That Gaby Roslin Podcast: Reasons To Be Joyful - Sanjeev Bhaskar

Episode Date: March 1, 2021

In this episode Gaby chats to the brilliant comedian, actor and writer Sanjeev Bhaskar OBE. He talks about creating the ground-breaking TV show ‘Goodness Gracious Me’ with his equally talented wife Meera Syal, plus ‘The Kumars at No. 42’ and the importance of seeing representation on screen. They talk about the hugely successful drama ‘Unforgotten’ with Nicola Walker which is available on ITV, ITV Hub and the first three seasons on Netflix. He shares what it was like to film a bedroom scene with Anna Friel and Ray Winstone! Plus, his friendship with musician Nitin Sawhney, a shared love for Donny Osmond and an unmissable story of how the flip of a coin changed his life forever… Produced by Cameo Productions, music by Beth Macari.  Join the conversation on Instagram and Twitter @gabyroslin #thatgabyroslinpodcast For more information on the sponsor of this episode: Grass and Co. - Find your calm 25% OFF, plus free shipping at: www.grassandco.com/GABYUse discount code: GABY at checkout. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Thank you so much for tuning in to that Gabby Roslyn podcast. My guest on this episode is the incredibly talented and really very lovely Sanjeev Bascar OBE. He wrote and created the groundbreaking Goodness Gracious Me series on the BBC with his equally talented wife, Miros. Plus, of course, he's very well known for the Kumuz and has been starring on our film and TV screens now for 20 years. He can currently be seen in the fourth series of the hugely successful ITV drive. Unforgotten with Nicola Walker. What a brilliant double-act they make. We also talk about the importance of representation on screen.

Plus, he tells a story about something that happened when he was filming a bedroom scene with Anna Friel and Ray Winston. And we start our chat talking about Mr. Puppie Love himself, Donnie Osmond. Please can I ask you a favour? Would you mind, please, subscribing by pressing the subscribe or follow button on the show. And then if you wouldn't mind, rate and review on Apple Podcasts,

which is the purple app on your iPhone or iPad. You simply scroll down to the bottom of all of the episodes and you'll see the stars where you can tap to rate and press write a review. It would mean the world to us. Thank you so much. Sanjeev, you know what? I don't know where to start this.

Do we start with the fact that your wife and I are in love with the same man? And we, I mean, obviously you. Do we get it out in the open right at the very beginning? Hey, it's your show. You can do whatever you want. Do you know who I mean? I do.

Yeah. I can assume that you mean the big D. Yeah, I do. The big D. She's wrestled me to the ground for Donnie Osmond before on live television. She's wrestled Donnie to the ground. She pushed me aside at the audience with Donnie Osmond. What do we do?

I don't think I can get involved. I mean, it's kind of, you know, this goes through the two of you, like Brighton Rock. And so I think the safest place for me to stand is behind another Osmond. Which one are you going to choose? Well, I mean, there's a whole load, isn't there? So, I mean, there'd be like a wall, an Osmond wall. Oh, you're going to have the whole lot? Well, I want to protect myself, so yes.

How many times does Mira sing Donny Osmond songs around the house every day? It's quite often. It's quite often. So the last time we saw him was about 18 months ago. And where did you see him? We saw him in Vegas. What? What?

Yeah, the Donnie and Marie show in Vegas. It was great. I mean, it was such a great show. It was such a great show. And they're both so good, Donnie and Marie. I mean, they're just, you know, total professionals. But also, it felt like, I'd never been to Vegas before, but it felt like what a Vegas show should feel like. You know, there was music and there was dancing and there was kind of people sitting at round tables.

and, you know, stuff I'd seen on, you know, TV, really, or on film with people watching Elvis or Sinatra or Dean Martin or somebody like that. So it felt like a very old-fashioned Vegas show. Actually, I'm going to use the J-word. I'm jealous. I haven't seen Donnie perform for years. I mean, it's so funny hearing you say you go to Donnie. It shows how much you love your wife, which is quite wonderful.

Because if you go to your favourite playlists, it always is the clash and Monty Python and things like that. And then you've got Donnie Osmond. Yeah, Elvis and the Beatles. Yes. Yeah. Well, the thing is that also, I mean, he's such a lovely guy. I mean, the thing is, you know, his talent as an entertainer,

as a singer and an entertainer is undeniable. And he is, you know, a really lovely guy. And something that happened after us, so we went after it, it was Mira myself and our son, who was 13 at the time, I think. And, you know, there were a whole load of people who were, you know, lining up to meet him. And we, you know, we dutifully stood in line. And then he came to us. And he went straight over to our son.

