The Real Marigold On Tour
Rating:
Skint Britain: Friends Without Benefits
Rating: 
Stand by for World War III. The Russkies may have intercontinental ballistic missiles and Novichok nerve agents, but we’ve got Miriam Margolyes.
The 77-year-old ball of fire was exploring St Petersburg in The Real Marigold On Tour (BBC1) with a bunch of chums, and causing havoc at every step.
She began the day by munching on a raw onion for breakfast, but her antics soon became a lot more eye-watering.
At the bus-stop, she demanded to know the name of an inoffensive babushka or elderly grandmother. ‘Olga,’ said the lady.
Stanley Johnson, Sheila Ferguson, Bobby George and Miriam Margolyes in The Real Marigold On Tour
Mim burst into a rendition of Olga Pulloffski, The Beautiful Spy, a saucy Thirties ballad, as she imitated a secret agent in mime. The Russians edged away from her nervously: whatever country you’re in, no one wants to sit nex t to the loonie on the bus.
With an extraordinary absence of self-awareness, Mim declared loudly that she hated conflict. Half an hour later, she was standing in a queue for train tickets when a middle-aged chap in a fur hat accidentally stepped in front of her.
Fury erupted. Mim’s eyes boggled as wide as a Cheshire Cat on steroids. ‘Be Careful!’ she screamed, advancing on the terrified queue-jumper. ‘I will not be bullied.’
Her fellow travellers were scarcely shy, but they had a hard time getting a look-in with Mim around.
Stanley Johnson, 78, showed off his fitness at an outdoor gym, with exercises that included hurling disarmed hand grenades. La Margolyes
