Miriam Margolyes has sparked fresh outrage after ITV bosses were forced to intervene when she referred to This Morning presenter Andi Peters as "high yalla" during an interview last week, asking him about his race.
The term, also spelled "high yaller" or "high yellow", is an outdated and offensive US slang expression used to describe a black person with a light complexion. Miriam's comments were removed from the ITVX recording of the show, and clips of the exchange have since gone viral, with viewers taking to X/Twitter to voice their anger.
It is far from the first time the actress, best known for playing Professor Sprout in the Harry Potter films, has caused a stir with her remarks.
Andi Peters race row
During the original exchange, Miriam impersonated co-host Christine Lampard's Northern Irish accent before turning to Andi Peters and asking, "But what accent would be normal for you?" When Peters replied, "This is normal. This is what I am," Margolyes said, "Oh, you're a mix, aren't you? You've got a black daddy and a white mummy." Peters corrected her, saying, "No, no, no. Both my parents are black," before joking, "What have they put on me, am I a lighter shade than normal?"
Margolyes then said: "Both parents are I think you're what I would call a 'high yalla.' That's what they call it in America. Oh, when someone isn't deeply black, right?" Producers are thought to have warned Peters through his earpiece, prompting him to say on air, "Oh, okay. They're getting nervous now." Margolyes replied, "Don't be nervous. We welcome everybody. That's what I want to write about in my book. It's about inclusion."
Margolyes addressed the backlash at an audience event in Southend promoting her new memoir, Miriam's Full English. In videos shared by attendees, she said: "I didn't want to embarrass or hurt Andi because he seems very nice. I'd never met him before; I didn't know who he was and I didn't know he was black until I saw him. When you see someone, of course you know they're black. I wanted to know what he thought about it because that's what interests me." She went on to use an offensive term for disabled people, asking, "How do black people feel? How do brown people feel? How do cripples feel? How do fat people feel?" When the host suggested she had wanted to discuss Peters' identity with him, she agreed, adding: "I am fascinated by other people. They are the people that interest me, not the celebrities so much."
Boris Johnson death wish
Margolyes sparked more than 500 Ofcom complaints after saying on Channel 4's The Last Leg that she wanted former Prime Minister Boris Johnson to die after he was hospitalised with coronavirus in 2020. Criticising the government's handling of the pandemic as "a disgrace" and "a public scandal", she said: "I had difficulty not wanting Boris Johnson to die. I wanted him to die. Then I thought that will reflect badly on me and I don't want to be the sort of person that wants people to die. So then I wanted him to get better, which he did do, he did get better. But he didn't get better as a human being. And I really would prefer that."
Attack on 'the new Jewish people'
Margolyes, who was born into a Jewish family in Oxford, launched a scathing attack on what she called "the new Jewish people" during an interview on the Adam Buxton podcast, saying their "essential decency and compassion has been squeezed out... evaporated." Asked about earlier comments in which she said the impact of Hitler on Jewish people could be seen in the way Israel had become a "vicious, genocidal, nationalist nation", she insisted she had no regrets, saying, "it's because I know I'm right."
She said her outspoken views, including her hostility to Israel following the October 7 Hamas attack, had cost her friendships, including one with a close Jewish friend living in Israel who told her, "I don't want to be friends anymore, go well on your journey, don't contact me again." She said the loss was "a deep hurt" but added: "I do know that I'm right about the immorality of the Israeli position on Gaza and the activities of the Netanyahu government. That I know for sure they have done wrong."
'F*** you' comment to Jeremy Hunt
Margolyes shocked BBC Radio 4 listeners on the Today Programme by revealing what she had really wanted to say to Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, who had been interviewed about the government's economic strategy in the slot before hers. She had gone on the programme to discuss the death of her friend, Harry Potter co-star Robbie Coltrane. "I never thought I'd be sitting in the seat where Jeremy Hunt was sat," she told presenter Justin Webb. "When I saw him there I just said 'you've got a hell of a job, the best of luck', and what I really wanted to say was 'f*** you, you b*****d!' But you can't say that." The BBC said Margolyes had mistakenly believed she was off air, despite being warned moments earlier by broadcaster Martha Kearney that the programme was still live.
Calling Fagin 'Jewish and vile'
In 2024 the BBC pulled a comment Margolyes made on Radio 4's Front Row, in which she described Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist villain Fagin as "Jewish and vile". Speaking to presenter Kirsty Wark during her Edinburgh Fringe run of Margolyes & Dickens: The Best Bits, she said, "Oh, Fagin. Without question. Jewish and vile," adding, "I didn't know Jews like that then, sadly, I do now." Fagin, the manipulative London crime lord who runs a gang of child pickpockets in Dickens' novel, is one of English literature's most despised characters and is explicitly Jewish in the text. The BBC later removed the comment, saying it should have been challenged at the time.
Told to 'be quiet' by the Queen
In a 2022 interview with The Times, Margolyes revealed that the late Queen Elizabeth II had once told her to "be quiet" during a meeting at Buckingham Palace for British Book Week. "The Queen told me to 'be quiet'. It shocked me because I hadn't quite realised how rude I was being. I was waffling on when she was talking to somebody else, and I was overriding that rudely," she said, adding, "I say what I think and I don't care how it comes out."
Controversial dating advice
Margolyes also drew criticism during an appearance on This Morning after giving controversial dating advice to callers, including telling one to "lose weight" and suggesting another volunteer at a centre for "disadvantaged, poor people and cripples" to meet someone. "You might meet another cripple, but that doesn't matter," she said, before adding, "Lose a bit of weight and wash. Wash very carefully, all the crevices, all the bits you find difficult to reach. Wash!"
Criticising Harry Potter fans
Margolyes, who played Professor Sprout in the Harry Potter film series based on J.K. Rowling's books, angered adult fans of the franchise by saying they should be "over" it by now because it is "for children". Speaking to New Zealand network 1News, she said, "I worry about Harry Potter fans... They should be over that by now. It was 25 years ago and it's for children. I think it's for children." She added that fans telling her about Harry Potter-themed weddings left her wondering, "what's their first night of fun going to be. I can't even think about it," while insisting, "Harry Potter is wonderful, I'm very grateful to it, it's over."
