Meera Syal at the Purcell Room

This evening we had the distinct pleasure of listening to Meera Syal being interviewed about her career as part of the 'National Treasures' series at the Purcell Room in the Queen Elizabeth Hall on the Southbank. She was interviewed in a very intelligent and no-frills way by writer and broadcaster Bidisha, which was such a relief and nice to have a change from the usually self-centred interviewers at these types of things. Anyway, it was all about Meera.

Meera is a delight to listen to, witty and serious by turns, with some belly laugh stories and some quirky observations. She's an excellent speaker and not at all like the actors and famous people who seem to need to say 'um' or 'err' every other word to make it look like they're thinking - Meera opens her mouth, goes for it and hits the target every time. Sometimes in her normal voice, sometimes with her Wolverhampton accent and sometimes in the stereotypical British Indian accent. Switching between them all at will and carrying us along with her narrative.

She told us about growing up in a small mining village in the Black Country, going to university and planning to train as a teacher since she thought her acting ambitions were a pipe-dream until she's offered a job and Equity card, lots of theatre work in the '80s, how she met the others in the 'Goodness Gracious Me' ensemble and went on to do the 'The Kumars'. It was a fascinating romp through her career - a play here, wrote a book there, 'Bollywood Dreams' (that was mentioned but not elaborated on - I walked past that theatre every day for over two years but, sadly, didn't see the show), multi-award winning TV series, wrote a film then wrote another one .... it's all there. And, looking at it collectively, what an achievement! She's done so much and such a wide variety of stuff - off the top of my head I can't think of anyone else who's done the variety of stuff she's done and had the success at her age. But... There's always a but.

Circling in the background but never quite asked was the question, 'Why aren't you bigger?' in terms of more famous or more influential. Meera contextualised it for us a few times in that she is part of the first generation of British Indians born here of immigrant parents and as such had no role models, no-one to look at and think, 'I could do that'. She sounded deeply proud of her parents, leaving the Punjab for the English Midlands to start a new life, and she seemed conscious of having to make her own way with no-one having gone before her to show her the way. She mentioned that at university she could put on shows every week but when she looked at the theatre and television she couldn't see anyone like herself. It was interesting that she never referred to herself as Indian or British Asian or any of the other labels, but she did say 'people like me' a lot, and in a way, that's exactly the right thing to say since she's not a stereotype.

In discussion there were a few comments about the number of hoops her and the 'Goodness Gracious Me' gang had to jump through before they were allowed a TV series. After that phenomenally successful series, she and Sanjiv had to jump through all the hoops again to get 'The Kumars' on telly. Other writers/actors of successful programmes are often nurtured and offered new opportunities but not Meera and co. She said she didn't put it down to racism, more down to lack of imagination about what to do next with the gang. That's probably quite generous of her. What struck home for me was when she mentioned that around 80% of her work on radio - an anonymous media that works solely on voice - was playing an Indian woman. That's ridiculous.

After the interview there was an opportunity for some Q&A with the audience and, for a change. we had some interesting questions that took Meera down different routes to the main interview. Chris asked her about 'Rafta Rafta' that she starred in at the National Theatre a few years ago and was excellent in, and learned that it's been made into a film due to be released next year. She'd love to be at the National Theatre but would prefer it not to be in another 'Asian' play. She can, after all, play a load of other roles. We learned about her new book, also due out next year. She's in 'The Killing of Sister George; later this year and will play Beatrice in 'Much Ado About Nothing' next year - next year is looking busy for Meera.

I wracked my brains to try to think of an interesting question if the opportunity arose, gave up and decided I'd ask if Meera had been a punk in the 70s (she's a year younger than me so is the right age). I didn't get the chance.

After the talk Meera was doing a signing so we both bought books to be signed (I already have Meera's books, so there's now a spare one for Oxfam). It was nice to meet Meera and have a brief chat. I told her I'd loved her 'Shirley Valentine' and that she made me cry, we talked about why she didn't have a proper website, she mentioned Twitter and I asked if she was on and she said 'no' and finished with seeing her in the autumn in 'Sister George'. She was lovely and very patient with random fans. But I now have an autographed book and she let me take a photo for this blog. And here she is...


Thank you very much, Meera, for a very interesting evening. I'm looking forward to the play, the book and the film and whatever else you decide to spring on us. I *like* you being a National Treasure - because you are!