Meera Syal found returning to ‘Goodness Gracious Me’ like "putting on a pair of comfortable slippers".
The hit BBC Two sketch show – which made stars of Meera, Sanjeev Bhaskar and Nina Wadia – will return for a one-off special later this month to celebrate the channel’s 50th year on air, and Meera felt as though no time had passed when the cast reunited.
She said: "It did feel like putting on an old pair of comfortable slippers, getting back together with everybody."
‘Goodness Gracious Me’ aired for five years from 1996 to 2001 and the stars feel the show is still relevant as no other show has filled its role in entertaining British-Asian audiences.
Meera said: "There has been nothing else like it since, so we didn’t feel that there was loads of stuff we had to worry had come in between that we might repeat."
Sanjeev added: "Sketch comedy over the last 10 years has gone very surreal. You can write a sketch about a guy who’s turning into a moose, who has oven mitts for hands. Our stuff was always reflecting society, as well as being funny and satirical. I don’t think there’s been anything quite like that on TV [since]."
There’ll be plenty of laughs when the hit show returns, and there may even be enough footage for another episode as the stars wrote and filmed more sketches than they needed.
Sanjeev told ITV’s ‘Lorraine’: "It’s a half-hour show and we had just short of an hour’s material that we shot. Once we got together and started writing, we found that the ideas flowed."
The one-off special of ‘Goodness Gracious Me’ airs on BBC Two on Monday 26 May.
Meera Syal: Goodness Gracious Me still relevant
