Tony Robinson had a surprise for his friend Miriam Margolyes when he reminded her of a past “sexual encounter” between them that she’d completely forgotten about.
During the inaugural episode of his new podcast Cunningcast, the Blackadder star asked his guest if she recalled “our sexual encounter at Leicester when we first met”.
Remembering a play they were both performing in, Tony explained: “I was in the wings, waiting to go on. And suddenly you put your hand down my trousers and tickled my balls.”
“I never did!” Miriam insisted, to which the host responded with a laugh: “Why would I lie about a thing like that?”
“I remember how split down the middle I was because a part of me thought, ‘oh my God, this is fantastic’. Nobody ever, just out of the blue does that to me. I must just squeeze every inch of pleasure out of this possible.
“The other part of me was thinking, ‘in about nine seconds, I have to go on stage’.”
Acknowledging that “nowadays people would say that you sexually harassed me”, Tony added: “It wasn’t like that at all as far as I was concerned. Looking in your eyes, it was the funniest joke possible.”
“How very unprofessional of me, I am now apologising for that era, but I can’t remember it,” Miriam said. “I’m so glad you remember it.”
“It was probably the high point of my sexual life,” Tony then responded.
Later in the interview, the always-candid Miriam spoke about her attitude to sex, claiming: “I don’t think about sex. However, if I’m on a tube – which I’m not now very much, because I’m frightened of Covid – but when I was on tubes, I always looked at men’s trousers to see where their cocks were. So there’s still a… I don’t know… a little fragment of sex left in me.”
“Although you became a committed lesbian quite early in life, you were still looking at where men’s cocks were?” Tony questioned. “But what do you think that is? Just curiosity?”
“I think it’s curiosity,” Miriam agreed. “And also a rather charming sense of wonder. It’s so interesting to me that that you have cocks and balls. Something that hangs outside of your body. Extraordinary.
“So I think I’m still a bit amazed and rather thrilled. Something so different.”
Bafta winner Miriam is now as renowned for her outspoken opinions and candid anecdotes during her interviews and TV appearances as she is for her acting.
Earlier this year, she admitted she felt “talking about sex so much” is her “most annoying habit”, noting: “It’s only because I don’t really have sex any more. I just like to remember it and talk about it.”
Listen to Miriam Margolyes’ interview on Cunningcast here.