Miriam Morgolyes on Graham Norton

[PuppyMonkey]

Anecdote about wanking off three men in a random wood in Edinburgh or something. Everyone laughed hysterically.

Is it just me or have TV chat shows gone really downhill?

I'm Gen Z & mix in lesbian circles so I'll fill in : young lesbians have often grown up being told online that sex is not real & transwomen, including pre op ones are just like women and it's transphobic to refuse them.

All lesbian and wider LGB mainstream publications have capitulated (Diva, Afterellen, Autostraddle, you name it)

Yes, a lot of older lesbians (Sandi Toksvig for one) have had an 'I'm alright Jack' attitude & allowed this to happen. But many have bravely spoken out & been ostracised. Others are afraid due to violent threats from trans activists (many of whom are very disturbed people. GC groups face violent threats all the time)

Not harsh enough. She's vile

The truth of what she said about J du Pre is debatable, but please tell me why even if it were, what business of it was hers to share it with the world, other than the desire to grab attention for herself?

The irony is, MM is an intelligent woman who has a gift for comedy and had an interesting life. If she chooses to rely on the salacious and prurient to get gigs, she can expect negative comment, like anyone else, male or female, who does the same.

What she said about du Pre is even more sinister when you realise that she's a patron of a voluntary euthanasia organisation, something Margaret Branch (who claimed to have done this to du Pre) strongly believed in. There's no evidence du Pre knew Margaret Branch : I hope this isn't true, but frankly it looks suspiciously like Branch fabricated the story to validate her ideas and Margoyles I amplifying it

I didn't know that @Carla786 and any such involvement makes her turning the tragedy that befell Jacqueline into All About Me even worse.

That is even more concerning @Carla786 . I was purely coming from the angle that true or not this is absolutely not her story to tell and how distressing this must have been for Du Pre’s family.

I didn't say it was right for MM to share it with the world.

I said I don't class her as 'extreme'.

I can’t bear her & I had the misfortune once to be in the same restaurant as her. She was incredibly rude.

I agree with the majority on here and find Miriam Margolyes persona, behaviour and filthy anecdotes on Graham Norton utterly repellent.

I found her behaviour towards Will.i.am on the GN show absolutely dreadful, if I had been him I would have walked off the show. I have avoided watching her on GN since. If I was one of the potential guests on GN and MM was also one I would turn down the invite.

National treasure? More like national embarrassment.

Well, I don't either, in a world with Putin and Trump in it.

What I do think she is, is a vulgar attention seeker who seemed happy to exploit the tragic death of a young woman following a terrible illness for her own ends and is also happy to recount 'shocking' sexual incidents for an audience. She is choosing to do this and I have zero sympathy if she is criticised.

Can't you see that any backlash she has is entirely of her own making? I said upthread that she is talented. If she wants to dwell on sordid (and probably fictitious) sexual encounters, it's on her.

Also, can someone please explain to me what the 3 men were doing in the woods?

is the reality of the story that they were going to rape her and that she was so traumatised that she did what they wanted and has turned the incident into a joke? Otherwise, I don’t get it.

Yes! I have watched a few of these programmes recently (and can remember watching them as a child.). The guests were intelligent & knowledgeable.
Call My Bluff was always a bit hit or mess with the answers but - always - such wonderful delivery from the contestants.
I never had a clue about any of the Face My Music answers. The silent keyboard segment completely threw me. But can you imagine quiz shows of that level of education/knowledge now?
In that different era, Miriam Margolyes might have been a great Call My Blufff contestant. I suppose she’s trying to keep herself relevant/earn her crust but she comes across as very very crude now.

Her book has several incidents with random men that she initiated/sought out, so it's unclear.

On an old Parkie show, they had the (very old at that time) Gloria Swanson amazing and beautiful in her beaded flapper helmet with Olivia Newton John next to her looking a bit overawed. Never forgotten it.

I'd be interested in anything MM has to say about her career, but not random sexual encounters.

ETA which I'm far from sure aren't entirely invented.

Exactly 👏

There's an unhealthy pressure on women to not criticise, to be nice. Women shouldn't impose this on each other when it's clearly reasonable to criticise some things.

People also shouldn't assume double standards : if a man were telling these vulgar stories, claimed to be gay while boasting about random encounters with women, and worst, revealing deeply personal details about du Pre (details which sound suspiciously like they were concocted to advance Branch and/or Margoyles' voluntary euthanasia agenda) then I bet everyone here criticising Margoyles would criticise him just as strongly

Oh god me too. I would not ever agree to be on a show at the same time as her if I was a celebrity.

A pp mentioned that Marigold Hotel series and I remember that’s the last time I ever watched something she was in. I found her disgusting (though I can’t remember why, I just remember thinking I was done with her).

I hope that's on YouTube : sounds like a great combo. Gloria Swanson was so good in Sunset Boulevard & also in silent era stuff, and I love how she sends up her 'grande dame' persona in Airplane.

We need those kinds of shows again!

I call her repulsive because she does literally repulse me, her ‘banter’ makes me feel queasy to my stomach. If a man had the same humour/personality I’d want nothing to do with him.

Yes exactly this. Well said.

She repulses me too.

But not on Saturdays 😁

I think Hadley Freeman puts it well here : she's gentler than I'd be, but she points out the sad contrast between what Margoyles could talk about, and what she does:

But I have had mixed feelings about Margolyes’s talkshow appearances. Partly because, as she says, they have a tendency to overshadow her work, which really has been magnificent (I was especially pleased that her brilliantly weird performance in Kenneth Branagh’s 1991 film, Dead Again, gets a mention in the memoir.) But also because it sometimes feels as if she’s reducing herself to parody, playing the overweight older lesbian who talks – ooh! – about sex. Margolyes is aware of this concern and sweeps it away: “Not a lot of gay women front up on TV, so I hope I give courage to young dykes to be proud and confident. If you tell the truth – and I always do – you shame the devil.”

It's fair that there could be more gay women on TV : we do have Perkins, Toksvig, Balding etc but not really many actresses apart from Erin Doherty (The Crown & Adolescence). But how is bragging about giving men hand jobs being a role model for lesbians?

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/sep/22/this-much-is-true-by-miriam-margolyes-review-a-wickedly-honest-memoir

LOVE the old Call My Bluff repeats. The contestants just seem so...grown up. Like proper adults and not overgrown teenagers acting out for shock value. And was amused by Gen Z on Twitter having a meltdown about some of them lighting up during the programme, as if it was the most jaw dropping thing they'd ever seen on TV.

How ironic that people think a fun, playful, independent thinking if shocking older lady with a wealth of talent might be evil. Well done to Miriam for calling out the real evil in this world that the Netanyahu government has inflicted on thousands of innocent people. I bet the people on this thread calling her vile and evil are the same ones who defend stuff like this. Honestly the world has gone completely bonkers!