Tuesday August 12th 2025
Miriam Margoyles. Photo by Steve Ullathorne
Written by Midlothian View Reporter, Liam Eunson
Beloved comedian and actress, Miriam Margolyes, has returned to this year’s Fringe expanding on her sold out 2024 show providing ‘more best bits’ to Edinburgh’s EICC.
Selling out every night last year, Margolyes has returned with her sequel performance, ‘Margolyes and Dickens: More Best Bits’. Bringing more comedy and more stories, with the same electric personality, her show surrounds Charles Dickens who she explains has many parallels to her life.
Acting out her favourtite Dickens story’s to the large crowd and discussing his life alongside her love for the author, Margolyes intertwined iconic Dicken’s scenes with stories from her own life, leaving the audience in laughter and awe.
Having the same life morals, alongside going through the same life steps at a the same age (such as being the same age they first went and fell in love with the theatre), Margolyes shares uncanny similarities to renowned Dickens, basing her show off the author but with the addition of classic Margolyes crude humour.
The English comedian and actresses show was simple in structure, being a comedic and impressive story-time followed by a switch to an audience question and answer. Turning the show over to the audience for questions, no attention was lost, bringing iconic comedic moments that are unique to every show.
Despite the unusual mix of Margolyes and Dickens, the first half of the show stood for itself, being a dramatic and comedic performance that perfectly intertwined stories of Dicken’s with well-known work and stories from Margolyes life.
Being a part of the beloved Harry Potter film series, the crowd erupted with clapping on the mention, with Margolyes firing back instantly with a joke, “I don’t know why everyone claps at that, it must be a part of your childhood”.
From the execution of stories to the comedic gold inbetween, Margolyes brought a powerful energy to the grand stage. Sitting alone centre stage in-front of a large auditorium, all eyes were on her with the most laughter I have heard at the Fringe so far echoing throughout the room.
Alongside the laughter, she provided fascinating stories of Dickens, showing a true love for the author, explaining Dickens is the second most influential man in her life after her father. These facts and stories, being as effective as Margolyes’ classic comedy, were both entertaining and fascinating, providing historic facts about Dickens that I was completely unaware of.
Creating a sequel ‘More Best Bits’ show following a year of sold out shows can be seen as risky, but more Margolyes, it was clear the people were begging for more. Alongside this, basing a show of Charles Dickens is a unique concept but it allowed for both Margolyes humour and acting abilities to shine through.
Walking onto the stage and announcing that she is parcial to fart and annouce it before hand, from the get go her unique sense of humour was shown, showing the crowd her warm personality and not being afraid to open up on stage.
Allowing herself to open up and get vulnerable on stage, she aimed to share both her talents and wisdom. This was displayed during the question and answer half of the show, preaching her belief that everyone should be nice to everyone and giving advice to someone who recently came out as gay. Despite being innapropriate advice, it was a heartwarming moment that allowed Margolyes to open up about her experience of coming out as lesbian in the 1960’s.
At 84, age did not effect Margolyes’ performance in any shape or form. Dedicating all her energy to the audience, she provided pure entertainment the entire show, standing up from her chair in moments of passion when acting out scenes.
The size of the sold out EICC venue spoke for itself, being incomparable to many of this year’s venues. With Margolyes having a rich and still successful career in acting with roles in popular productions such as Harry Potter and Blackadder, and receiving a BAFTA for her supporting role in The Age of Innocence (1993), her 2025 Fringe show has got to be up there with one of her best performances.
Standing ovation as Miriam Margolyes left the stage during her sold-out shoe on the 11th of August
Aside from her incredible theatrical performance, her comedy was the highlight of the show. Having a unique and rude but hilarious humour, this was portrayed perfectly throughout both halves of the show.
‘Margolyes and Dickens: More Best Bits’ is a must see performance, to both see the iconic actress and comedian but also be thoroughly entertained for an hour and ten minutes. With the EICC’s Pentland’s theatre being full most nights, Margolyes’ show is selling out similar to her popular show last Fringe.
£26.50 full price, Pleasance at EICC – Pentland Theatre
5/5, must see performance
