BBC pulls Miriam Margolyes comment from radio after Harry Potter star said Charles Dickens’ Fagin was ‘Jewish and vile’ on air

The BBC has pulled a comment by Miriam Margolyes from the radio after the Harry Potter star said that Charles Dickens’ Fagin was ‘Jewish and vile’ on air.

The Jewish actor, 83, was speaking to Front Row about her earliest experiences with the novelist amid her Edinburgh Fringe run of Margolyes & Dickens: The Best Bits, in which she brings to life the author’s most colourful characters in a one-woman show.

And in a response to a question from BBC Radio 4 presenter Kirsty Wark about the character that stuck in her head as a child, she responded with the Oliver Twist villain.

The broadcaster has now removed the comment from the programme – saying that it should have been challenged at the time.

The eccentric grandee sparked laughter among the audience as she said: ‘Oh, Fagin. Without question. Jewish and vile.’

The Jewish actor, 83, was speaking to Front Row about her earliest experiences with the novelist amid her Edinburgh Fringe run of Margolyes & Dickens: The Best Bits, in which she brings to life the author’s most colourful characters in a one-woman show

She added: ‘I didn’t know Jews like that then – sadly, I do now.’

One of English literature’s most despised characters, Dickens used anti-Semitic tropes of Victorian England to create the character of Fagin, the London crime lord who ruled over a band of child pickpockets.

The manipulative criminal is explicitly Jewish in the book, with Margolyes saying in another interview last month that he is ‘not only extremely funny but horrible, evil, a complete a**e.’

The actress has recently opened up about how she has felt ‘wounded’ by lost friendships and accusations of betraying her community due to her strong pro-Gaza views.

Open in her critique of the Israeli government, she has called for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to be jailed, branding him a ‘war criminal’ and a ‘common corrupt politician’.

A BBC Spokesperson said: ‘This was an unexpected comment made during a live broadcast which should have been challenged at the time. We have taken swift action to remove it from the programme and it is no longer available.’

Introduced for the first time in the 1838 novel, Fagin is described as ‘a very old shriveled Jew’ – and is referred to as ‘the Jew’ more than 250 times in the first 38 chapters.

These were repeated throughout Dickens’ other texts  -with stereotypical and generally unflattering depictions of Jewish people appearing in Sketches by Boz, Pickwick Papers, The Old Curiosity Shop and Great Expectations among others. 

One of English literature’s most despised characters, Dickens used anti-Semitic tropes of Victorian England to create the character of Fagin, the London crime lord who ruled over a band of child pickpockets. Pictured: Rowan Atkinson as Fagin in 2009

With waves of refugees fleeing persecution and massacres in Russia and Poland, discrimination was normalised in the capital – with ‘to jew’ being a verb meaning ‘to swindle’ and the Whitechapel murders of Jack the Ripper quickly sparking fingers to be pointed at the Jewish community.

Dickens later edited his chapters as he suspended the book’s republication, seeking to clarify Fagin’s portrayal and saying he ‘would not wilfully have given an offence or done an injustice’.

He also included the saintly figure of Riah in Our Mutual Friend, who was Jewish. 

There has even been speculation that he may have had Dutch Jewish ancestry of his own.

Last month, Margolyes further opened up about her love for Dickens, which stretches back to reading Oliver Twist at school. 

She enthused to The List: ‘The vitality of it! It’s very filmic. I came across this chap, Fagin the Jew, and that sparked my interest. It was clear that he was not only extremely funny but horrible, evil, a complete arse. I thought ‘how can that be Jewish? I’ve never met anybody like that.”

Pressed on whether she thought the author was anti-Semitic, she continued: ‘Everybody is antisemitic, darling. He was a chronicler, a journalist, and Jews couldn’t earn a living. Maybe they couldn’t speak the language. 

‘They were refugees, and he reported what he saw. But he added that extra spice of evil, which is extraordinary.’

Introduced for the first time in the 1938 novel, Fagin is described as ‘a very old shriveled Jew’ – and is referred to as ‘the Jew’ more than 250 times in the first 38 chapters. PicturedL Sire Ben Kingsley as Fagin in 2005

She continued to condemn him for his treatment of his wife, Catherine, who he attempted to get locked in an asylum after she gave birth to ten children when she objected to his rumoured affair.

