Friday Night Dinner star Tamsin Greig has said that, in hindsight, she “probably shouldn’t” have accepted her role in the Channel 4 sitcom.
Tamsin appeared in all six seasons of the hit comedy as Jackie Goodman, the matriarch of a Jewish family who sit down for Shabbat dinner together every week.
However, Tamsin – a practising Christian, who has Jewish heritage – has admitted that she now has doubts about whether she should ever have played the character.
“I think, given our sensitivity today about these issues, I probably shouldn’t have been in that show,” she told the Telegraph.
“We are much more conscious today than we were when that show was first aired.”
Tamsin added: “Cleopatra has long been on my list of roles to play but I have to step back from that now, because Cleopatra needs to be played by someone who looks like they may have come from that area of the world.
“That’s absolutely right. But I’ll keep Lady Macbeth on the list.”
Friday Night Dinner debuted in 2011, and soon garnered a loyal following, as well as nominations at the TV Baftas and British Comedy Awards.
Earlier this year, cast member Paul Ritter died at the age of 54, after which it was confirmed the show would not be returning.
Paying tribute at the time, Tamsin wrote in The Guardian: “I first saw Paul on stage in Alan Ayckbourn’s Norman Conquests trilogy at the Old Vic in 2008. I couldn’t take my eyes off him.
“When I was told that they wanted him to play Martin Goodman in the pilot episode of Friday Night Dinner, I said: ‘You get him and I’m in.’
“Not only did Paul deliver in the role, he far surpassed everyone’s expectations – surprising, versatile, oddball, rooted in the clearest truth and always utterly, heart-stoppingly hilarious.”
