VOL. I · NO. 8565THURSDAY, AUGUST 13, 2026
The Daily Buffoon
CULTURE ✒ EDITORIAL ABSURDITY: 🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡

Imelda Staunton: ‘Umbridge’s giggle needed to be short and sharp. So I just did a boom, boom’

Filed 1w ago · Via The Guardian · The Buffoon Desk
THIS STORY IS SCORED
Bass Walker
Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Imelda Staunton fields reader questions covering her role in & Sons opposite Bill Nighy, her gardening habits during the UK heatwave and hosepipe ban, and her approach to creating Dolores Umbridge's giggle in the Harry Potter films.

She describes deliberately making the laugh short and sharp rather than silly, settling on two high-toned notes rather than a drawn-out cackle.

She also discusses working with her dog Molly in a stage production of Gypsy, her early radio work at the BBC shaping her animation voice work, and her memories of filming The Singing Detective with Michael Gambon and director Jon Amiel.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK
Any interview format that lets a dame compare the relative convenience of carrying a dog versus her own adult daughter on stage is doing exactly what it should.
Source: Read the original at The Guardian → Scored: Bass Walker · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0
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