Miriam Margolyes reveals 'unfriendly' encounter with Lily Allen

Miriam Margolyes has revealed she "showed her dislike" for Lily Allen after she met her on a talk show.

The outspoken British actress, 83, admitted she didn't get on with Lily, 39, when they appeared on The Graham Norton Show together in 2014.

"She thought when she was on the programme that it was all about her," Miriam told Philippe Sands when he interviewed her at the Hay Festival.

"She thought: 'Who is this woman? Miriam who?' She wasn't friendly and I didn't like that and so I showed my dislike, which wasn't very nice of me because she was much younger than me and I should have just taught her how to behave."

The Harry Potter star also told Philippe that Monty Python star John Cleese "has become an a***hole", and The Goodies' Bill Oddie "is not a nice man".

It's not the first time Miriam has revealed her opinion of John Cleese. Last year, she called him "poisonous," after recalling their time together at Cambridge University.

"John was a brilliant comedian in his day, but something has turned. Like milk, he's gone sour. He's an irrelevance... Cleese is a puny tadpole of a person," she told The Guardian.