Miriam Margolyes Criticised for Racial Term on TV

Actress Miriam Margolyes has sparked widespread criticism after using a dated and offensive racial term to describe the skin color of This Morning presenter Andi Peters during a live television interview. The incident occurred on the ITV daytime show on September 3, 2026, when Margolyes, 85, was promoting her new book, "Miriam's Full English." The conversation began with Margolyes discussing accents, first impersonating the Northern Irish accent of Peters' co-host, Christine Lampard. She then turned to Peters, asking, "What accent would be normal for you?" and followed up with, "What are you?" When Peters clarified that he was speaking in his normal accent, Margolyes suggested he was a mix, stating, "You've got a Black daddy and a white mummy." Peters corrected her, saying, "No, no, no. Both my parents are Black." Margolyes then replied, "I think you're what I would call a high yalla. That's what they call it in America when someone isn't deeply Black." The term "high yellow" or "high yalla" is a dated and often offensive American slang term used to describe a light-skinned Black person.