Miriam Margolyes has admitted that she felt “terrible” after dropping the F-bomb when talking about Jeremy Hunt on BBC Radio 4 last year.
The Bafta-winning actor appeared on the broadcaster’s Saturday morning Today show in October, where she was paying tribute to her former Harry Potter co-star Robbie Coltrane.
However, the typically unpredictable guest expressed displeasure that her appearance came after then newly-appointed chancellor Jeremy Hunt.
“I never thought I’d be sitting in the seat that Jeremy Hunt has just sat in,” she explained on-air at 8.30 in the morning.
“The thing is, when I saw him there, I just said, ‘you’ve got a hell of a job, best of luck’. And what I really wanted to say was, ‘fuck you, bastard’. But you can’t say that!”
She’s now confessed that the episode left her feeling “terrible”, as revealed in her new memoir, Oh Miriam: Stories from an Extraordinary Life (via The Independent).
In the book, Miriam said she was “overcome with horror” about the moment.
“I was still shaking, because it’s an unforgivable blunder to utter such words on the nation’s main morning programme – and I felt I’d let myself and Radio 4 down,” she explained.
She added that she “felt ashamed about it until the producers sent me flowers to comfort me”, despite her worries that “they’d be furious”.
She concluded that the incident was “a reminder that sometimes you do need to button yourself up”.
After Miriam dropped the expletive on the radio last year, presenter Justin Webb responded: “No you can’t say that, we’ll have to have you out of the studio now.” Co-host Martha Kearney also offered her “many apologies”.
Elsewhere in her new memoir, which is out now, Miriam revealed the Matthew Perry comment she regrets making on the Graham Norton Show.
Oh Miriam: Stories From An Extraordinary Life is out now.