For a new Radio 4 chat show next year

Meera Syal is to revive her alter-ego Granny Kumar for a new Radio 4 series.

The comedian will front an all-female chat show as the  pensioner, starting in February. In each show Syal’s creation  will be joined by with her great-granddaughter Maya (Ambreen Razia) and ’frenemy’ Geeta (Harvey Virdi).

Guests lined up for Gossip And Goddesses with Granny Kumar include Samira Ahmed, actress Thandie Newton, musician Beverley Knight, and space scientist Maggie Aderin-Pocock.

Granny Kumar made her debut as part of The Kumars at Number 42 on BBC Two in 2001. The format which involved guests arriving at a fiction British-Indian family home, ran for six series on the BBC, moving to BBC One in 2005. It was then revived for a single series by Sky One in 2013. 

Gossip and Goddesses with Granny Kumar launches on  February 10, Radio 4 announced today as part of a new season line-up. 

Also in the schedules is  Beta Female, a new sitcom from writer Amna Saleem and starring Kiran Sonia Sawar as Amna, a young woman trying to find her place in the world. 

A series of four episodes was commissioned following a pilot which aired in the summer of 2019. The trial episode will be repeated next Tuesday at 6.30pm, followed by the new instalments in subsequent weeks.

Radio 4 also confirmed its new series of stand-up specials, most of which have previously been reported by Chortle, starting at 7.15pm this Sunday with a show from Joz Norris.

The rest of the line-up comprises Kiri Pritchard-McLean, Imran Yusuf, Jayde Adams, Elvis McGonagall and Gemma Arrowsmith.

Published: 30 Dec 2020