Maggie Smith, Miriam Margolyes, Harriet Walter … I can’t get enough of the new fashion icons
Emma Beddington
Older women star in fashion campaigns – in pictures
The Miracle Club review – over-stewed pathos in a theme-park Ireland
Peter Bradshaw's film of the week
The Miracle Club review – Maggie Smith can’t save this rocky road trip to Lourdes
June 2023
The Miracle Club: Maggie Smith film that took 20 years to make to get premiere
Story of four Irish women who leave Dublin for the first time will be screened in New York next Monday
April 2022
Downton Abbey: A New Era review – cheerfully risible second helping of snobby melodrama
The second – and hopefully last – film spun off from Julian Fellowes’s successful TV series is as hammy, silly, and undeniably entertaining as ever
November 2021
A Boy Called Christmas review – charming quest gets its Claus in all the family
Adventure, elves and home truths mingle in this big-hearted movie based on a Matt Haig children’s book
October 2021
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone review – 20 years on, it’s a nostalgic spectacular
The first film in the franchise is re-released into a very different world – but it’s as entertaining and exhilarating as ever
July 2021
Hear me out
Hear me out: why Gnomeo & Juliet isn’t a bad movie
The latest in our series of writers defending disliked films is a plea to reconsider a surprisingly idiosyncratic animated comedy
May 2021
From the Observer archive
From the archive: Maggie Smith at Cinecittà, 1966
The charismatic actor grants an audience on the Honey Pot set. By Chris Hall
April 2021
Downton Abbey film sequel set for Christmas 2021 release
A followup to the 2019 film is currently in production, with Dominic West, Hugh Dancy and Laura Haddock joining returning cast members
November 2020
For One Knight Only: what we learned about Judi, Maggie, Ian and Derek in their Zoom knees-up
Judi Dench and Ian McKellen head cast for Zoom show in aid of UK theatre workers
December 2019
Maggie Smith: Harry Potter and Downton Abbey weren't 'what you’d call satisfying'
The actor has said that, while grateful for the work, ‘I didn’t really feel I was acting in those things’
November 2019
Maggie Smith wins best actress award for role as Goebbels' secretary
Maggie Smith up for fifth Evening Standard best actress award
September 2019
Downton Abbey review – mostly harmless TV spin-off
Familiar comforts abound in a big screen outing for the Crawleys and staff
Peter Bradshaw's film of the week
Downton Abbey review – ridiculous, vanilla-flavoured fun
Imelda Staunton joins Maggie Smith and co in this standalone film that feels like an intensely glucose Christmas special
Ranked
Maggie Smith's 20 best films – ranked!
Ahead of Smith’s withering return in the Downton Abbey movie, we rate her greatest big screen performances so far, from spinsterish aunt to voracious seducer, Harry Potter’s teacher to Muriel Spark’s haughtiest heroine
April 2019
The week in theatre: A German Life; Sweet Charity; Three Sisters – review
Maggie Smith makes a triumphant return to the stage as Joseph Goebbels’s former personal secretary