Margolyes quipped: ‘He was a b******d, no question. But he wrote like a king, like a god.’

In a letter to Eliza Davis, who took over his home in Tavistock Square when he moved to Kent, Dickens explained his position alongside a donation for a convalescent home for the Jewish poor – which she had asked him to make to ‘atone’ for his writing. 

Dickens said calling Fagin Jewish was a reference to his race rather than his religion, adding: ‘it unfortunately was true of the time to which that story refers, that that class of criminal invariably was a Jew.’

Later responding to a gift of volumes of translated Hebrew scripture, he wrote: ‘there is nothing but good will left between me and a People for whom I have a real regard, and to whom I would not wilfully have given an offence or done an injustice for any worldly consideration.’

Margolyes’ comments have sparked condemnation online, as the recording of her clip was shared on social media.

Sarah Deech said: ‘This is plain and ugly racism, from a woman who’s given a pass because apparently she is a ‘national treasure’. 

‘The fact Margolyes is herself Jewish is not the get out of jail free card you think it is.’

Margolyes’ comments have sparked condemnation online, as the recording of her clip was shared on social media

The Campaign Against Antisemitism added that they would be writing to the BBC about the clip, calling the comments ‘repugnant’.

They said: ‘It’s a sad reflection of this era when both the host and audience of a BBC programme simply laugh along with a guest’s comments about ‘vile’ Jews. 

‘Yes, the guest happens to be Jewish. No, that does not give her free reign to spew her repugnant sentiments in the guise of ‘comedy’. 

‘We will be writing to the BBC about this.’

And a third, Etan Smallman, wrote: ‘Imagine turning on Radio 4 and hearing Miriam Margolyes describe a character as ‘Jewish and vile’ – and the phrase gets a laugh from the audience, rather than an apology from the host. 

‘Goes to show being Jewish doesn’t make you immune from perpetuating antisemitism.’

In April Margolyes was among the 151 Jewish creatives to sign an open letter backing director Jonathan Glazer and his Oscar’s speech where he implied the tragedy of the Holocaust was being ‘hijacked by an occupation’.

But despite her steadfast beliefs, she has been left in ‘agony’ adding how ‘the abused have become the abusers’, even comparing Gaza to concentration camps during World War II. 

Her strong political opinions have led to clashes with several friends including Coronation Street actress Maureen Lipman.

‘Jewish people regard me with loathing, as someone who betrayed my nation and aligned myself with the Devil,’ the actress told Saga.

‘That is also the opinion of my erstwhile friend Dame Maureen Lipman, who is horrified by my attitude.’

Margolyes continued: ‘I have no doubt I am right. I am convinced that killing women and children is totally wicked, does not help Israel or anybody.

‘It’s just vile. How it has been allowed to go on for so long, I don’t know.’

The actress has further revealed that she continues to work in her eighties because she fears that her future care bills are going to leave her destitute.

Margolyes, who suffers with spinal stenosis, told Radio Times: : ‘I’m worried that I won’t have enough money for carers when I finally get paralysed or whatever it is that’s going to happen to me.’

Spinal stenosis occurs when space around the spinal cord becomes too narrow, compressing the nerves. 

Dickens later edited his chapters as he suspended the book’s republication, seeking to clarify Fagin’s portrayal and saying he ‘would not wilfully have given an offence or done an injustice’. Pictured: Ron Moody as Fagin

Margolyes main source of income is her television work. She stars as Mother Mildred in Call the Midwife, has fronted numerous documentaries, and is also regular raconteur on the chat show circuit, sharing Graham Norton’s sofa with the likes of musician will.i.am and the late Friends star Matthew Perry. 

She also has a lucrative side hustle making videos for fans on the Cameo website, where she charges £100 for a special greeting clip from her, and estimates it has netted her a whopping £365,000 since 2020. Last year she earnt £250,000 for her memoir Oh Miriam! 

Discussing her financial woes, the Harry Potter star added: ‘I’m saving up cash so that I can pay people to look after me and my partner. We don’t have children, so I need to make sure I’m going to be looked after in the way that I’ve become accustomed.’

Margolyes, who has been with her partner Heather since 1968, lives in Clapham, south London.