A Coronation Street legend has hit out at an actor who pulled out of a play they were due to appear in together because of her views on Israel and Palestine.
Maureen Lipman, who plays Evelyn Plummer in the ITV soap, branded Gerard McCarthy “cowardly” and accused him of “virtue-signalling” after he withdrew from Right Before I Go, which the pair were due to perform at London’s Soho Theatre on September 5.
McCarthy, whose credits include The Fall, announced his decision on Instagram, saying: “Because of views she has publicly and repeatedly expressed regarding Israel and Palestine, I did not feel comfortable personally promoting her involvement.
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“I did not ask for her casting to be reconsidered or expect anyone else to share my position. I simply chose not to use my own platform to promote someone whose political views are at odds with my own.”
Lipman has now responded in The Times, criticising McCarthy for quitting without speaking to her directly and calling on him to “grow up”.
“I am asking for him to have the courage to face me and tell me what he thinks it is I should do, or think, or say,” she said. “I 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.
“He has to wake up and smell the grass. I have worked with actors for 60 years who often don’t share my politics. I don’t ask them, and they don’t ask me.”
Lipman also questioned why McCarthy had attended the opening night of Richmond Theatre’s production of Allegra, in which she played the lead, just weeks earlier.
“I would love to know what has changed in the last six weeks. Has he become radicalised, and by whom?” she said. “I am at a loss, but I would like to extend the olive branch and get a proper understanding of his problem with me.
“I am simply a working woman of a certain age who believes that the state of Israel should be allowed to exist. I am an actor, not a politician. There is very little I can do to influence (Israeli prime minister) Bibi Netanyahu, nor would I want to.”
Lipman has become one of Coronation Street’s best-known stars through her role as the formidable Evelyn Plummer. The veteran actress first appeared on the cobbles in a different role in 2002 before joining the cast as Evelyn in 2018.
