Possessing
a face which is not conventionally beautiful in a Hollywood sense and lacking
quirky characteristics must be a mixed blessing in her industry. Arguably, lack
of instant recognition may have cost her roles in some blockbuster movies and
yet her open features benefit such a talented all-rounder eager to avoid
typecasting. Nobody can accuse her of playing safe.
Miranda
Richardson has graced our screens in every genre from knockabout comedy to
melodrama and even classic Aardman animation. With an extensive legacy of roles
in theatre and cinema, it’s amazing how much TV she has managed to pack into a
forty-year career. This exploded into life when she won rave reviews portraying
Ruth Ellis in the film ‘Dance with a Stranger’ in 1985. I’ve still never seen
it so cannot comment but, despite two subsequent Oscar nominations in the
Nineties, she didn’t vanish up her own arse and adopt the Hollywood lifestyle.
It may have been a different story had she accepted what became the Glenn Close
role in ‘Fatal Attraction’!
Instead
of being remembered as a bunny-boiling, knife-wielding psycho, Richardson
grabbed the TV public’s heart as a head-chopping, acolyte-teasing Queen
Elizabeth in Blackadder II.
Capable of switching from ruthless tyrant to six year-old spoilt brat chucking
her toys out of her pram, her ‘Queenie’ was sheer delight, ensuring the
character held her own alongside the stellar line-up of Eighties alternative
comedy. She guest-starred in subsequent Blackadder series but it wasn’t all Ben
Elton knob gags or historical farce.
I
thought Richardson was great in a Screen Two mystery drama After Pilkington. Written by theatre royalty Simon Gray, it was the
sort of highbrow comedy that Mum, Dad and I could enjoy as counterpoint to the
joyous nonsense of contemporary sitcoms such as Allo Allo or Last of the
Summer Wine. Alongside co-star Bob Peck, another TV regular at the time, I
loved the way she effortlessly stole scenes from the carpet-chewing Barry
Foster and a pre-Dibley Gary Waldhorn, earning a BAFTA nomination.
The
same year she appeared with the Comic Strip regulars in the cinema release Eat The Rich,
later broadcast on Channel 4 and my ’89 diary sung the praises of the
Christmas screening on BBC1 of the Andrew Davies comedy Ball Trap on the Cote Sauvage, in which Miranda starred with Jack
Shepherd and Zoe Wanamaker. The following year she moved into political
thriller territory in the enjoyable six-parter Die Kinder but then she had the temerity to bugger off from the
small to silver screen, including the award-winning Damage, The Crying Game,
Tom & Viv and Sleepy Hollow
Fortunately,
while movie success seemed to finish the TV careers of Pauline Collins and
Imelda Staunton, Miranda came back in the late Nineties. Around that time, the
Beeb adapted a string of Minette Walters thrillers, and in The Scold’s Bridle Richardson teamed up again with Bob Peck and the
young star of the time, Douglas Hodge. Against all expectations, she even helped
make a jolly costume romp palatable for me, when starring with a youthful Anna
Friel in All For Love in 1999.
Apart
from voicing the evil Mrs Tweedy in the Christmas TV staple Chicken Run (soon to be reprised!), I completely lost track of Ms R in the new
millennium. She was in films I never saw, TV series which didn’t appeal and
theatre productions I could never get to. That didn’t really end until 2018’s Girlfriends.
Kay Mellor’s ITV serial featured Miranda as a glamorous middle-aged fashion
magazine editor whose comfy world begins to crumble. Although she shared top billing with Phyllis
Logan and Zoe Wanamaker it’s definitely Richardson whose performance sticks in
the brain.
Yet
for all the Oscar nominations and BAFTA awards for drama, to enjoy her
highpoint I have to retrace my steps to the golden age of Blackadder, and
especially The Third.
She only appeared in one episode, as Amy, the sweet virginal apple of Edmund’s
eye who (spoiler alert) turns out to be a notorious ‘highwayman’ The Shadow. I
know it’s childish but when she shoots a squirrel which emits a toy-like squeak
I cried with laughter. Well, if it passed Ben Elton’s quality control it was
good enough for my own silly sense of humour. It also just serves to show what
a versatile actor she is. I could never mistake her for anyone else.
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