Miriam Margolyes insists she 'didn't want to hurt Andi Peters' amid racism row

Miriam Margolyes has addressed the backlash over comments she made to TV presenter Andi Peters during a live interview last week.

The BAFTA-award-winning actor, 85, questioned the presenter's race during an appearance on the U.K. TV show This Morning on Thursday.

Miriam was asked about the incident on Sunday during an audience event to promote her new memoir, Miriam's Full English, at Cliffs Pavilion in Southend, England.

In videos shared by audience members on social media, she said, "I didn't want to embarrass or hurt Andi because he seems very nice."

"I'd never met him before; I didn't know who he was and I didn't know he was Black until I saw him. When you see someone, of course you know they're Black."

The Harry Potter actress explained that she was interested to know how Andi felt about his race.

"How do Black people feel? How do brown people feel? How do fat people feel?" she continued. "All of us feel something about who we are and how people see us, what they think of us."

Miriam appeared on This Morning last week to promote her book when she questioned Andi's race live on air. She started the interview by impersonating co-host Christine Lampard's Northern Irish accent and then asked Andi, "What accent would be normal for you? What are you?"

"This is normal. This is what I am," Andi replied, to which Miriam continued, "Oh, you're a mix, aren't you? You've got a Black daddy and a white mummy."

Andi confirmed both his parents were Black before joking, "What have they put on me... am I a lighter shade than normal?"

Miriam then said, "I think you're what I would call a high yalla," using an outdated and offensive slang term to describe a Black person with a light complexion.

"I didn't even know there were shades," Andi replied, to which Miriam added, "There are shades."

When the presenter quipped that the producers were "getting nervous" about the topic of conversation, The Age of Innocence star responded, "Don't be nervous. We welcome everybody. That's what I want to write about in my book. It's about inclusion."

The moment was removed from the ITVX recording of the show.