Miriam Margolyes says she was ‘shaking all the way home’ from upset after Jeremy Hunt Radio 4 gaffe

‘I gave myself a lot of stick,’ said actor

Miriam Margolyes has said she was so upset after she accidentally said “f*** you” to Jeremy Hunt live on Radio 4 that she was “shaking all the way home in the taxi”.

In October, the actor broke the first rule of radio by swearing on the Today programme.

Margolyes was reacting to seeing the newly appointed chancellor, Hunt, in the BBC Radio 4 studio, when she used the expletive.

“When I saw him there,” she told the hosts Justin Webb and Martha Kearney towards the end of her interview, “I said, ‘You’ve got a hell of a job, best of luck.’ And what I really wanted to say was, ‘F*** you, bastard.’ But you can’t say that.”

“Oh no, no, no, you mustn’t say that,” said Webb at the time. “We’ll have to have you out of the studio now.”

“We will,” added Kearney. “With many apologies.”

In a new reader interview in The Guardian nearly three months on, Margolyes was asked how much trouble she got into for the incident.

“I didn’t get into trouble except with readers of The Daily Telegraph, The Sun, The Express and the other unmentionable rags,” she replied.

“I gave myself a lot of stick because it was totally unintentional. I did not know that the microphone was on. I was shaking all the way home in the taxi. I was really upset because Radio 4 is a holy temple.”

Miriam Margolyes (Ken McKay/ITV/Shutterstock)

Elsewhere in the interview, the outspoken star said: “I think it would be nice if you mentioned that it was pleasant to talk to me, because a lot of people seem to think that I’m a hateful old hag, and I think that’s completely unfair.

“I think that I’m not quite like other people, but I do love humanity. I hope I’ll be remembered as a talented eccentric: a mouthy old bag with a heart of gold.”