Miriam Margolyes slams ‘unfriendly’ superstar she met on a chat present
Miriam Margolyes OBE has revealed which ‘unfriendly’ celebrity she did not enjoy sitting with on Graham Norton‘s famous red sofa.
The actress is a frequent guest on the show, and on Saturday she opened up about one of the less favourable experiences she has had.
During the Hay Festival, Miriam, who has been interviewed by Graham Norton alongside the likes of Stanley Tucci and Matthew Perry, was asked which celebrities she dislikes by author Philippe Sands.
In a 2014 episode of BBC‘s The Graham Norton Show, Miriam, 83, was a guest alongside Dominic Cooper and Lily Allen, 39.
Yet Miriam clashed with Lily, with the actress explaining: ‘She thought when she was on the programme that it was all about her.’
Miriam Margolyes, 83, has revealed which celebrity she did not enjoy sitting with on Graham Norton’s famous red sofa
During Saturday’s Hay Festival, Miriam was asked which celebrities she disliked, and revealed that of all the celebrities she has met on Graham Norton, she has only disliked Lily Allen
Miriam explained: ‘She thought when she was on the programme that it was all about her’ (pictured in 2014 with the third guest Dominic Cooper)
Miriam continued: ‘She thought: “Who is this woman? Miriam who?” She wasn’t friendly and I didn’t like that and so I showed my dislike, which wasn’t very nice of me because she was much younger than me and I should have just taught her how to behave.’
Miriam also credited The Graham Norton Show with helping make her ‘an enormous amount of money’ on personalised video app Cameo.
MailOnline has contacted Lily’s representative for comment.
Lily is not the only celebrity to get on Miriam’s bad side.
Miriam also told Philippe that Monty Python star John Cleese ‘has become an a***hole’ while The Goodies’ Bill Oddie ‘is not a nice man’.
Last year, Miriam said ‘poisonous’ John had ‘turned sour and is an irrelevance’ as she spoke in an interview.
The comedian reflected on her time at Cambridge University with the Fawlty Towers star and scathingly branding him a ‘puny tadpole of a person.’
It came after John revealed why he could never be cancelled, despite being targeted after he criticised political correctness.
Speaking ahead of her book, Oh Miriam!: Stories from an Extraordinary Life, Miriam told The Guardian how she was treated with contempt by John and his Monty Python co-star Graham Chapman while at University.
During the early 1960s she performed as part of the student sketch troupe Cambridge Footlights, but was ‘ignored’ as the group’s only woman.
She recalled: ‘I think they thought I was too full of myself because in those days women were literally not allowed to join the club. Graham Chapman and John Cleese were poisonous.
‘John was a brilliant comedian in his day, but something has turned. Like milk, he’s gone sour. He’s an irrelevance… Cleese is a puny tadpole of a person.’
Miriam slammed famed comedian Steve Martin in 2023 after she starred in a film with with him in the Eighties.
The Harry Potter star worked with Martin on the 1986 movie Little Shop of Horrors, and claims the experience was ‘vile’ and described her American co-star as ‘unkind’.
‘I just thought he was rather horrid. He was a c***, that’s all I can tell you,’ she alleged in an interview with News.com.
Miriam explained she had to share a scene with Martin, now 78, in which he played a dentist and she was a receptionist.
Miriam also told Philippe that Monty Python star John Cleese ‘has become an a***hole’ while The Goodies’ Bill Oddie ‘is not a nice man’ (John pictured in Fawlty Towers)
In the scene, her character is ‘punched’ by Martin’s and she explained it took several takes before the funnyman was satisfied.
Miriam described the Father of the Bride star, 78, as a ‘brilliant perfectionist,’ but she felt left out of the process.
‘I didn’t enjoy it and I had a splitting headache at the end of the day,’ she said. ‘[Steve Martin] was incredibly unfriendly, because he was a perfectionist.’
She did have some nice words for Martin though, calling him very ‘gifted’ and her scene in the finished film with him ‘very good’.
Earlier this year, Miriam enraged adult Harry Potter fans by claiming they should be ‘over’ the book by now as it is ‘for children’.
The actress and national treasure played Professor Sprout in the acclaimed film series, based on J.K. Rowling‘s books.
Despite insisting it was ‘wonderful’ and she was ‘very grateful’ to the franchise, the BAFTA award-winning actress said adult fans should be ‘over that’ by now as it is ‘for children.’
In an interview with New Zealand television network 1News, Miriam admitted: ‘I worry about Harry Potter fans.
She went on: ‘They should be over that by now. It was 25 years ago and it’s for children. I think it’s for children.
‘But they get stuck in it and I do cameos and people say ‘Oh we are having a Harry Potter-themed wedding’ and I think ‘gosh what’s their first night of fun going to be. I can’t even think about it.
‘Harry Potter is wonderful, I’m very grateful to it, it’s over.’
