Sheridan Smith reveals touching way late Dame Maggie Smith impacted her career

Sheridan Smith has opened up about how the late Dame Maggie Smith took her under her wing while filming the movie Quartet.

An adaptation of the West End play of the same name by Ronald Harwood, Quartet follows the residents of Beecham House, a plush retirement home for former professional musicians and opera singers.

The late actress stars as an inhabitant of Beecham House alongside the likes of Billy Connolly, Tom Courtenay and Pauline Collins, while Sheridan plays the home's doctor, Lucy Cogan.

Appearing on The One Show last night to discuss her return to the stage in a new production of Alan Ayckbourn’s Woman in Mind, Sheridan discussed how Dame Maggie Smith was like a mentor to her.

She said: “I did a film with her called Quartet, and I was so nervous – Dustin Hoffman was directing it. I was a bag of nerves. There were all these absolute legends, I was so out of my depth, and she saw me kind of nearly having a panic attack before this scene, and she just went, ‘Smiths stick together!’”

Woman in Mind, which will run at London’s Duke of York’s Theatre from 9th December until 28th February, will star Sheridan as Susan, a woman whose reality splits in two after suffering a head injury.

Set to join Smith will be Louise Brealey, Tim McMullan, Sule Rimi, Chris Jenks, Safia Oakley-Green, Taylor Uttley, Katie Buchholz, Michael Woolfitt and Romesh Ranganathan, who will star as Bill, Susan's Doctor.

On helping Romesh Ranganathan with his acting debut, Sheridan added: “He’s so cool. We call each other ‘my G’. I think he has just taken it in his stride. He has played arenas and stuff, so I am learning from him too."

She continued: "He’s just good fun. We love hip-hop music as well, me and him, so we are going to be hip hopping each other off in the dressing room. He is brilliant, he is great company, and it is a great show.”

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