And he said, okay, I want to tell you. He said, your mom is really cool. She's great. Your dad's a jerk. And, you know, which cracked my son up. And then he gave me a huge hug. And he's funny. He's witty.

And very self-aware, you know, given how big the Osmond's were. and how much of that diehard fandom of which, obviously, you are a part, that he has retained a sense of humility about it. And in fact, I met all of them when they last performed as a family. And that was here, that was in London. I think it was the O2 maybe. So I met the family afterwards as well. And in fact, when he was on the Kumar's the first time,

I think his parents came along, so I met them as well. And they were just really lovely, really lovely people. Do you know what I'm going to throw this all back at you in the nicest possible way? Because you just said about Donnie Osmond that he's funny, he's kind, he's a good man and he's an entertainer. I'm going to actually give you those as well about you because I think that's exactly what you are because you're just a really good bloke and you're funny and you're really lovely to spend time with and you're kind. So there we go. I'm sending it all the way back at you.

Well, that's very, very nice of you. But because I adore you as well, I have to tell you, none of it is true. It's all an act. It's all put on. You're a liar. I'm just a monster. Do you know, okay, everyone goes on about that you started out in marketing and then suddenly you were this star. It wasn't, I mean, you're creeping in to becoming the star that you are

and the household name, which is lovely. I think household name is something that you should embrace. I know people feel a little bit guilty about being called that. But going from marketing to where you are now, it wasn't overnight, was it? But somebody did spot you and go, ah, they'd be good. Yeah, I mean, I just got really and have remained incredibly lucky. And so, yeah, the marketing thing I did for a while.

And then knit in Sawney, who's just the most phenomenal, musician and composer. He and I were at university together. And, you know, we got together and we hit it off and we were friends and we said, why don't we put on something that's a mixture of comedy and music because it will, we will be unpredictable. No one's going to see two, you know, British Asian bloke's on a stage. And, you know, we can really mess with that kind of preconception, which we did.

You know, we did kind of, you know, I did sort of Indian characters. if you like, but we also then sang Valare in Italian and Nitten would then do a flamenco piece and then we do a blues thing and then I'd do some impressions and so it was, we were difficult to pin down and it was one of those

shows that we were doing years after we'd left university that a couple of producers came to see from what I understand on the flip of a coin because they saw a flyer for a little show that we were doing just in a studio space in

South London. And the name of the show was Popper Dom Preach. I love that. They took one look at that title and went, this is going to be awful, isn't it? So let's flip a coin because it's only an hour and a half. And we either go to see it or we'll get at the pub. And luckily, the coin landed our side up and they came to see it and then said,

we're thinking of doing a sketch show. We're from the BBC. And this is the material we're sort of looking for. Would you be interested? And that was, I mean, I've always thought of that as my life-changing moment, but when I really thought about it recently, it was meeting Knitin Sawney. That was the life-changing moment. If I hadn't met him, I don't think I would have certainly wouldn't have gone down this particular path.

I wanted to be involved in this industry creatively in some way from about four years old onwards. So in a way, my sort of struggle were the 30 years that I didn't or couldn't do it. but then just got, you know, incredibly fortunate. I can't emphasize how fortunate I've been, really. I mean, you know, personal life and work. A real sliding doors moment. I mean, that flip of a coin, that's extraordinary. I didn't know it was just a flip of a coin.

Yeah, I mean, I think that it was quite possible that Nittin and I would still kind of achieve something because we'd started performing and, you know, we had a little audience that was very loyal, a couple of hundred people that would kind of follow us around. And I just thought, well, you know, this could build into something. But I think if I hadn't met him, then I don't think any of it would have happened. How amazing.

