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.
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)
Miriam slammed famed comedian Steve Martin in 2023 after she starred in the 1986 movie Little Shop of Horrors with him, claiming the experience was ‘vile’
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, who played Professor Sprout in the acclaimed film series, admitted: ‘I worry about Harry Potter fans’
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.
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.’
The Harry Potter actress is famous for her outspoken manner and shamelessly speaking her mind.
In December, Miriam was caught in a rare moment of mortification in an appearance on Channel 4’s Steph’s Packed Lunch as she tuned in from Italy.
Steph, 41, brought up the last time Miriam was on the show in 2021, in which the actress made some less than complimentary comments about her appearance, telling her to her face that she doesn’t think she is ‘beautiful’.
As Miriam told her she was ‘looking good’ and complimented her ‘sparkly top’, Steph said: ‘Thank you – because I remember the last time you were on. You said to me about not being pretty which then set off a whole thing.
In December, Miriam was caught in a rare moment of mortification in an appearance on Channel 4 ‘s Steph’s Packed Lunch as she tuned in from Italy
Miriam had made the less than complimentary remarks to Steph (pictured) in a November 2021 interview
‘I know you weren’t saying it as an insult – you were just saying that I might potentially have other things I could offer rather than looks!’
Luckily Steph saw the funny side of the blunt comment while the rest of the studio roared with laughter.
But Miriam – who clearly didn’t remember the previous conversation – was left red-faced, and admitted she had been ‘awful’.
She rushed to apologise to Steph, saying: ‘What cheek of me! My god, I’m sorry I said that. How rude!’