When Miriam Margolyes revealed she had an interesting personal story about meeting the Queen, producers at ITV's This Morning are likely to have welcomed their good fortune.
What they may not have predicted was the 78-year-old actor's decision to deploy a word widely considered to be a profanity while recounting her unusual experience at Buckingham Palace.
"The Queen came over to me and asked me what I did,” the Harry Potter star said as she was interviewed, on the day after it emerged the Duke and Duchess of Sussex would be stepping away from royal duties.
“’What do you do?’ in a very nice way. And I said, like a twat, I said 'I’m the best reader of stories in the whole world'.”
The word drew gasps from hosts Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield, who immediately apologised to viewers.
But an unconcerned Margolyes finished the anecdote without pause.
“She [the Queen] went like that [rolls eyes]. And she immediately left me and went to the next person and asked, 'what do you do?'
"He said, ‘I teach dyslexic children to read and we’ve noticed, if you put the letters in different colours print the pages are printed in different colours, it helps the children to read and absorb the information more easily’.
"I stood next to him and said, ‘really, how fascinating, I didn’t know that'. She [the Queen] turned to me and said, 'be quiet'.”
Pausing for laughter, Margolyes, who was recounting the meeting from a British Book Week reception some years ago, added: “She had every right to do but it was bit discombobulating."