And then, of course, you talk about Goodness Gracious Me. And that was groundbreaking. I mean, there were a lot of young Asian people now who still say, if it wasn't for Goodness Gracious Me and Kamar's at number 42, that they feel that they might not have made that, that step into it. So you've got a lot on your shoulders, which is a wonderful thing in a very good way. Well, I'm not taking the blame for any of them. It's, yeah, I mean, it's, you know, right place at the right time, I think. I think with goodness gracious me, I think five years earlier,

I don't think anyone would have commissioned it. And I think probably five years later, someone else would have done something like that. We just happen to be in the right place, the right time with the right people. And again, that's just a stroke of good fortune, really. Yes, because also it was good. You can't, you know, it was really funny and really good. I mean, it's been extraordinary and humbling at how embraced that show has remained. And I think that if there was one thing that those of us, you know, who were writing it and

creating it, that helped was, I think that we placed the comedy at the foreman. front rather than our politics. It would have been very easy to do it the other way around and say, right, let's find sketches that explain our politics. And we didn't. We said, look, it's got to be funny first. And if there's any kind of political message, and it was mainly small P political, which was the satire, I guess, then that came afterwards. So our primary focus was trying to be funny and trying to be entertaining. And if we made a point within it, then that was fine. I think this is the question about which is that, you know, you have to see it to be it. And I think that whether it's, you know, us as British Asians doing something on TV or whether it's, you know, strong women being confident and strong, whether it's people of a certain age who are being confident and out there in creating stuff, all of that, you know, can have an impact. And that's ultimately what, to me, representation and diversity means.

It's not just about colour of skin or culture. it's about everything else it's about gender it's about age it's about regions as well I think otherwise you know we regard we're almost hardwired to regard things as you know us and them and you go well those are their stories

and it's like the term chick flick you know it's kind of like okay well that's for women isn't it and you kind of go do you know if it's good it's for me as well yes therefore I think grew up not thinking that a story about women was somehow not for me, or a story based in Scotland about Scottish people was not for me. Because, you know, most of the films that we watch are not about us.

You know, they're about someone else. But it's the humanity within it and the universals that we connect with. And that is regardless of any of those things. Here, here to that. But there are, there will be lots of people, out there listening to this who have grown up over a laundrette who think that I spoke to a fantastic young actor yesterday

he's phenomenal Calvin Dember I really rate him he's extraordinary he's in life and he was saying that he never thought that somebody from Whitechapel who didn't have a penny to be able to go off to drama school or anything would ever make it because he'd never heard those stories so the more that those stories whoever it is

You know, the more that people hear those stories, that anything is possible for anybody. I really, I mean, I know it's a very, it's a sort of flippant easy thing to say, but I do want people to have those dreams and realize that they can happen. I think it's very, very important to have those dreams, actually. I mean, it's not that it translates necessarily into a profession, but I think that, you know, that one's imagination being engaged, engaged and pursuing that. And I think particularly creatively, because I think if you're going to be a good creative, then you kind of have to access good empathy, good communication and self-awareness,

which helps. And all three of those things will help you in whatever you're doing. You know, that's just essential. Those are just essential life skills. I mean, you need that with your children. And so, yeah, I think that it's very important to dream. And also the journey is everything. You know, the thing is you might set out with a particular dream in mind, but then you just learn and you're open to those other options and avenues that only reveal themselves by you taking a step on that journey. And that may lead you to, you know, where you need to be any other given time. So we saw you, first of all, in comedy roles and then you've done, I mean, I'm suddenly zipping to the most recent, Unforgotten, that you surprised a lot of people when you did that.

Yeah, I remember at the time when I got cast, I remember saying to my agent, I said, I think there'll be one of two reactions to me in this. It'll either be, I didn't know he could act, or it'll be, I told you he couldn't act. It'll be one or the other. And particularly the first series, you know, we were surrounded by such incredible actors.

I remember saying to Nicola Walker, when we did the read-through, or maybe just after the read-through, And there was Tom Courtney and Bernard Hill and Gemma Jones and Trevor Eve and all these amazing people who were there. And I said, this is incredible. And she said, yeah, I mean, it's just amazing kind of, you know, we're surrounded by them. And I said, you're one of them. I'm surrounded by all of yous.

And it was an extraordinary experience. And I, you know, I was trying to hang on, really. still am. And in fact, we're just... Really? Yeah, because I hadn't done anything like that before. So, you know, I did feel that I had to, you know, repay this huge, yet another slice of good fortune in being cast. And I just, it was like a drama lesson every day for me. I just watch these people. And the main difficulty was not in the middle of the scene just to start applauding. Like you're at the theatre or something.

