Dame Meera Syal has shared a rare comment on her marriage to Sanjeev Bhaskar, admitting it was “weird” to marry the man who played her on-screen grandson.
When she was 40, Syal, now 65, donned a wig and fake teeth to play the elderly Sushil ‘Ummi’ Kumar in BBC comedy show The Kumars At No 42, centred on the character’s chat show presenter grandson, played by Bhaskar.
Syal and Bhaskar, 62, had collaborated on the British Asian sitcom Goodness Gracious Me in the 1990s before working together on The Kumars at No. 42, which premiered in 2001.
They realised there was something more to their friendship during a 23-hour flight to Australia in 2003, and married, welcoming their son two years later.
But Syal has reflected on the fact that her husband played her grandson on the show, telling Dish from Waitrose podcast: “I mean, it was a bit weird that the man I would go on to marry was playing my grandson. But let’s move on swiftly from that.”
Syal said she was cast as the family’s grandmother because “the character needed a lot of improvisational skills”, and the actors auditioning for the role were struggling to encapsulate what was required.
The show ended in 2006 and was so successful that they released a cover of “Spirit in the Sky” with Pop Idol runner-up Gareth Gates for Comic Relief.
Unforgotten actor Bhaskar reflected on the flight that led to their relationship in 2022, telling The Guardian: “We were on such a high – we were being flown first class to promote Goodness Gracious Me, which had been a hit over there; Meera was releasing her film Anita & Me; and we had just found out that we’d gotten to No 1 on the UK chart with our Comic Relief single with Gareth Gates.
“The thing with 23 hours in someone’s company is that you get the raw version of each other – especially me, since I can’t sleep on a plane. I had no filter and Meera was very nice about it. It was an intense period, but that intensity made us both realise that we wanted to hang out with each other more.”
Before Bhaskar, Syal was married to journalist Shekhar Bhatia from 1989 to 2002 in a ceremony she previously said was “semi-arranged”.
“I mean, I chose him, we’re still really good friends and I don’t regret it because we had some good years and an amazing daughter,” she told The Guardian in 2015. Their daughter is theatre director Milli Bhatia.
Syal was given a damehood for her services to literature, drama and charity in 2025.
Read MoreTop Gear being revived is a terrible decision by the BBC – it needs to be axed now
BBC confirms return of Top Gear four years after Freddie Flintoff crash
New Strictly host reveals holiday derailed after son rushed to A&E