It may come as a bit of a shock for fans of Graham Norton’s TV Chat Show that there is so much to the potty mouth veteran lesbian actress Miriam Margolyes. In her native UK the 84-year-old BAFTA-winning character actress gained a cult following for her enormous body of work from her Charles Dickens Solo Show and originating the role of Madame Morrible in Wicked , whereas kids everywhere adored her for her portrayal of Professor Sprout in the Harry Potter film series which finally gave her international fame .

Now she is about to win over a whole new legion of fans with her scene-stealing performance in a new short film, A Friend of Dorothy’s.  This debut movie from actor turned filmmaker Lee Knight just had its World Premiere at the London’s Raindance Film Festival, and landed in Queerguru’s inbox as part of the program at Atlanta’s Out on Film Festival. 

She plays a wealthy, lonely widow who has been all but abandoned by her own family, and her quiet life is upended when a teenage boy accidentally kicks his football into her garden.  She invites him inside to lead him to her garden, but she asks him to open a can of prunes for her, since her fingers don’t have the dexterity they used to. When she sees JJ (Alistair Nwachukwu) eyeing her huge bookshelf of plays, she takes a chance and asks him to pluck a text from the shelf. It just so happens to be Matthew López’s The Inheritance, one of the most famous queer plays of all time.  This leads to asking him back. and it soon becomes a daily routine for them both and he gets recite a new text from her vast library and gets to take a play home.

She is the guide and support that this young closeted boy has lacked and needs as this highly unlikely freindship  becomes  a lesson about lonliness and how companionship like this, with such little effort, can bring such sheer joy  .  It all make senses to us when we discover her name is Dorothy,