Actress Miriam Margolyes referring to Oliver Twist’s fictional character Fagin as ‘Jewish and vile” was not antisemitic, according to the BBC.
The 83-year old Harry Potter celebrity, who is Jewish, caused outrage with her comments, made whilst being interviewed by Kirsty Wark on BBC Radio 4’s Front Row on 13 August.
When Wark asked Margolyes to mention a memorable Charles Dickens character from her childhood, she replied: “Oh, Fagin without question. Jewish and vile”, adding “I didn’t know Jews like that then. Sadly, I do now.”
Whilst the full interview was initially available on BBC Playback’s re-run service, the offensive comments were later edited out.
Broadcaster and antisemitism campaigner Jonathan Sacerdoti submitted a formal application to the BBC’s Executive Complaints Unit (ECU), alleging that the comments amounted to anti-Jewish racism and the perpetuation of harmful stereotypes.
Screenshot: Twitter/X
After the ECU rejected the complaint, as reported by The Telegraph, in a letter explaining the decision, ECU head Fraser Steel said he would be concerned about stereotyping if he believed the meaning behind Miriam’s comment was that she “now knew Jews who resembled Fagin”.
But he said the most ‘natural understanding’ of the remark is that it refers to “vile”, rather than to Fagin and the attributes which make his character stereotypical.
He added: “I don’t think it can be considered racist for one member of a group to express a view of some unspecified members of that group which is generally disparaging but without reference to any real or supposed attributes of that group.”
Jonathan Sacerdoti has since accused the BBC of “selective accountability”.
In a social media post on Twitter/X, he added: ‘Kirsty Wark stood by in silence, allowing Margolyes’ deeply offensive remarks to go unchecked, despite the BBC’s own guidelines on racism and extreme views,’ he said. ‘What’s more, the BBC’s initial decision to remove the comment from iPlayer was an acknowledgement of the mistake, yet now, for reasons entirely inconsistent, they refuse to uphold my complaint.”
A spokesperson for the BBC on Tuesday told Jewish News: “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.”
Jewish News has approached representatives of Miriam Margolyes for comment.
