Maureen Lipman’s Beattie is back to hammer Labour

Beattie is back… to hammer Labour! Thirty years after we fell in love with Maureen Lipman as the adorable granny in the BT adverts, she revisits the character to shoot hilarious clip mocking Jeremy Corbyn’s party

  • The online video has been produced by anti-extremism campaign Mainstream 
  • ‘Beattie’ talks of her fears over how Labour is now riddled with anti-Semitism
  • Lipman, a former Labour supporter, has spoken out previously on Corbyn 

Her hilarious portrayal of doting Jewish grandmother Beattie in the 1980s TV advertisements was comedy gold for Maureen Lipman.

Now the veteran actress – a former Labour supporter – has brought her character back to warn that Jeremy Corbyn has ‘an ‘ology’ in extremism.

In the online clip, the famous grandmother talks of her fears over how the modern Labour Party is now riddled with anti-Semitism.

Maureen Lipman, a former Labour supporter, has brought back her hilarious portrayal of doting Jewish grandmother Beattie from the 1980s

She has revived the character to warn that Jeremy Corbyn has 'an 'ology' in extremism

She has revived the character to warn that Jeremy Corbyn has ‘an ‘ology’ in extremism

Speaking on the phone to her friend Nora, she says: ‘My mother always said, ‘this is a kind and a decent country. They will always do the decent thing’.

‘Well if that’s the case, why would anybody vote for this Labour Party?’

Miss Lipman, 74, was moved to make the new version by Mr Corbyn’s failure to tackle anti-Semitism in the party.

The video has been produced by anti-extremism campaign Mainstream, led by former Labour minister Ian Austin.

In the famous BT advert, first shown in 1987, Beattie won the hearts of millions when she told her grandson who had failed all his exams except pottery and sociology: ‘You get an ‘ology, you’re a scientist.’ 

Speaking on the phone to her friend Nora, she says: 'Why would anybody vote for this Labour Party?'

Speaking on the phone to her friend Nora, she says: ‘Why would anybody vote for this Labour Party?’

Miss Lipman, 74, was moved to make the new version by Mr Corbyn's failure to tackle anti-Semitism in the party

Miss Lipman, 74, was moved to make the new version by Mr Corbyn’s failure to tackle anti-Semitism in the party

In the new version, Beattie tells her friend: ‘Of course, we were all Labour, everybody voted Labour. I voted Labour all my life. 

‘You know what my late husband said? If you’re Jewish, they gave you your Labour Party badge the day after your circumcision. They gave with one hand, they took with the other. 

‘But this lot… this lot’s not Labour. They’re not socialists. You know what they are, Nora? They’re extremists, that’s what my Melvyn says, and he’s not often wrong.’

She adds: ‘The anti-Semitism, who would have believed that? The bullying, the hectoring, the driving out of good Jewish MPs, the sitting down with people he shouldn’t sit down with.’ 

She goes on to share her concerns that Mr Corbyn’s plan to nationalise broadband will mess up her internet, after it took her ten years to learn how to have video calls with her grandchildren.

In the famous BT advert, first shown in 1987, Beattie won the hearts of millions

In the famous BT advert, first shown in 1987, Beattie won the hearts of millions

Mr Austin said last night: ‘People like Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell have spent decades working with and defending all sorts of extremists and in some cases terrorists and anti-Semites. 

‘Under their leadership, Labour has been poisoned by racism, extremism and intolerance. They can’t be trusted to defend our country and can’t be trusted with our democracy.’

Labour is being probed by the Equality and Human Rights Commission over claims of anti-Semitism. Two of its female Jewish MPs, Luciana Berger and Louise Ellman, quit after facing abuse.

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