They go, Bravo! Now, where were you on the night of the... And very often, you know, particularly with the interview scenes, because the guest actors were generally the suspects, we would do a scene with them when they had the bulk of it. And when they shouted cut, Nicol and I would just look at them and go, you're really good. You're really, really good.

Were you in awe of any of them? Were there those moments where you do, just thought, oh my God, I'm acting opposite so and so. I think the first series, and I think Tom Courtney, I think particularly, because I just always thought he was extraordinary. And then to be doing scenes with him was amazing. And each series, when those actors have come in, different actors each time have come in, you just kind of look at them and you go, boy, you're just really, really good.

And Tom was lovely as a person and is lovely as a person. And so, you know, you admire them in two different ways, really. You admire their skills in terms of their job, but you just admire them as a human being. It's a real privilege. Yeah, but hold on a minute. They're probably thinking the same of you, because you are superiors. No, they're not.

No, they are. No, they're saying the opposite. They haven't looked at you and said you're awful. They've said you're brilliant. No, they didn't. They went. I was all right. No.

You're not as good as me, one of them said. I won't, I won't say who. No, they didn't. No, they didn't really. That would have been funny, though. You've been handcuffed by Anna Friel, haven't you? You know, you just brought up probably the most stressful days filming I've ever had in my life. It was terrifying.

It was terrifying. So, yes, it was in a film called London Boulevard. And she had to, well, she had handcuffed me to a bed and was kind of making hay. I read it in the script and I kind of said to the director, so do you think he'd be in his pyjamas? And he said, no. Why would he be in his pajamas? I said, well, maybe a vest or something.

And I went, no. And I went, oh, okay. And I honestly, I had about two months before that scene and I just, you know, hit the gym, I had a personal trainer and then the day arrived. and I got in in the morning and it was like the second scene, second or third scene. And they said, do you want some breakfast? And I said, absolutely not. And then we got to lunchtime and they said, look, we haven't got to your scene. We'll do it after lunch.

Some lunch? And I went, no, just some water. That'd be fine. And they said, okay, it's the next scene. So, you know, you've got about half an hour or so. And I was kind of like, you know, doing sit-ups and, you know, press-ups and all this kind of stuff. And then they kind of said, okay, we've moved it on a bit, actually. They've moved another scene.

I went fine. Okay. And then we got to sort of six, seven o'clock dinner. They said dinner. I went, no. No, I don't. When are we going to do this scene? And they said, after dinner.

I'm going to do dinner. Okay, I'll be up next. Great. Right. Sit ups. Press up. Breathing in. How far can, how much, how long can I breathe in for?

That was the other thing. And still speak. It was all that stuff. And then it got to about. 10 o'clock and they said, we're not going to do it today. Oh, no! And I got in the car to come home and the guy said, you know, straight home. And I said, if you see a chip shop, let's just stop.

And I actually stopped and got a bag of chips. And then I thought, well, listen, I've got another two weeks of going to a personal trainer and all that stuff. And then we shot the scene. And Ray Winston was in the scene. and he used to come in at the end. Ray was so terrifying that I actually wrenched one of the handcuffs off the bed. What? Yeah, I mean there were cuts around my wrist.

He was terrifying. What meant it? Not him. You mean the character, not actually Ray. No, Ray. Ray was lovely. Yes. But Ray kind of, you know, five minutes before, Ray was saying to me, he was saying,

yeah, I'm going to go see West Ham. I'm going to go see West Ham. And they're not doing so well at the moment. And then the next minute we're in a scene, and he's kind of like scaring the bejesus out of me. And Ray said to me at one point, he said, he said, what I'm going to do? He said, I'm going to come over here.

I'm going to talk a bit of flannel. All right. And then I'll walk over to the bed, right? And I'll throw the bed clothes off you. And I said, will you? And he said, yeah. And then he went in, he said, what's matter?

You're wearing knicknakes on you? I said, yes, I am wearing knick-knacks. Thank you. When you look at it back, are you pleased of all the hard work that you went through and no food for a day? I haven't watched it back, to be honest. Really? Can I tell you to you?

Just reminded me, the most embarrassing thing about that scene was that if you're handcuffed to a bed, so you can imagine it's a kind of iron sort of bedposted bed. Yes. And so I'm kind of, you know, linked to the, you know, the bar. at the back was that I would slip down the bed and then I couldn't get myself back up. So I'd be kind of too low and then two kind of like burly grips had to come over and hoik me back into position every time.

