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BBC forced to remove Miriam Margolyes' 'shocking' three-word remark from radio show - Nottinghamshire Live (www.nottinghampost.com)

submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Kirsty's question about which character had first resonated with her as a child, saying: "Oh, Fagin. Without question. Jewish and vile. I didn't know Jews like that then sadly, I do now."

Despite laughter from the audience, the BBC decided to remove the remarks from the broadcast.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

In 1863 a Jewish mother-of-ten called Eliza Davis wrote to berate, in the most charm-mixed-with-chutzpah of ways, the author Charles Dickens about his character Fagin in Oliver Twist.

Eliza had little more than a passing acquaintance with the novelist; she and her husband had bought his London home three years earlier. She wrote to him to request some funds for a Jewish home for convalescents adding that perhaps a donation could ameliorate some of the wrongs he had done.

“Charles Dickens, the large-hearted, whose works plead so eloquently and so nobly for the oppressed of his country… has encouraged a vile prejudice against the despised Hebrew,” she wrote. “Fagin, I fear, admits only of one interpretation but while Charles Dickens lives, the author can justify himself or atone for a great wrong.”

Fagin's back - the villain Charles Dickens tried to cancel, Jewish Chronicle

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Thanks for this. I never knew about this. In retrospect, Fagin was a pretty shoddy stereotype. But, in general most of Dickens' books deal in such tropes. The real question is, was Miriam wrong to say what she did? And was the BBC wrong in censoring her? While your anecdote was interesting I'm not sure it spoke to those questions specifically.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago

What I find odd (and this might be the fault of whoever wrote the piece) is that the "'shocking' three word remark" that is said to have got the interview pulled isn't shocking - it's actually the other bit of her statement.