Close friend of Barry Humphries, and award-winning actress, Miriam Margolyes has spoken out against organisers of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.
The organisation has been criticised by some for removing the comedian's name from an award, and not paying proper tribute to Barry Humphries who died at the weekend.
The Australian entertainer, responsible for characters like Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson helped launch the festival and had an award named after him.
However, his name was stripped from the accolade after he made controversial comments about transgender people in 2019.
While the organisation shared a post on Facebook, and briefly mentioned Humphries, there was no large-scale tribute to Humphries on the closing day of the festival.
Speaking to the ABC, Miriam Margolyes said the decision to remove Humphries name left him "very hurt and saddened".
"He'd had more talent in his little finger than they did in their whole bodies, all of them," she said.
The pair had known each other since she was 17.
Margolyes said that while she disagreed with Humphries politically, the two managed to get along.
"He was acerbic, and he was often quite nasty, but he was a genius, and you have to accept that.
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