Miranda Richardson: “Wild swimming makes me a nicer person”

Miranda Richardson may be a BAFTA-winning and Oscar-nominated actor who’s at home on the red carpet, but she admits she’s become “rather addicted” to wild swimming.

“I’ve started looking at any body of water now and saying ‘Yeah, why not?’ even if it’s just to sit in it,” she laughs.

The 67-year-old is known for her many film roles including Harry Potter, The Crying Game, Dance with a Stranger and on TV as “Queenie” in Blackadder. Miranda told Saga Magazine that she was a late convert to swimming outdoors.

“I was filming in Ireland a few years ago and heard about this little coastline train that takes you to different wild swimming spots, so I tried it,” she explains.

“I went to Dalkey and had the perfect experience. The sea was calm, so there was no getting slapped in the face with waves, it was warm and absolutely stunning – I think it was a freak day.

“I fell for it hook, line and sinker and you couldn’t stop me after that. I did all the spots along the coast and did the Forty Foot the night before I was leaving and celebrated with a wonderful high-end Indian meal afterwards, a stone’s throw from where I was swimming.”

“I am so much nicer to people afterwards”

Now Miranda swims outdoors whenever she can and is a regular at the Serpentine Lido in London, near where she lives.

“I am much nicer to people for a short time after I’ve been swimming,” she says. “So other people mentally benefit from it too.

“And people do notice. They say I am looking well or rested, ask if I am wearing make-up and no I’m not. So they tell me how well I look. It’s all those things.

“And of course it’s the tingle factor, before, during and after, which is lovely.”

Miranda’s wild swim mission

Now, in August, she’s taking on a challenge to help raise money for the WWF to swim 3.5km in coastal waters off Norfolk, to raise £100,000 for the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF).

Miranda and her friend and fellow actor Maggie Service (Good Omens, Dr Who, Call the Midwife) will be taking on the Wild Swim Mission, at Blakeney Point, a national nature reserve on the north Norfolk coast, on 9 August.

They will be raising funds and awareness for WWF’s work protecting and restoring coastal ecosystems, rivers and wetlands. She’s also calling for other wild swimmers and would-be wild swimmers to join a month-long challenge to swim five, ten or 20km during the month.

“Even if you’ve not tried wild swimming before give it a go and you will feel the benefits,” she says.

She recommends checking out safety tips from the RNLI, The River Trusts, the Bluetits or Wild Swimming before taking the plunge, to stay safe.

She says part of the attraction for her is the very wildness of doing it.

“There is nothing wrong with a bit of mild jeopardy. If you haven’t got the boundaries of a swimming pool or a lifeguard on a stand, you feel it and it’s good, it’s healthy.

“Life now can be so regulated and it’s one of the more maddening things. Wild swimming can be the antidote to that, but I am not suggesting anyone takes any mad risks – that would be pointless!”

Getting into training

Miranda has just finished filming The Bitter End, which stars Joan Collins and Isabella Rossellini, about the later years in the life of Wallis Simpson – who became the Duchess of Windsor after marrying Edward VIII.

“It has been busy,” she says, “but my focus now is on this. It’s my summer project and if I can get fitter doing this, then it’s a bonus.

“I am doing more swimming in a more determined way. It is about getting stamina up and endurance. Ideally you are over-prepared so there should be a level of enjoyment too.

“I am hoping to look up and out and see things. I have swum in the North Sea off Norfolk at the end of July and remember terns diving around me as I swam. It was a joyous dip – so wonderful and such a privilege.”