(Jewish Group) BBC pulls Miriam Margoyles Dickens comment from radio: 'It should have been challenged at the time'
Miriam Margolyes has outraged audiences by calling a popular Charles Dickens character “Jewish and vile” during an interview with the BBC.
The Jewish actor, 83, who is best known for her role as Professor Pomanoa Sprout in Harry Potter, was recording a live episode of Radio 4’s Front Row programme when she made the comment.
Speaking to Front Row presenter Kirsty Wark at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival about her one-woman show, Dickens’ Women, which focuses on the works of Charles Dickens, Margolyes was asked which character had captured her attention most when she was young.
In front of a live audience, Wark asked Margolyes who was “the first [Dickens] character who stuck in your head as a child?”
Margolyes replied: “Oh, Fagin. Without question. Jewish and vile,” to which the audience laughed and she added: “I didn’t know Jews like that then – sadly, I do now.”
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If you haven't read "Oliver Twist" (I just reread it), Fagin is almost exclusively called "the Jew" as opposed to using his name more than 250 times. Another one and done character, is also called "a Jew" as oppose to his name, with vile descriptions.