‘Eddie Izzard was too terrified to come on!’ How we made The Kumars at No 42
Sanjeev Bhaskar, creator and actor
Just before Goodness Gracious Me started, I came up with a chatshow where a family interviews famous guests. It was partly inspired by me thinking, “I wonder if I’ll meet anyone famous now I’m doing this?” – and also by the time I introduced my university girlfriend to my parents. My dad said: “Pleased to meet you, how much does your father earn?” Then my mum stepped in with: “Welcome Janet. It’s lovely to meet you … Sanjeev has always been terrible at dealing with rejection.” That was the first 30 seconds. I started thinking: “If I took someone famous home to meet my parents, it would be exactly the same.”
Despite our success with Goodness Gracious Me, it took a really long time to get the show going. Commissioners just didn’t get it. But when it started, it was phenomenal. Unlike other chatshows, we deliberately didn’t prep the guests, as we wanted them to be themselves. So much of the show was improvised and we just had no idea what the guests were going to say or do.
We had people like Cilla Black, Alan Alda, Donny Osmond, Ray Winstone, Richard E Grant – it was a joy. When we had Tom Jones on, Meera, who was playing the granny, went over, hugged him, and decided she was going to just cling on – beyond the point of comfort. It was great seeing Tom not knowing what to do – would he prise her off? He ended up looking very awkward before going: “Everything all right down there?”
By the second or third series, we were Bafta-nominated. We won two International Emmies in two consecutive years, a Peabody and a bronze Rose of Montreux. I do think it’s a shame Meera didn’t win something, though. She created one of the best comic characters I’ve ever seen on TV. When we were trying to convince Eddie Izzard to come on the show, he said: “The grandmother absolutely terrifies me!” So I pointed at Meera and he turns to her and says: “The grandmother absolutely terrifies me!” I had to say: “No, Meera IS the grandmother.” He had no idea.
The show travelled around the world. It did well in America, Asia, South Africa, was huge in Australia and New Zealand. A few years ago, I did a Unicef trip and at Johannesburg airport a couple came up to me and said: “Excuse me, are you the guy from The Kumars?” That was extraordinary – it was years after!
Meera Syal, actor
Initially, they didn’t want me to play the granny. But they struggled to find Asian women in the right age group who could improvise. There was a bit of me that thought: “Do I really want to be playing someone three times my age?” But I thought the show sounded brilliant, and I love improvisation so much that it was a no-brainer.
I don’t know if I’ll ever be offered another part with so much creative freedom and joy. The shows had a structure, which you hung your little storylines on and improvised around. It was a bit like jazz – you have to know the melody so you can wander off it. We got so used to each others’ rhythms, we developed an artistic telepathy. I could feel Sanj cueing something up and I thought: “I know where he wants me to go.” I loved working like that.
The only downside was my back: I used to bend double to play the granny. I had to be extra careful when I was pregnant
Sanj had a clear idea for the granny. He very much wanted her to be the gobby, rebellious wildcard to push against that image everybody had of older women – especially older south Asian women. Also, he knew that an old Indian woman can get away with being flirty, or naughty, or saying the unsayable.
We really did try to push things as far as we could, but I think we got away with a lot because we we were never cruel to guests. We gave them an Indian family’s idea of hospitality – to love them to death – and we were genuinely really excited to have them on the show. We got to meet our childhood heroes. Donny Osmond was a big moment for me. You don’t ever expect to meet the person whose face you used to kiss on your bedroom wall. Even if it was as an 85-year-old woman with bad teeth.
The only downside was my back. I used to bend double to play her, and after the first few episodes, I said: “Guys, forget about me bending double for any of the rehearsals, because this is killing me.” Also, during the series, me and Sanj became a couple in real life, and ended up having a child. I had to be very careful with all the bending when I was pregnant. I had regular massages to help.
Overall, I’m just so proud that we managed to lavish so many famous people with Punjabi hospitality, and I love that we got all these famous people to spill their guts in a really unusual way. It was wonderful.