That was the most embarrassing thing. There you go. Oh, I love things like that. My other favourite story that I, when I was doing my deep dive into Sanji Vasca, was the man who became a hamster after he died. Oh, gosh. That story is just brilliant. I mean, you told it years and years ago.

What was the story? Well, very well remembered. It was, yeah, a friend of the families, so my parents' friends, who had, I think he had cancer, I think. Oh, see, now we shouldn't laugh. Well, no, do you know what? Life is a mixture of the two.

you know it's not exclusive life does not split into exclusively tragic and comic and this is you know my illustration of it and he had been given the last rights on a number of occasions but had survived 10 years beyond that you know he was an extraordinary survivor and eventually when he passed away there was a gathering at his house in east london and all the women folk were in one room and all the menfolk were in the other and even though I was quite young I was kind of stuck in with the menfolk and this family friend had had a lot of kind of experimental treatments towards the end of his life and as there was this kind of you know revered silence in the room one of the old men in there said you know he was a great man but in the end he just became a hamster and I said

What? I said, I think the term you're looking for is used as a guinea pig. Oh. And somebody said, yes, that's it. He was a guinea pig. I said, no, he wasn't, no, it's used as is that it's not become. And the room then split into two factions. There was a guinea pig faction and a hamster faction.

And they all started arguing with each of these. No, it's hamster. No, it's a guinea big. I'm telling you his guinea big. How can it be guinea big? What is a guinea big? And how dare you say big? It's not a pig.

It's little... And they got very personal. I remember at one point somebody said to one of the other guys across the faction. He said, when I came to this country, you never helped me. You know, it just kind of went off topic at that point and just got bit personal. Oh, my God, yes. The oldest man there just said, yes, but he was, we can agree, he was a great man. And they all agreed.

He was great man, great man. And then somebody just said, and in the end, he became a guinea, big and I just had to leave the room and I kind of walked into the next room where the women were laughing and I just got dirty looks from all of them so yeah that was that was the guinea pig hamster story do you know I but I laugh at times like that I mean I I do believe in the whole reason that that we decided to do this podcast is because I think laughter is the best medicine and what makes you properly laugh I know you love laurel and hardy and and Python and of course you were in spam a lot as well, but what makes you really go full?

Things like that, those moments that you shouldn't laugh. Yeah, I mean, I think that's, it's very difficult to kind of pin down what makes you laugh. I think that I'm, I think if there's anything, I'm open to laughing. And I think the other thing, thinking back about, you know, just my life so far up to this point has been, I, from very young, I could see the ridiculous. You know, most things take into their extreme. You know, they can become horrible and they can become frightening. And then they become ridiculous.

And I think that with, you know, with stuff, you know, like racism and stuff like that that I might have encountered when I was a kid, I think I could go to the ridiculous fairly quickly. And I think that, and it was by default, not by design, but I think that's kind of held me in pretty good stead. It's kept me in a fairly healthy place. In what sort of way? If one was to explain it to an alien and say, I don't think that person is capable because that person is a woman. You know, an alien would go, what? That's the only basis? Or that person, I don't think is capable because that person has dark skin. And you'd go, that's just ridiculous. And so you can take it to an extremely ridiculous place in your head fairly quickly. In terms of me being a twit,

I remember when I was about eight, ten, something like that, you know, the desperation to fit in and just be normal and average and be a part of something. I thought, you know, my name is not the most difficult name that I've ever encountered. And yet people always had difficulty with it. And I remember I did a milk round as a Saturday job. And I remember the milkman said to me on the first Saturday morning. And he said, so what's your name? And I said, Sanjeev. And he said, what? I said, Sanjeev. And he said, Sam what? And I said, Sanj, you can call me Sanj, if that's he's Sanj. And he went, hey? I said, Sanj. And he went, I'm just going to call you Sam. And I said, all right, I'm just going to call you Horace.

