Miriam Margolyes has sparked a row over race after using the dated and offensive term "high yalla" to describe presenter Andi Peters' skin colour during an appearance on This Morning. The 85-year-old actress was on the ITV show to promote her book Miriam's Full English when the exchange prompted producers to intervene, and the segment was later removed from the ITVX version of the interview, drawing accusations of racism from viewers online.

During the conversation, Margolyes asked Peters about his accent and wrongly assumed he had one black and one white parent, before telling him "I think you're what I would call a 'high yalla'", explaining it was an American term for someone who "isn't deeply black". Peters, visibly uncomfortable, said producers had warned him through his earpiece that "they're getting nervous", while Margolyes insisted she "welcomed everybody" and that her book was about inclusion. Reaction on social media was split, with many branding the remark "racist" and rooted in "19th century American" language, while others argued it reflected ignorance rather than racism; this is not the first controversy for Margolyes, who saw a 2024 BBC Radio 4 comment describing Dickens' Fagin as "Jewish and vile" pulled from broadcast.