The BBC has determined that actress and provocateur Miriam Margolyes’ “Jewish and vile” comment on-air was not racist.
During a discussion about her admiration for Charles Dickens in a BBC Four Front Row segment in August, Ms Margolyes was asked which of the author’s characters was the first to stick in her head as a child. She replied: “Oh, Fagin, without question. Jewish and vile. I didn’t know Jews like that then. Sadly, I do now.”
Campaign Against Antisemitism submitted a complaint to the BBC following the segment’s broadcast.
Ms Margolyes’ remark was subsequently removed from the interview on BBC iPlayer, the BBC’s online streaming service. The broadcaster initially responded: “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.”
After allegations of antisemitism reached the BBC’s Executive Complaints Unit (ECU), however, it determined that the actress’s comment did not amount to anti-Jewish racism.
In a letter responding to the allegations, Fraser Steel, Head of the ECU, said: “I would be concerned about stereotyping if I thought the the sense of her remarks was that she now knew Jews who resembled Fagin, but surely the most natural understanding of ‘I didn’t know Jews like that then, sadly I do now’ is surely that it refers to ‘vile’, rather than to Fagin and those attributes which render his character stereotypical.
“And while expressing that sentiment might be considered insensitive in the light of what you describe as ‘the wider atmosphere of hatred and insecurity felt by many Jews’, 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.”
A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism 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, but that does not give her free rein to spew her repugnant sentiments in the guise of ‘comedy’.
“It is right that the BBC has removed the comment from the final version of the programme, but the reluctance of the BBC’s complaints unit to admit serious wrongdoing is a sad indication of where the Corporation is at right now.
“Why is it that the BBC appears to have such a blind spot when it comes to antisemitism?”
