The director of upcoming psychological thriller Last Night in Soho on the delights and surprises of working with Rigg on what turned out to be her final film
“Diana Rigg will meet you at Berners Tavern.” Just seeing those words written in a text gave me an anxious thrill. Despite her illustrious work on stage and screen (big and small), the blushing adolescent in me was still nervously excited to meet Emma Peel. When I walked into the restaurant I was dead on time. But she was 15 minutes early, already at the table and looking fabulous in leopard print and gold bangles. After I stumbled through my hello, she offered, “I’m having a Campari and soda, darling, will you have one?” That was the first time, aged 45, I’d ever had a Campari and soda. And what a great way to start.
Production on my film Last Night In Soho took place in summer 2019 and working with Diana (or as I called her variously, Dame D or sometimes just DDR) was a treat. She was such a formidable performer that she raised everyone’s game as soon as she stepped on set. And so funny and wry too, often bringing a carrier bag full of Quality Street for the crew – which, frankly, all actors should do. Since she’d lived most of her life on a film set or stage, she knew exactly how to enter, be note perfect and utterly incandescent for the cameras and also, crucially, be out of her make-up and in her car 15 minutes or less after wrapping.