The variety and breadth of the roles she plays constantly delights and surprises, but it could be argued that she 's at her most powerful when she's being herself.

In her latest documentary, Almost Australian, she sets out on road trip on a quest to discover the real Australia and to find out what being Australian actually means.

She undertakes the journey with a clear and unsentimental eye, ready to challenge and test those ideals of which we are all so proud; mateship, respect and a fair go.

RELATED:

READ ALSO:

Margolyes became an Australian citizen herself in 2013, and she clearly already has the prerequisite sense of humour and ability to laugh at one's self down pat.

But while she's the first to say how much she loves Australia, she has reservations about what it is we see when we look in our own mirror.

As she travels the lonely stretches of our vast highways, she fixes the same steady and frank gaze on everyone she meets.

There is no gushiness, no cajoling, no flattery. She tells her subjects what she thinks about things too, and expects the same candour in return.

This approach has resulted in an incredible collection of stories; a farming family coming through the darkest days of drought, the unimaginable loss behind the smiling face of a refugee op shop worker, the larger than life characters who populate the remote outback.

It's fitting that the three part documentary is airing over the period of Reconciliation Week. We find her chatting to an Indigenous drag queen in Darwin and swapping stories around a campfire withe female Aboriginal elders near Alice Springs.

This doco doesn't focus solely on the relationship between Indigenous and non-indigenous Australians, but it's clearly one of the contradictions of Australian life Margolyes finds most jarring.

Of course there's moments of sudden hilarity in there as well, mostly around her refusal to stand on ceremony for anyone.

Though she was homesick for her partner during the journey, she told Geraldine Cardozo of The Senior during a recent interview; "One of the joys was seeing so many different parts of this amazing country. It was bloody hard work, but also awe-inspiring. I slept under the stars and I was struck dumb - for once."

Psychologists have noticed that most people consistently over-rate themselves in personality tests when it comes to qualities such as generosity, tolerance and inclusiveness.

Australia comes off a bit like that in Almost Australian. Sometimes it takes an outsider to come in and interrogate the long held myths about ourselves that we cling onto so tightly.