It’s been over 60 years since Miriam Margolyes and John Cleese have been at college collectively and but, they’re still publicly feuding over an incident that occurred in their student days.
Monty Python star Cleese has responded on social media to Margolyes’s claims that he was “venomous” to her whereas performing in a comedy present, with the comic explaining that he had “literally never met someone so brash and vulgar”.
It comes after clips from Margolyes’s interview on The Romesh Ranganathan Show, which was launched in May, began circulating on-line. In the chat, Margolyes revealed that her expertise with comedy troupe Footlights on the University of Cambridge was “not joyous”, with the all-male group selecting to not communicate to her off-stage whereas performing in a 1962 revue.
“John Cleese and Graham Chapman were particularly venomous,” stated the Harry Potter star, 85, who is thought for bawdy, unfiltered feedback. “It wounded me terribly and I wasn’t invited to the cast party so I complained and I went to the cast party but I’ve never really forgiven them.”
Miriam Margolyes on ‘The Romesh Ranganathan Show’ (‘The Romesh Ranganathan Show’)
She stated that Cleese, 86, and Chapman, who died in 1989 aged 48, have been “brilliant young men” who “lacked that thing which is a human part of the gene”, including about Cleese: “I’m glad he’s old and unfunny.”
Sharing the clip on X on Thursday (27 August), Cleese gave his tackle the fall-out, writing: “Several of us, rather repressed and socially unskilled lower middle class boys, had literally never met someone so brash and vulgar, and I’m afraid we shrank away from her.
“No abuse or something. We simply stored out of her method,” he added. “Recently, Miriam additionally blamed Bill Oddie for our dangerous behaviour. Not honest. He wasn’t within the present that 12 months. 1962, I feel it was. 64 years in the past. How time flies…”
The Independent has contacted Margolyes for comment.
In 2021, Margolyes known as the late presenter Bill Oddie – in addition to Cleese and Chapman – a “total s***” over the same incident, including: “I’d assumed comedy was not for me after the nastiness of Footlights.”
At the time, Oddie responded to Margolyes on X, explaining that he actually campaigned for women to join the Footlights troupe, which only allowed men at the time.
“Hey Miriam. It would actually sadden me when you had me down as a Footlights mysogynist [sic],” he wrote. “I used to be incensed that girls could not be ‘members’, however I obtained no help from the ‘all male’ council, whom I accused of not wanting the competitors! Such as Germaine, Emma Thompson, and YOU! X.”
While on Ranganathan’s podcast, Margolyes said that she still bears “a lot rage and irritation” over her treatment in the show, calling the Footlights men “all so mean-spirited and jealous of anyone who took their mild”.
Margolyes broke into performing after leaving Cambridge, happening to play Professor Sprout within the Harry Potter movies and safe roles in The Age of Innocence and Call the Midwife. However, lately, she’s repeatedly made headlines along with her outspoken views, live TV slip-ups and outrageously candid tales. Last 12 months, she revealed on This Morning that she had forgiven her End of Days co-star Arnold Schwarzenegger for apparently breaking wind in her face throughout filming.
Meanwhile, Cleese – who starred in BBC sitcom Fawlty Towers in addition to a number of Monty Python movies and the Shrek franchise – has repeatedly spoken out in opposition to cancel tradition and political correctness. Last 12 months, he branded BBC comedy executives “stupid” and “clowns” after being left annoyed by an concepts assembly with the broadcaster, including that commissioners are “too influenced by the fervour and nastiness of the extraordinarily woke”.