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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Interviews by Alexi Duggins

‘Eddie Izzard was too terrified to come on!’ How we made The Kumars at No 42

Eddie Izzard Meera Syal Sanjeev Bhaskar Donny Osmond Tom Jones
‘We didn’t prep the guests – we had no idea what they would say or do’ … the Kumars (Vincent Ebrahim, Indira Joshi and Meera Syal) with Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen.
‘We didn’t prep the guests – we had no idea what they would say or do’ … the Kumars (Vincent Ebrahim, Indira Joshi and Meera Syal) with Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen. Photograph: Brian Ritchie/BBC

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.”

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