Disgust as Miriam Margolyes says: I wanted Boris to die
OUTSPOKEN Miriam Margolyes faced an angry backlash last night after saying that she had hoped Boris Johnson would die from coronavirus.
The Harry Potter actress, 78, was criticised following her shocking comments on Channel 4’s chat show The Last Leg on Friday night.
In her astonishing outburst a little over a month since the Prime Minister spent three nights in intensive care, Miss Margolyes said she ‘wanted him to die’.
It came after she was asked by one of the programme’s trio of hosts, Adam Hills, how she thought the Government had dealt with the Covid-19 pandemic.
She replied: ‘Appallingly, of course, appallingly. It’s a disgrace, it’s a scandal. It’s a public scandal.’
Speaking via a video link from her London home, where she is isolating without her partner of 48 years, Heather Sutherland, Miss Margolyes added: ‘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. So we’re in the s**t basically.’
None of the show’s hosts – Hills, Josh Widdicombe and Alex Brooker – intervened during Miss Margolyes’s rant, although one of them could be heard coughing. Widdicombe was seen giggling and holding his chin afterwards.
The incident is an embarrassment for Channel 4 chief executive Alex Mahon as it emerges she is being considered for the prestigious role of BBC director-general.
Piers Morgan hit out at Miss Margolyes, a long-time Labour Party member who has publicly defended ex-leader Jeremy Corbyn. The Mail on Sunday columnist wrote on Twitter: ‘Disgusting. This is where toxic tribalism has got us… actively wanting people of a different political persuasion to die. Shame on you, Ms Margolyes.’
Conservative MP Nadine Dorries defended the Prime Minister, tweeting: ‘I have never heard @BorisJohnson say a bad word about anyone, not even those who strongly oppose him.’
She referred to Miss Margolyes as ‘the same lady who in an interview on TV last week said something along the lines of, “I just hope we can all be a bit kinder and a bit nicer to each other now.” ’
Fellow Tory MP Tom Hunt said: ‘Nobody should wish death on others just to make a political point. It is sad to see that such a nasty tribal element of the Left remains alive and well within the Labour Party.
‘Sir Keir Starmer has pledged to stamp out abusive behaviour and I hope he considers reprimanding those who make disgusting comments such as these.’
Miss Margolyes’s comments came just days after Mr Johnson admitted he was ‘a lucky man’ and revealed that doctors were preparing to announce his death in case he lost his battle with the virus.
Her outburst is going to do little to improve relations between Channel 4 and the Government. Tory bosses were furious last summer when the station’s then head of news and current affairs, Dorothy Byrne, publicly described Mr Johnson as a ‘known liar’.
Giving the high-profile MacTaggart Speech at the Edinburgh Television Festival in August, Ms Byrne also spoke about Mr Johnson’s move towards posting his own videos on Facebook rather than giving face-to-face interviews with journalists. She said he reminded her of Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘who also likes to talk directly to the nation’.
Miss Margolyes, who played
Professor Sprout in the Harry Potter films, has had a distinguished career on stage and screen. She won a Bafta for her role in the Martin Scorsese film The Age Of Innocence and her television credits include Blackadder, Doc Martin and the royal spoof The Windsors.
In 1989, she wrote and appeared in a one-woman play in which she played 23 characters from the novels of Charles Dickens.
Miss Margolyes, who studied English at Cambridge, has previously claimed she was first person to say ‘f***’ on University Challenge when she appeared on the show in 1963.
She told Graham Norton: ‘I got a question wrong, and I [swore], and they bleeped me out so you saw my face [saying the word], but nothing actually came out.’
A spokesman for Channel 4 said: ‘The Last Leg is live and unexpected comments can happen. In this instance, Miriam went on to say that she wanted him to get better.’