To have found Tamsin Grieg slightly mean on Graham Norton

[Noellefielding]

Firstly she looked amazing, if a bit uncomfortable showing that level if Uber oiled flesh... Lordy Tamsin! I mean I have to tip my hat to how fit she is and how buff she looks although it did make me wonder about the maxim after 30 (or is it after 40) Either show arms OR legs not both.

BUT that story she told about her dad saying on his deathbed 'don't let yourself go like your mother did.' I guess is fine if you are an only child but Greig isn't. It seems massively tactless and Lots of people can't keep as buff as Greig at her age for all sorts of different reasons. I was surprised at how unkind she sounded.

[Bartlebee]

Eh? You've lost me too.

I thought she was a great guest. She looks fab and I'd like her as a mate.

[Tallypet]

She didn't say it. She was repeating what her Df said. I didn't get that she was being horrible at all.

I was more annoyed that she wasn't given as much time as the others on the stage.

[simbacatlivesagain]

She always reminds me of Steve Coogan- who I find a bit creepy (in a David Walliams kind of way)

[Noellefielding]

I didn't mean to p* so many people off; I have always liked the way we can come here and say "did anyone else think this?" and I'm fine with the slap down, I thoroughly deserve it of course.

And I should have said straight off that I LOVE Tamsin G, have always loved her, have seen everything she's ever done, am a huge fan etc etc. She has always struck me as a fine and compassionate person.

But she just seems to have changed, she looks AMAZING, genuinely stunning and I can't imagine how hard she must have worked to keep looking that great, all credit to her and respect for that. I just wondered whether all that effort being skinny for Episodes maybe had changed her? How could it not? That whole world is so sexist and ageist. The point I am making is could that much time spent emphasising your appearance possibly make you forget what is really important?

I do still think her anecdote from her dad 'don't let yourself go like your mum did' is a cruel thing to say about your mothering any context, true or not and I think would have upset many woman, well, most women who aren't ageing as well as Gorgeous Tamsin. I just thought 'Huh, Tams, National Treasure, you've changed, your once big heart has shrunk!'.

I think fame does change people, she had just always been one of the good guys in my book and she now seems possibly to be turning into a brittle beautiful meanie. Fair enough, she has every right to be whoever she wishes to be; but it seemed very unlike her. The whole thing the whole appearance and sort of dissing her mum. I don't think that story was anodyne at all, I think it was sharp and not really funny.

Anyway, it's just my opinion, this is an open forum, she is/was a national treasure so her not being adorable is open for discussion in the event that she has betrayed my expectations of her .

But it's not a hanging offence to have an opinion. And I do think you can show so much skin that it becomes distracting. And hell no one is more irritating than Jim Carrey and his Alien Rictus Grin but I expect him to be vile.

[motherinferior]

Oh good grief. I just watched the joke/outfit/etc on Iplayer. And not at all to my surprise the divine Ms Greig looked terrific (and incidentally her hair is not that short, I was expecting a Judi Dench look - btw do you think JD should go for a Naice Ladystyle as well?) and was poised and funny.

[motherinferior]

FFS, I didn't think she was telling it to say "look, what a good girl I am, following Daddy's advice and oooh aren't I buff": quite the opposite. Her dad sounds an absolute arse.

[flowery]

Goodness, OP, if you think a strapless knee length dress constitutes showing "so much skin that it becomes distracting" you must be forever walking into lampposts...

[WhaddayWant]

I found what she was wearing to be 'noticeable'. Not in a good or bad way though. I think it was because it was a style I hadn't seen her in before.

I liked her in Green Wing.

[MymblingAroundTheChristmasTree]

YABU. Thought she looked amazing and was funny, as usual. You sound a little bit jealous OP!

[Aladyinsane]

But it was her dad that said it?! Why would that reflect at all on TG? I didn't watch it but it sounds like it was supposed to be a funny anecdote not an a dig at her mother.

I have totally 'let myself go' since having children. I wasn't offended.

TG has always been very slender - have you seen Black Books? She clearly works out I don't think she had to put in a lot of effort to look skinny in Episodes.

I'm off to watch it on IPlayer...

[ExitPursuedByABear]

I love her. But she was too shiny for me.

All a bit fishy really.

[YvesJutteau]

Can I just check -- we ARE talking about this dress? From some of the description here I was expecting to find that she'd appeared on the shop in a G-string bikini...

[duchesse]

OP, what? You seem to be taking a few off the cuff remarks on a TV programme awfully personally.

[Noellefielding]

I am not raising the subject of European fisheries policies. I just happened to think a personal National Treasure had changed, it was an observation in passing, it was not a cry for her expulsion from the nation! I just thought, aw, she's got harder faced, metaphorically not literally.

It's just my opinion, it's not important. I think women talking about other women, particularly their own mothers, 'letting themselves go' is a bit sad, that's all. I think I'm entitled to my opinion as are you all in this wonderful democracy we live in.

[motherinferior]

But she wasn't talking about her mother. She was talking about her father.

[YvesJutteau]

"I think women talking about other women [...] 'letting themselves go' is a bit sad, that's all"

But you think that women talking about other women's showing arms AND legs at the same time (shock horror) is fine?

If I were to criticise the dress sense of someone in that photo Tamsin would be WAY down my list.

[Noellefielding]

yeah but she told the story, and she smiled wickedly afterwards as if to say, obvs looking totally stunning... "And as you can see I followed his advice".

She may not have intended that extrapolation, but why else would you tell that story?

[OddFodd]

She is laughing at the fact that she works out with weights and is muscular. She's laughing at herself.

Good grief.

[HenriettaTurkey]

As far as I remember she told that story because GN asked her about it. And it was funny & slightly shocking.

I thought she looked lovely.

[Haggismcbaggis]

OP - I actually know what you mean. Both DH & I thought she didn't come across that well. And we are both big fans. And she just looked like she was trying that bit too hard ...

Just a slight edge to her.

[AgentAlice]

I thought she was just laughing at her father tbh, saying such a stupid thing on his death bed...

I thought she looked fantastic, but I noticed more what she had to say. Jude Law was being a bit of a nob sitting with his back to her, I thought she held her own really well.

As for being a brittle beautiful meanie, did you see the bit where she told the story where she freaked out during a speech and told the audience that she had done a small wee? In a dress that was not hers? That's not really 'look at me I'm completely gorgeous' behavior is it?

[motherinferior]

No, I didn't think she smiled in a self-congratulating way. I think you are misreading the whole thing quite bizarrely. She told a story about her father, and it had a punchline. Er, that's it.

[Noellefielding]

Ok I think I know what I mean. If you look amazing, then please don't diss ordinary people, however obliquely, that do not look amazing. It is ungracious and Tamsin Greig has never been anything but gracious in the past as far as I can see.

Is there not a kind of gym-body, body-con dressing and body-oiling, body-polishing, body-shining and showing-off that is a very tiny bit aggressive? Is one never allowed to talk about the effect one's appearance has on other people? I would adore to look like that but if you do look like that it is not hilarious to talk about anyone 'letting themselves go' is it? Putting it in her father's mouth doesn't absolve her from telling and laughing at the story. I have to say, it didn't seem like her; she has always been incredibly compassionate.

I think you can spend so long in the gym pumping and in beauty salons primping, at hair dressers', at stylist's offices, waxer's, fake tanner's, agents', masseur's, pedicurist's, manicurist's, manipedicurist's that you can find a stunning goddess but lose your self at the same time.
just saying, so sue me.