Miriam Margolyes: What is the worst thing anyone has said to you?

The question

What is the worst thing anyone has said to you?

Originally asked

The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A

A fixed Guardian Q&A prompt asked directly across respondents and years.

You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here

Glenda Jackson said I was an amateur during rehearsal for The White Devil at the Old Vic. I called her a cow, but that was inadequate.

The Q&A, The Guardian, 19 July 2025 source ↗

Others on this question

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Roger McGough

A lady came up to me in Tesco last year and said, “Excuse me, but didn’t you used to be Roger McGough?”

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 10 January 2026 source ↗

Monica Dolan

Another actress once said to me, “I’ve told you huge lies to make you feel good about yourself.” I’m not going to say who.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 6 January 2024 source ↗

Desmond Tutu Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town; chair of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission; Nobel Peace Prize, 1984

There will always be so many who might say, “Ah, he’s a politician masquerading as an archbishop.” Politics is so all-pervasive, and in my theology, obviously, all of life belongs to God, and you don’t have compartments, this is your economic life, this is your political life, this is your religious life. Religion encompasses all of those. But yes, I wouldn’t myself have said I was setting out to be a political animal.

Recorded Academy of Achievement interview source ↗

Russell Mael