The actress revealed that she has grown to dislike the long-running sitcom, even though it has paid her handsomely.
In an interview to promote The Rose Tattoo, which opens at the National Theatre tonight, she complained about the conveyor-belt mentality of the show.
Her comments will embarrass the BBC, as they come before the seventh series of the critically-slated but top-rated show airs.
‘What attracted me to the first scripts was that they had a slightly quirky, American Jewish quality to them,’ she told the Daily Telegraph. ‘That's my humour.
‘But it's turned into a machine. Robert and I even refused at one point to do one, it was so bad. That caused a lot of problems, but we just felt it was not good enough.
‘We had practically a football team of scriptwriters working on the last series.’
But she acknowledged the financial benefits of the show. ‘I shouldn't knock it,’ she said. ‘Hey, I bought three paintings. I also planted 23 trees the other day in my cottage.’
