BBC star Miriam Margolyes' 'shocking' coming out story, TV first and Harry Potter fan feud

Miriam Margolyes has been around for a long time, but she still has the power to shock. A new travel show sees everyone's favourite potty-mouthed performer hit Oz.

Miriam Margolyes: A New Australian Adventure will see the actor - who is British-Australian - take the trip of a lifetime to the Antipodean island. For Miriam, Australia has always been a land of opportunity and aspiration; something she needs in her life, now more than ever.

At 82, she’s just undergone a major medical procedure. So to give herself a kickstart, she decided to return to Australia in search of new possibilities.

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Miriam Margolyes OBE is an actor who has had a lengthy career on stage and screen. Miriam was born in Oxford and brought up in a traditional Jewish family.

At 82, she now calls herself a secular Jew who is politically an anti-Zionist. She won a Bafta for Martin Scorsese's The Age of Innocence in 1993.

However, she became famous around the world for playing Professor Sprout in the Harry Potter films. Nowadays, she is also well known for her strong opinions and use of shocking language during TV and radio appearances.

She represented Newnham College in the first series of University Challenge in 1963. It's reported that she may have been one of the first people to say "f***" on British television.

Miriam has been in a long-term relationship with Australian historian Heather Sutherland since 1968. She has spinal stenosis - the narrowing of the spinal canal -and has recently undergone surgery.

She told Closer magazine: "I can’t walk