Miriam Margolyes has become embroiled in a ‘racism’ row with Andi Peters after she used an offensive term to describe the presenter’s skin color on This Morning yesterday.
The 85-year-old actress, known for being outspoken, was promoting her book Miriam’s Full English when ITV bosses were forced to intervene after she called Andi ‘high yalla’.
The term, which can also be spelled “high yaller” or “high yellow,” is a dated and often offensive slang term used in the US to describe a light-skinned black person.
Miriam added that she “welcomes everyone” and that her book is about inclusivity, but viewers on X accused her of being racist after the awkward conversation.
After imitating Christine Lampard’s Northern Irish accent, Miriam turned to Andi and asked: “But what accent would be normal for you?”
‘This is normal. This is what I am,” Andi replied, while Miriam continued, “Oh, you guys are a mix, aren’t you? You have a black daddy and a white mommy.”
‘No, no, no. My parents are both black,” Andi confirmed, before joking: “What did they do to me, am I lighter than normal?”
Miriam Margolyes has become embroiled in a ‘racism’ row with Andi Peters after she used an offensive slang term to describe his skin color
Miriam turned to Andi and asked, “But what accent would be normal for you?” before referring to him as ‘high yalla’
Miriam continued: “Both parents I think are what I would call a ‘high yalla’. That’s what they call it in America. Oh, if someone isn’t deeply black, right?’
“I didn’t even know there were shades,” Andi said, while Miriam added, “There are shades.”
Concerned about the direction of the conversation, producers reportedly alerted Andi through his earpiece, then said out loud, “Oh, okay. They’re getting nervous now. They’re getting nervous now.’
‘Don’t be nervous,’ Miriam reassured, ‘we welcome everyone. That’s what I want to write about in my book. It’s about inclusivity.’
The exchange has since been removed from the ITVX version of the interview. The Daily Mail has contacted representatives for both ITV and Miriam for comment.
One outraged commentator wrote on social media: ‘Miriam Margolyes sounds like a typical racist here. It’s very uncomfortable to watch.’
Another wrote: “Your parents are both black? I think you’re very yellow – that’s what they call it in America!’ Well, if you live on a plantation in 1845.
‘We don’t actually call it that anymore, because it’s super racist’; ‘Imagine being called a slur that hasn’t been heard in English for a hundred years’;
Miriam added that she “welcomes everyone” and that her book is about inclusivity, but viewers took to Twitter to accuse her of being racist after the awkward conversation.
‘I assure you this is not what we call it in America’; ‘No filter, not really a funny woman. Why do we still have her on TV?’
‘This is not everyday racism. It’s 19th century American racism.”
However, others wrote: ‘What’s racist about that?’; ‘Ignorance perhaps, but this is not racism’.
It is not the first time that Miriam has caused controversy because of her outspoken language. In 2024, the BBC pulled a comment from Miriam from the radio after the Harry Potter star said Charles Dickens’ Fagin was “Jewish and vile” on air.
The Jewish actress spoke to Front Row about her earliest experiences with the novelist during her Edinburgh Fringe series of Margolyes & Dickens: The Best Bits, in which she brings the author’s most colorful characters to life in a one-woman show.
And in response to a question from BBC Radio 4 presenter Kirsty Wark about the character that stuck in her head as a child, she responded with the villain Oliver Twist.
The broadcaster removed the comment from the program, saying it should have been challenged at the time.
The eccentric grandee sparked laughter from the audience when she said, “Oh, Fagin. Without a doubt. Jewish and mean.’
She added: ‘I didn’t know such Jews then – unfortunately I do now.’
One of English literature’s most despised characters, Dickens used anti-Semitic tropes from Victorian England to create the character of Fagin, the London crime lord who ruled over a gang of child pickpockets.
The manipulative criminal is explicitly Jewish in the book, while Miriam said in another interview last month that he is “not only extremely funny, but also terrible, evil, a complete ***.”
