QUEEN OF COMEDY The Marvellous Ms Margolyes

Speaking her truth in a delightfully wicked and candid manner we've come to cherish, British actress Miriam is now telling the world how she has fallen in love with New Zealand.

- JUDY BAILEY

She is a force of nature.

Celebrated actor Stephen Fry has said of her, "There is no one on Earth quite so wonderful." At 83, Miriam Margolyes, British theatre darling, BAFTA award-winning actress, writer, raconteur and documentary-maker, shows little sign of slowing down, in fact, she's more energised and in demand than ever.

Fresh from playing the lead role in a Kiwi-produced animated film of Spike Milligan's iconic children's tale Badjelly the Witch in the run-up to Christmas, she was in New Zealand filming movie Holy Days, based on the Joy Cowley novel, with Jacki Weaver and Judy Davis. That project came hard on the heels of a documentary series in which she sought to discover what it means to be Kiwi.

Miriam Margolyes in New Zealand is currently screening on Sky Open and is a follow up to her series Almost Australian, leaving the star perfectly qualified to comment on the differences she's observed from both sides of the ditch.

She's found it's Kiwis' bond with the landscape that sets us apart from our Aussie neighbours. "They get joy just from being in the environment, from looking at the hills and the mountains... It's a physical delight."

She's also found that Kiwis are more polite and restrained than our Aussie neighbours. "There's a certain sophistication that comes from interaction with the Māori people, because that culture is now something, I've discovered, many New Zealanders prize. They realise how lucky they are to have such close access to another culture.

Its important." The pride of Mãori strikes her too. "They have cause to be proud," she points out. "When they signed the Treaty of Waitangi, women signed it too. Not many people know that."