{"id":274891,"date":"2026-09-02T12:53:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T12:53:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/274891\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T12:53:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T12:53:14","slug":"maureen-lipman-slams-cowardly-co-star-after-former-bbc-actor-quits-west-end-show-over-israel-stance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/274891\/","title":{"rendered":"Maureen Lipman slams \u2018cowardly\u2019 co-star after former BBC actor quits West End show over Israel stance"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Dame Maureen Lipman<\/a> has branded her former West End co-star as \u201ccowardly\u201d for dropping out of the play over her pro-Israel views. <\/p>\n

Lipman is appearing in Right Before I Go at London\u2019s Soho Theatre later this month, with Call the Midwife<\/a> actor Gerard McCarthy also cast. <\/p>\n

However, McCarthy \u2013 who identifies as non-binary and uses both they\/them and he\/him pronouns \u2013 withdrew from their role last month, writing on Instagram that they \u201cdid not feel comfortable\u201d promoting Lipman\u2019s involvement in the show given her views on Israel and Palestine, which \u201cshe has publicly and repeatedly expressed\u201d. <\/p>\n

Now Lipman, who previously said that actors\u2019 protests against Israel are \u201cclose to fascism\u201d, has responded to McCarthy\u2019s exit from the play, saying that McCarthy should have \u201cthe courage to face me and tell me what he thinks it is I should do\u201d. <\/p>\n

\"MaureenMaureen Lipman called her former co-star a ‘coward’ (Getty)<\/p>\n

Describing McCarthy\u2019s actions as \u201cvirtue-signalling\u201d, the actor told The Times<\/a>: \u201cI would like to reassure him that I will not be arriving with a star of David on my forehead, nor am I trying to argue him out of his point of view.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has to wake up and smell the grass. I have worked with actors for 60 years who often don\u2019t share my politics. I don\u2019t ask them, and they don\u2019t ask me.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added that if McCarthy didn\u2019t want to work with her, \u201cthen fair enough\u201d, but if they won\u2019t meet up with her, \u201cthen he\u2019s a coward\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd if he doesn\u2019t grow up, then he\u2019s going to limit himself to working with just Mark Ruffalo and Javier Bardem for the rest of his career,\u201d she continued. <\/p>\n

The Independent has contacted McCarthy for comment. <\/p>\n

Taking to Instagram on Saturday (29 August), McCarthy said that after Lipman was cast, they privately explained that they \u201cdid not feel comfortable personally promoting\u201d her involvement due to her pro-Israel views. <\/p>\n

\u201cI did not ask for her casting to be reconsidered or expect anybody else to share my position,\u201d McCarthy continued. \u201cI simply chose not to use my own platform to promote someone whose political views are at odds with my own.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"GerardGerard McCarthy dropped out of the play last week (Getty)<\/p>\n

McCarthy added that \u201ca subsequent conversation\u201d with the playwright Stan Zimmerman made them feel \u201cthat withdrawing from the performance was the right decision\u201d for them. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s regrettable that my time on RBIG ends this way,\u201d McCarthy said. \u201cBut sometimes you have to be prepared to walk away from something when staying would mean compromising something that matters much more.\u201d <\/p>\n

McCarthy, 45, who is originally from Belfast in Northern Ireland, is best known for playing Kris Fisher in Hollyoaks from 2006 until 2010, before taking on roles in The Fall, Call the Midwife and Kenneth Branagh film Belfast. <\/p>\n

Former Coronation Street star Lipman has been a longtime supporter of Israel, with the Jewish actor saying in October 2023 that artists who advocate for Palestinians following the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October of that year should feel \u201cshame\u201d.<\/a> <\/p>\n

Her remarks came after Tilda Swinton, Charles Dance and Miriam Margolyes were among the 2,000 artists who backed an open call for humanitarian support in Gaza following Israel\u2019s bombardment on the region, which was in response to the Hamas attack. <\/p>\n

\u201cI would love the signaturists to answer me this question: If your beloved country had been under attack for 70 years\u2026 how angry and exhausted and how determined to defend your country against any future attacks would you be?\u201d she told The Telegraph at the time. <\/p>\n

Right Before I Go is set to open at the Soho Theatre on Saturday 5 September, with Dominique Moore, Claire-Marie Hall, Emrhys Cooper, Paul Bigley and Tosh Wanogho-Maud also starring. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":274892,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[33],"tags":[9738,75047,25433,25439,27495,33214,25440,3077,75046,37,2422,25952,25949,74991,25953,396,201,72033,33210,67643,75048,811,4357],"class_list":["post-274891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-9738","tag-actor-award","tag-arrival","tag-arts-culture-and-entertainment","tag-award","tag-awards-ceremony","tag-celebrities","tag-england","tag-grosvenor-house-hotel-london","tag-israel","tag-june","tag-london-england","tag-looking-at-camera","tag-maureen-lipman","tag-one-person","tag-people","tag-photography","tag-smiling","tag-theatrical-performance","tag-three-quarter-length","tag-tric-awards","tag-uk","tag-vertical"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/117201548785737612","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}