At a festival so often dominated by bold young talent, it’s veteran performers stealing the spotlight this year. We meet them – from household names to octogenarian newcomers
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iriam Margolyes is ensconced in the garden room of a fancy Edinburgh hotel, framed by tasteful greenery and smiling for a fan who wants a selfie. Apple-cheeked and foul-mouthed, she is gracious with the passing stranger, though she warns me later: “If somebody pisses me off, I’ll say: ‘Now listen to me, I’m 84!’” She pauses. “But I don’t see why they should!” she adds with a laugh.
Margolyes is returning to Edinburgh for the second year running with an upgraded version of her acclaimed showcase based on the characters of Charles Dickens, her favourite author. “Same old cunt, even older,” reads the flyer. “It could be the last time, but don’t bank on it!”
The Edinburgh festival fringe is world-famous for the diversity of its acts, but industry and media attention is easily distracted and the appetite for bold new talent and fresh voices often equates – deliberately or otherwise – with youth. Yet this year offers a “brigade of old gits”, as the actor Andy Linden says, some of them veterans such as Margolyes who first performed there with Cambridge University Footlights in 1963, and others remarkably making their debuts in their 70s and 80s.
