I just don't get some American humour, especially this sort of thing.

Sam

Don't hold it against us, Sam. Not all of us are potty-mouths.

It’s also fun seeing you turn up on something random like the Pamela Anderson roast.

I was so upset about that. Let me explain: I’m really active in animal rights and with PETA. And Comedy Central offered them an enormous amount of money if they’d do this roast, so they called me and I said, “Of course, I’d do it.” I had no idea it was going to be so ... icky. And it was. I had done one other roast, which was very dirty, but very funny. But this was just trashy — and it went on for days. But as one of my friends told me after, “Who else but Bea Arthur could come out and get a standing ovation for saying ‘f**k?’”

Do you have a favorite episode of “The Golden Girls”?

Well, loved everything I did with Estelle Getty, because we were really a great comic duo — talk about Martin and Lewis! I always remember one episode where Sophia entered us in the mother/daughter beauty contest at Shady Pines, and for talent portion, we did “I Got You Babe” dressed as Sonny and Cher. Did you happen to see that one? Estelle was wearing a moustache! We had a lot of good times — the shows were so well written and we had a fabulous costumer.

What TV do you watch these days?

I watch all the news shows. I like to wake up in the middle of the night and watch old movies, but the only shows I really kill for are things like “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and “The Daily Show.” And “Celebrity Death Match” — did you ever see that? They had, like, Barbra Streisand and Aretha Franklin kicking the sh*t of each other. It’s just so funny.

Poor Bea looked like a fish out of water.