Mo Gilligan leaves NTAs audience gasping with Miriam Margolyes joke amid Andi Peters controversy

Mo Gilligan left the audience at the National Television Awards stunned on Tuesday night when he appeared to reference the controversy surrounding Miriam Margolyes and Andi Peters during the live ceremony.

The 38-year-old comedian was presenting the Factual Entertainment award in London when he introduced himself with a pointed joke.

“If you know me, I’m Mo Gilligan. And if you don’t know me, then I’m Andi Peters,” he told the audience.

The remark prompted gasps and nervous laughter before Gilligan moved on to announce that Channel 4’s Gogglebox had won the award.

The joke was a clear reference to the row that erupted after Margolyes, 85, made controversial comments about Peters’ skin colour during an appearance on ITV’s This Morning the previous week.

Gilligan’s quip quickly became a talking point, with social media users divided over whether he had handled the controversy well. Some described the joke as funny, while others felt it failed to land.

What happened between Miriam Margolyes and Andi Peters?

The controversy began during Margolyes’ appearance on This Morning, where she was promoting her book.

The actress had been impersonating co-host Christine Lampard’s Northern Irish accent before turning her attention to Peters, 56, and asking what accent would be normal for him.

Peters replied that what he was speaking was normal for him.

Margolyes then suggested that he was mixed race and claimed he had a black father and white mother. Peters corrected her, explaining that both of his parents are black.

He then tried to lighten the exchange by joking about his appearance and asking whether the programme’s make-up team had made him a lighter shade than normal.

Margolyes continued the discussion by describing Peters using the term “high yalla”, explaining that she understood it to refer in America to a Black person with a lighter complexion.

The expression, also written as “high yaller” or “high yellow”, is an outdated and offensive slang term.

Peters responded that he had not even realised there were different shades, to which Margolyes replied that there were.

As the conversation became increasingly uncomfortable, Peters appeared to receive a warning through his earpiece from producers.

He acknowledged the intervention on air, saying they were “getting nervous”.

Margolyes attempted to reassure him, saying there was no need to be nervous because “we welcome everybody” and adding that inclusion was what she wanted to write about in her book.

The exchange was subsequently removed from the version of the interview available on ITVX. The footage nevertheless circulated widely online, prompting strong reactions from viewers.

Margolyes explains her intentions

Margolyes later addressed the backlash and said she had not intended to embarrass or hurt Peters.

She explained that she had never met him before the interview and said she was interested in understanding what he thought about the discussion.

The actress said she was fascinated by how people viewed their own identities and how they believed others saw them.

She went on to broaden the discussion, asking how Black people, brown people and disabled people felt about their identities, before also referring to people who are overweight.

The This Morning host stepped in to clarify that Margolyes was, in effect, trying to discuss Peters’ identity with him. She agreed with that interpretation.

Margolyes then explained that other people and their stories interested her more than celebrities themselves.

She said she wanted to understand what made people who they were and why they were the way they were.

Andi Peters keeps his composure

Peters remained composed throughout the uncomfortable exchange, correcting Margolyes when she made assumptions about his family background and attempting to keep the conversation light.

The incident subsequently became the subject of widespread discussion online, particularly after the footage was shared beyond the original broadcast.

Peters later responded to broadcaster Jeremy Vine after Vine praised the way he had handled the situation, writing that, in his line of work, they had to be ready for anything.

The controversy remained in the spotlight when Gilligan brought it back into the conversation at the National Television Awards.

His brief joke came as he presented the Factual Entertainment category, with Gogglebox ultimately taking the award.

The response inside the room was immediate: gasps and nervous laughter before Gilligan continued with the ceremony. Online, however, viewers remained split over whether the reference was an effective piece of comedy or an awkward attempt to revisit an already uncomfortable incident.

The moment ensured that the controversy surrounding Margolyes and Peters was still being discussed several days after their original This Morning exchange.