2023
• Network SBS
• Average Runtime 50 minutes
• Genres Documentary Travel
• Original Country Australia
• Original Language English
• Time Period 2020s
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Airdate: Irish Road Trip with Miriam Margolyes

Miriam margolyes is joined by one of ireland's senator lynn ruane in the camper van, on sbs..

• Published by David Knox
• on March 27, 2023
• Filed under Programming , Video

Documentary series Irish Road Trip with Miriam Margolyes screens on SBS from tonight.

This is a two part special which appears to be retitled from Lady Gregory: Ireland’s First Social Influencer.

She recently told TV Tonight, “I’m going to do a documentary in Ireland about Lady Gregory, an Irish patriot who was a friend of WB Yeats, and a great famous lady in the 1920s. I didn’t know anything about her. They asked me if I’d like to discover her. So I said I would. I’m going to do that with an Irish lady politician called Lynn Ruane.”

This is the UK synopsis:

Presented by Miriam Margoyles, Lady Gregory shines a new light on Lady Augusta Gregory, whose work, influence and impact on Irish political and literary life has often been neglected. An arts documentary that shines new light on a brilliant, driven and complex woman whose work, influence and impact on Irish political and literary life has often been neglected in favour of those who she brought together around her dinner table and who drank her cellar dry.

Award-winning, British/Australian Actress and Activist, Miriam Margolyes, joins one of Ireland’s newest and most high-profile political figures, Dubliner, Senator Lynn Ruane in the camper van for this journey.

The road trip takes viewers across Ireland in order to incorporate three major historical events (the famine, the Easter Rising, the War of Independence) that were most significant in Lady Gregory’s life.

8:30pm Monday on SBS.

And we’re off! pic.twitter.com/BXYePOYA4O — Senator Lynn Ruane (@SenLynnRuane) August 1, 2022

• Tagged with Irish Road Trip with Miriam Margolyes

2 Responses

This TV show seems like it wants to present a version of Irish history that is acceptable to English people by glossing over the atrocities they committed toward the Irish. For example, Lady Gregory came from a family which was given land seized during the Protestant Ascendancy. This action obviously disenfranchised the peasant and laboring class in Ireland but no matter, let us just feel sad for the loss of large fancy mansions. Second, Lady Gregory’s husband Sir William Henry Gregory was partly responsible for the laws during the Irish famine but the show stated that he tried to make up for his mistakes during his later political career. How do you make up for the deaths of a million people? Finally, Lady Gregory had to travel to the Aran Islands before she realised that the Irish could govern themselves i.e., home rule. I am not sure Lady Gregory is someone I want to look up to even if she did start a theatre. I would rather watch Adrian Dunbar’s ‘Irish Road Trip’ again instead.

Miriam is a treasure, she doesn’t hold back saying what she thinks and at her age doesn’t give a hoot about dropping the occasional “f” bomb either which only makes her more endearing to me because I admit I do the same at my age. Kudos to her, she will give anything a go and make it enjoyable to watch including sizing up a coffin for herself. 👏

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