Wow, good for you. And he said, it's not my name. And I said, so? I said, if we're starting with not our names, it's kind of like, because it was ridiculous. And but when I was about eight or ten trying to fit in, I remember thinking, you know, I remember the swimming pool, actually, local swimming baths. And the kids I didn't know, and one of them said, what's your name? And I said, it's Steve.

and they went Steve and I said yeah and they went oh Steve and I thought okay good and then they were shouting Steve and obviously I didn't turn around and they just thought I was some arrogant little get called Steve

yeah but we all do it I did it because I was embarrassed of my name because I never stopped talking and as you can tell and everyone just go oh Gabby oh and you sound like yes your name and I was so embarrassed because there were no other Gabby's so I did the same thing

I remember being about 12 and somebody we were with these people I didn't know. I was desperately shy, always very, very shy. And I just remember, they say, what's your name? I was Gabby. They went, what? Gabby? Does that mean you talk a lot? I said, no, Kirsty. They said, oh, fine. And then they just carried on. And then I thought, about 20 minutes later, I thought, that's really stupid. So when they called me Kirsty, I said, I don't know why you thought, I said, Kirsty, I said, Gabby. And then they laughed at me and I went. And I thought, what did I do that for? And it's funny how we just, all of us, no matter what, like you said,

no matter what color, no matter what religion, no matter what sexuality, there's a time that you want to just fit in. Especially if you're a shy person, you just want to fit. Yeah, you do. Well, you want to feel that you're part of something. And if you're, if you feel excluded from whatever that part is, and you don't know as a kid, then, you know, you either kind of simper or you try to adapt in some sort of way. And although I'm now thinking, you and I should do the Kirstie instead. I could see it now, yes, and we should find out who everybody's fake names were when they were teenagers. And what that fake history would then be? You know, what would Kirsty have done? What

had had said? So what happened to, what happened to Steve? I think, I think Steve, I think Steve grew up to be a minicab driver. Yeah, Kirsty was a secretary. And there's nothing wrong with being a minicab driver or a secretary. Nothing wrong with that at all. Absolutely. No, that's just what happened to Steve and Kirsty. But also you talked about shyness. So Mira's talked about shine. I have to say, we must just, the other thing about Mira, not just Donnie Osmond, and not just that she's your wonderful wife, but many, many, many, many years ago, she and I did a show together for Radio 4, a comedy panel show. It must be 25, 30, I don't know, years ago. And she gave me, I always reminds her of this, she gave me a bindi that was on her head, on her forehead. And I kept

saying, that's so pretty, that's so pretty. And at the end of the show she gave it to me she said never lose this this will bring you luck and i've told you before i still have it well have it on my on my plastic um uh card holder for my equity card and i still have it i've never i she told me i wasn't couldn't lose it because it was for good luck and it was it's red and it's got little gold bits on it i've still got it well that's she's going to be so chuffed when i tell her that that's really lovely it actually makes me over it slightly makes me over emotional thinking about it there are a few things things that you just, I don't know what it just meant so much. I sort of put it in my hand.

I was overwhelmed that she'd taken it off her forehead and gave it to me. Well, you know, the thing is, one of the advantages I think that we have is that, you know, within our line of work, it just so happens that we get to meet a range of people who are, you know, creative and expressive. And the one thing that is joyous, I think more joyous than anything else for me, certainly. is that you just find people that you connect with. And that is, you know, in most lines of work, that is trickier because there isn't the turnover of people that you might meet in what we do. And so, you know, when I worked in an office, it was the same people in the office I worked with for, you know, two years, three years, four years, whatever. And, you know, it was nine to five and then you went home and then you went back to the office. And no doubt you could find connections with those people. But it is such a privilege. to kind of meet, you know, over time, you know, people for whom communicating is a passion in some way. And that's the thing. You kind of, you know, you might meet someone once on a panel show 25 years ago,

and do you remember a small thing, a small connection? Yeah, yeah, but that is a problem. Going back to the shyness and the awkwardness, and it's amazing that the amount of people that I've spoken to over the years when I've interviewed people, And through this podcast, you know, Robert Williams talked about his shyness. Dame Judy Dench did Celia Imrey. You know, everybody's talking about how incredibly sort of nervous is the wrong word, shy and not quite, I suppose it comes back to that name thing as well.

There's that shyness and yet something, I mean, you're now, if you look yourself up, which you can because it's only nice things written about you. But if you look yourself up, it's always that you're an entertainer, actor, a writer, a musician. Weren't you number one for comic relief? We were with Gareth Gates, yeah, Spirit in the Sky. Yes. Yeah.

