'I directed Miriam Margolyes – there's parts of her people don't see'

On the famed sofa of The Graham Norton Show a couple weeks back, Miriam Margolyes delighted with her characteristically bawdy tales, and shocked with her brazen question to Alexander Skarsgård: “You’re not gay, are you?”

Nestled within that outrageousness was swift promotion of her beautiful new short film , A Friend of Dorothy . In it, she plays Dorothy, an elderly widow with limited mobility who meets young, closeted queer man JJ (played with startling fragility by newcomer Alistair Nwachukwu) after he accidentally kicks his football into her garden.

A friendship blossoms, as they provide a sense of belonging and stability to one another at a time when, despite their different life stages, both are feeling cast adrift. It’s a real tugger on the heartstrings, funny, and a reminder that