This hurts. I knew she was sick, but I always believed she was immortal. And of course it’s their job. But it’s hard to accept that all that piss and vinegar didn’t just give us a few more years of extraordinary pleasure in her company.

That’s if she liked you. If not, and the list is long, their company was downright frightening. You can’t be Maggie Smith on screen without being Maggie Smith off screen, and the acerbic wit, the put-downs, the complete lack of fucks were at least as funny and powerful as the lines the writers like me wrote for them tried to write. But for those of us lucky enough to find her approval, their friendship was passionate, their wisdom unmatched, their loyalty as fierce as the sun.

I wrote the role in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel for Maggie, and only for Maggie. There is simply no greater thrill for a writer than knowing that the Great Lady is saying your words, honoring your material, timing the gags incomparably, and finding truth, humor and pain in every line. I got to work with her twice more, on the sequel and on another film, the second time I wrote a role specifically for her. And since I knew she would say no but wanted to make her laugh, I also offered her the role of a singing and dancing teacher in Mamma Mia! to. Consequence. I was and am incredibly proud of the typically curt response she sent me: “Not even for you, love.”

Every evening the old actors in India had dinner together. Every morning Maggie and Judi swam in their Victorian bathing suits. And every day we all laughed and laughed. She had two laughs, Maggie; a dry cackle and a real head-back roar. Hearing the latter was the greatest pleasure, inspiring it the greatest privilege. I will miss them both. I’ll miss her.

We made the first Marigold Hotel movie without expecting anyone would ever see it, let alone that there would be a sequel. But when we were in India for the second time, someone came up with the idea of ​​a third film. “I’ll only do it,” said Mags, “if they call it Marigold Hospice.” Rest in the Force, you brilliant genius.