Oh my word. Number one for three weeks. So all of those things, that little lad who was wanted to fit in called Steve, that now looking at it all, it's wonderful. Isn't it glorious and wonderful? Do you know what? I was talking to my parents a day before yesterday. and this came up and this is the whole journey thing.

And I said to my mom, I said, do you remember the posters I had on my wall? And she could remember some of them. And I said, you know, I had a poster of kind of James Bond and I had Clint Eastwood and James Dean and Elvis and the Beatles and Python. And then loads of old postcard size pictures of Carrie Grant and Catherine Hepburn and the Marx brothers, Lauren and Hardy and Charlie Chaplin. And, you know, anything that I was kind of vaguely into, you know, pinned it up. up on my wall. And then kind of into the early 80s, there was, you know, there was the clash

and there was, who else did I have? The specials, Elvis Costello. So I had all these kind of like little pictures and posters up in my bedroom wall. And I was 14, 14, 15. And I said to my mom, I sometimes think about how many of those people,

A, I've met. And B, I've become friends with. And I said, it blows my 14-year-old's mind. Because if anyone had said to me at 14, do you know, these people, you're going to be friends with some of them. I would have gone just ridiculous. Shut up. You'll meet some of them at least. No.

Of course I won't. You know, these people live in that world. I live in this world. And I find that incredibly humbling. That, you know, that my 14-year-old self, I can turn around to my 14-year-old self and go, you won't believe what's in store for you. Yes, there's going to be some really bumpy moments and some really awful and horrible moments,

but you won't believe what's coming up after that. And that's an extraordinary feeling. Do you say that to your son? He's 15, 15 is he? He's nearly 15, yeah. So he's that age? So would you say that to him? I do say that to him.

And I kind of say to him, look, you know, the two things. One is because obviously he's met proper famous people. people through us. And he went through a stage with his friends and his age group where they, where the word famous became, you know, the be all and end all. And he, and I'd say to him, you know, about eight or nine, you know, have you thought about what you might want to be? And he said, famous. And I said, famous doing what? And he went just famous. And I said, Hitler? And he went, no. And I said, well, he's very well known.

famous for what? And secondly, I'd go, okay, what have all these people got in common that we, that are friends of ours? And what have they got in common with members of our family and friends who aren't in this profession? And ultimately, you know, drive them towards, well, they're really nice and they're kind and generous. And I go, that's, that's it. That's it. The other stuff is a skill. And you can admire that.

It's kind of getting him to focus on that as well. but also just going, look, you know, it is a journey and it is a trip. And actually the one thing that you can be throughout any stage of it, whether you're up, down, feel that you're successful or not successful, is compassionate and kind and humorous. Here, here. It's the one thing that you can carry. And I think I'm hoping that, you know, if those are embedded,

then those are the things that will. I remember saying to him actually, this is last year. I think we were in a conversation, I was driving somewhere. And I said, do you know, a sense of humor can save your life? And he said, no, it can't. And I said, it can't. And I said, do you know what? It can head off stress.

It can head off, you know, then having a stroke or something like that. I said, so it's really important. I said, sense of humor about yourself primarily, but about the world around you. And then I tell him to kind of, you know, clean his room because he hasn't done it. And what, you expect me to pick up the dishes as well? You can't pick up the dish. And so just putting it in the sink is doing me a favour. Is it?

There's dishwasher next door. You couldn't put it in that. Yep. Yeah, I have teenagers too. I know exactly that routine. Sanjiv, what's so wonderful is that you have exactly, I really mean it, the same philosophy in life. I think kindness is the key and I think laughter is everything.

And I think that's how we get through. And that's what you do bring. You really do. And whether you like to take a compliment or not, I'm saying to you, I think you are one darn fabulous. man, full of kindness, compassion and laughter. And you share the laughter. So thank you and thank you for being on this. I'm so thrilled you were able to make it. So thank you very much. That's very sweet. And I reflect all that back at you. Bless you. Thank you so much for listening. Coming up on the next

episode, we have something enormous for you. We have the line of duty special. Yes, I'm going to be talking to Vicki McClure, Martin Comston and Adrian Dunbar, together talking line of duty and so much more. That Gabby Rawson podcast is proudly produced by Cameo Productions. Music by Beth McCari. Please press the subscribe button and it will come straight to your phone on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you choose to listen. Also please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts.