Sanjeev Bhaskar

Off Menu with Ed Gamble and James Acaster

Hosts Ed Gamble and James Acaster welcome British comedy legend Sanjeev Bhaskar to the Dream Restaurant for a nostalgic journey. The episode

Key takeaways

• Sanjeev Bhaskar is starring in the new BBC series The Split Up, a spin-off of The Split.
• The cast of The Split Up includes Ritu Arya, Lenny Henry, Mawaan Rizwan, and Sindhu V.

Main topics

• Sanjeev Bhaskar's upcoming TV projects
• Nostalgic British television advertisements

Notable quotes

National Trez. Trez. Is that... National Trez.

Conclusion

A heartwarming and humorous exploration of how food and nostalgia conn

Transcript preview

Speaker 3 (0:13) Welcome to the Off Menu Podcast, taking the lettuce leaves of conversation, adding the croutons of friendship, the Caesar dressing of humour, and, if you so fancy, the chicken of chat. That Speaker 4 (0:30) is Ed Gamble, my name is James Acaster, together we own a dream restaurant Speaker 3 (0:32) every single week. Speaker 4 (0:35) We invite our guests and ask them their favourite ever start and main course dessert, side dish and drink, not in that order. And this week, our guest is Sanjeev Bhaskar. Speaker 4 (0:44) National Trez. Trez. Is that... National Trez. Speaker 3 (0:49) National Trez, of course, Sanjeev Bhaskar. What a legend. Speaker 4 (0:53) Very excited to have Sanjeev in. We've had Mirasail on the podcast. So this is like the second Goodness Gracious Me and Kumars alum that we've had on. Both big shows for us growing up. Huge shows for us growing up. I think our generation of comedians like Goodness Gracious Me and the Kumars is like... Just on the Mount Rushmore. Speaker 3 (1:16) Totally. And Sanjeev, of course, is now an amazing actor in many other things. He's Speaker 4 (1:21) been in films. He's done loads of TV. He was on Taskmaster, of course. Of course. And he's going to be in The Split Up, which is out later this month, on BBC One and iPlayer, of course. Created by Abbey Morgan. Ritu Arya's in it. Also friends of the podcast, Lenny Henry, Mawan Rizwan, Sindhu V. Yes. So there's a lot of great cast members in it. Sanjeev is the lead as well, so we'll be asking him more about that. The Speaker 3 (1:48) Split Up is a spin-off in the same universe as The Split with Nicola Walker and Speaker 4 (1:54) Stephen Mangan. But not in the same universe as Split. No. The film where James McAvoy has multiple personalities and kidnaps those girls. But Speaker 3 (2:02) that is in the same universe as Unbreakable and Glass. And Speaker 4 (2:07) Glass, of course. And Old. Speaker 4 (2:11) That's not been confirmed, but it probably is in the same universe as old, where they all go old on the beach. They turn really old on the beach, really quick. Really too quickly. It's not just like people are on Speaker 3 (2:25) the beach for five years and they're five years older. Speaker 4 (2:27) No, it's a beach that makes you old really quick. And it turns out it was a big farmer. As in Speaker 3 (2:32) pharmaceuticals? Speaker 4 (2:33) Yes, not the Jolly Green Giant, who could also be seen as a big farmer. Yes. The Jolly Green Giant. It's the biggest farm of them all. Here's the thing, though. We love Sanjeev, but if he says a secret ingredient which we deem to be unacceptable, we will have Speaker 3 (2:47) to kick him out of the Dream restaurant. I don't want to do that Speaker 4 (2:49) today. I don't want to do that. No. And that is why the secret ingredient is... Banana split. The split up. It's called the split up, so we chose a banana split. It's Speaker 3 (2:57) not Speaker 4 (2:57) about banana splits, though. We love banana splits. It's about, like, the high-profile divorce circuit in Manchester. And also, like... It's not about banana splits. This isn't, like... Sometimes the secret ingredient is just linked to something about the guest. In this case, the show that Sanjeev's about to appear on. But we love banana splits, obviously. They're delicious. They're one of the best foods. I couldn't Speaker 3 (3:19) tell you the last time I had one, though. Speaker 4 (3:21) No, I can tell you the first time I had one. Because it was incredible. I spoke about it on the podcast before. I genuinely think it was the length of my arm, the banana split. And so much ice cream. I was so proud that I finished it. Absolutely delicious. I wish I could have those again at a meal with my cousins. I remember my cousins being there. Speaker 3 (3:44) You'd have to really go some distance to find a banana split the length of your arm now. It's a long arm. It's a long arm. But I would love a banana split as long as that. Would you want it to be one banana though? Speaker 4 (3:57) No, I'd want it to be a bunch of different bananas. And then loads of really big scoops of ice cream, each one a Speaker 3 (4:03) different flavour. Go Speaker 4 (4:05) heavy on the cream, but really good cream. Just like really squirty cream, but high quality. High quality squirt. And then loads of sauce, like a hot fudge in there. And I want chopped nuts on the top. I want some sprinkles, just, you know. M &Ms? Maybe crush up some M &Ms. Peanut M &Ms. Peanut, regular, and peanut butter M &Ms. Put them in a blender and put those over the banana split. So Speaker 3 (4:34) if Sanji says that, he's out. Speaker 4 (4:36) Yeah. Speaker 3 (4:37) I'm on tour next year at Gamble Fresh Hell. Speaker 4 (4:39) Oh, great. Speaker 3 (4:40) I mean, Speaker 4 (4:42) not much going on over here. This is the Off Menu Menu of Speaker 3 (4:45) Sanji Speaker 4 (4:46) Bhaskar! Speaker 2 (4:57) That was a good clap. Thank you. I was really proud of that clap. It was. It was clean. Sometimes you get that double thing sometimes. Yeah, no, it felt like Speaker 3 (5:06) I had that little pocket of air. I think that's the key to a good clap. Is this going to be the first episode where we start with the clap? Maybe. We keep the clap in? Yeah, because normally I'll do like, welcome Sanjeev to the dream restaurant. Yeah. Welcome Speaker 4 (5:18) Sanjeev Bhaskar to the dream restaurant, but it's been here for some time. That's normally how we start. Yeah, Speaker 3 (5:23) but we're starting with the clap this time. Yeah. I mean, you can have both, obviously. Yeah, there's options. There's options there. The Speaker 4 (5:29) listeners won't know that normally it starts with a clap, that Ben asks one of us to do a clap so he syncs up all the cameras because now he's a YouTuber. We're not. Yeah, we're not. Speaker 3 (5:39) He Speaker 4 (5:39) puts us on YouTube. Speaker 2 (5:40) Oh, he puts you on YouTube. Speaker 4 (5:42) He's a YouTuber. How Speaker 3 (5:43) do you feel about it? Are Speaker 2 (5:45) you a YouTube watcher, Sanjeev? Speaker 3 (5:46) Yeah, I Speaker 2 (5:47) dip into YouTube, yeah. Speaker 3 (5:49) What's your algorithm? What sort of things get thrown up for you quite a lot? Speaker 2 (5:53) Old adverts. Yeah. From the 70s and 80s. The usual kind of cat and other animal mishaps come up quite a bit. It's weirder on my Instagram, actually, because that algorithm works really quickly. So at the moment, for some reason, I'm getting a lot of girl fights. I think I watched one and so it's giving me loads of kind of girl fights from around the world. Speaker 1 (6:19) Yeah, Speaker 2 (6:20) yeah. Global. Global girl fights. It's weirdly kind of intriguing because you're going to go do kind of, you know, girls in Asia fight differently to girls in America. Are there different styles? Yeah. Yeah. Speaker 4 (6:29) It must be weird when you're watching your old adverts on YouTube and it's getting interrupted by current adverts as well. Speaker 2 (6:35) Yeah, it is. Well, also the old adverts, they tend to be the good old ones. Yeah. No one puts Speaker 4 (6:40) up, Speaker 2 (6:40) you Speaker 4 (6:40) know. Some insurance advert from Speaker 2 (6:42) 1978. But whether it's car adverts particularly, they were just made in a different way then. Speaker 4 (6:51) Who were the two, a dad and a daughter? What were they called? Nicole and Papa. Oh, Speaker 2 (6:57) Nicole Speaker 4 (6:57) and Papa. Papa and Nicole. That was a huge thing. A whole running story. Thierry Speaker 2 (7:01) Henry, wasn't it? Thierry Henry, yeah. Henry got involved. Speaker 3 (7:04) Yeah. He was Papa, I think. Well, he was in those adverts, yeah. Speaker 2 (7:08) Yeah, yeah, yeah. Was Speaker 3 (7:09) it Renault Clio? Speaker 4 (7:10) Yeah. I Speaker 3 (7:11) think it was a good Speaker 2 (7:12) recall, Speaker 4 (7:12) yeah. So were they a couple, or was it a dad and a daughter? Speaker 2 (7:16) Well, Papa kind of infers a particular relationship. I mean, there are others where that may not be the case, but that's a bit more kind of twisted. Yeah, I think it was dad and daughter back Speaker 3 (7:27) then, because this was a long time ago. Speaker 4 (7:28) Now there's other insinuations, right? Yeah. Speaker 3 (7:32) But now, yeah, it was back in the good Speaker 4 (7:35) old days when Papa only meant father. And they would just say each other's names is what I remember. They would just say Nicole Papa all Speaker 2 (7:43) the time. Yeah, that's right. Nobody said Renault Clio at any point at all. Speaker 3 (7:48) Because as we're recording this, yesterday was the eclipse, the big eclipse. Yeah, Speaker 2 (7:52) I Speaker 3 (7:52) looked at it. Did you? I Speaker 2 (7:54) looked Speaker 4 (7:55) at Speaker 3 (7:55) it. You Speaker 2 (7:55) straight Speaker 4 (7:55) at it. Straight Speaker 2 (7:56) at it. I looked Speaker 4 (7:56) out my window. I think it frazzed my eyes. I looked dead at her. I mean, that does Speaker 2 (8:01) explain quite a bit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It saves me Speaker 4 (8:04) asking half a dozen questions. I went to bed with one ear ringing. Did you? I Speaker 2 (8:09) think Speaker 4 (8:09) it's because I looked at the eclipse. Speaker 2 (8:10) But there was a meteor shower as Speaker 4 (8:12) well. I didn't see that. Speaker 2 (8:13) Was there? Yeah, I think from 1am till 4 or something. Well, Speaker 3 (8:17) he's not seeing that. He's frowned his eyes. I frowned my eyes. My ear was ringing. You were seeing them at 8 o'clock? Yeah, yeah. But because of the whole eclipse business... And the advert that was going around in my head all day yesterday was full moon, half moon, total eclipse, the Jaffa Cake advert. Speaker 2 (8:34) Oh, yes. Speaker 3 (8:34) Yeah. Very Speaker 2 (8:35) good. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, Speaker 3 (8:36) I remember that. And I just kept saying it over and over again to the extent my wife was like, you've just got to shut up now. Oh, you said it out loud? Oh, all the time, yeah. Oh, okay. Yeah, just out loud, full moon, half moon, total eclipse. We didn't have any Jaffa Cakes in, but I got a baby bell out the fridge, so I did it. I performed the advert. Speaker 4 (8:51) Yeah. For people who don't remember the advert, it was a school teacher with a Jaffa Cake. teaching her kids about the moon yeah and she would go full moon yeah and then she'd bite out of it half moon yeah and then she would eat it and say total eclipse total eclipse Speaker 2 (9:05) that's how science used to be taught yeah Speaker 4 (9:07) yeah Speaker 3 (9:08) schools it Speaker 2 (9:09) was always kind of with a demonstration of some kind Speaker 3 (9:11) yeah usually food yeah and then your papa would pick you up at the end of the day that's right Speaker 4 (9:15) yeah so Speaker 3 (9:16) yeah so that's that's the advert that's one of my faves i think that was going over my head yesterday yeah Speaker 4 (9:21) That's how we get on the food, see. Very nicely done. We always get on the food. Do you like Jaffa Cakes? What a segue. Speaker 2 (9:26) I do like Jaffa Cakes, yeah. I have recently had Jaffa Cake gin. So if you like Jaffa Cakes and you like gin, I mean, it's the perfect product for you. Was this purchased from somewhere or was it like a homemade thing? No, purchased. You can actually go out and buy it. Speaker 4 (9:44) And was it a collab? So was it actual proper official Jaffa Cakes getting involved with a gin company? Or were they just able to just be like... No, that's a good question. I Speaker 2 (9:53) mean, there wasn't any of the Jaffa Cake logo on it. But the word Jaffa Cake was... I don't know if that's been... What do you call it? Copyrighted? Copyrighted, yeah. Speaker 4 (10:05) Got it if it's not. They spent all their time proving they were a cake. But they actually forgot to copyright the name. Speaker 3 (10:11) Oh, Speaker 4 (10:11) no. We got so in the weeds about what we were. Now everyone can just use our name. Idiots. Our priorities are all over the shop. They're making gin now without our say-so. So when Speaker 3 (10:22) the teacher bites through the Jaffa cake, what she's doing is she's splitting the Jaffa cake, of course. So we should talk Speaker 4 (10:29) about Speaker 3 (10:30) the split. Speaker 4 (10:31) I'm not going to say that's very good. That's the most convoluted... Speaker 3 (10:36) You do way worse ones than that. I do Speaker 4 (10:38) absolutely... Mine are smooth. People always compliment me on them. Yeah, Speaker 2 (10:42) I always compliment you. Okay, well, I'll Speaker 4 (10:43) tell Speaker 2 (10:43) you what. Yeah, thank you. So would you like to attempt a segue from Jaffa Cake into the split up? Speaker 4 (10:49) Yeah, yeah. Go on then. Of course, when the teacher bites into the Jaffa Cake, it splits the Jaffa Cake. Let's talk about the split up. Great Speaker 2 (10:57) segue, man. Fantastic. Pretty good. You know, if only someone else had thought of that. Yeah, Speaker 4 (11:03) well, not everyone can. Best in the game. Speaker 2 (11:07) Yeah, The Split Up. Yeah, it's a kind of, well, there was a series called The Split. Thank you. Which was about matriarchal family of divorce lawyers. Yeah. And this is in the same universe as The Split Up. And it's a patriarchal family of lawyers. And I'm the patriarch in Speaker 4 (11:26) it. How do you feel now that you're a patriarch in something? Because you've played, well, for me, growing up, Kumars was a big deal, very important. Oh, cheers. But you had a patriarchal figure in that. Speaker 2 (11:38) Yeah, that's right. Speaker 4 (11:40) And now it's you. Yeah. Now you are that guy. Now Speaker 2 (11:43) I'm depressed. Speaker 4 (11:46) Joining those two dots together. Speaker 3 (11:49) Different sorts of patriarchal figures, I'd imagine. Speaker 2 (11:52) Yes. Speaker 3 (11:52) How often in the split up are you just asking people for directions or asking them how they got there? That guy was funny. Yeah. Speaker 4 (12:00) That guy. Every week I'd look forward to him telling a story that was pointless and then looking at them really pleased. It was one of the funniest things I'd ever seen in my life. Speaker 2 (12:09) Can I tell you where that originated? Yeah, please. My dad had a friend who, when he came round, his name was Suntalk. he would always be telling a story which would suddenly turn left in the middle of it. I mean, my sister would be going, what? And the two that I remember where he said, and he always started it in a very jovial kind of like tone. And he'd go, that reminds me of a hilarious story from my village in India when I was growing up. There was a man in the village who had a very large head. He always used to wear a tiny hat. The hat was just balancing on his head, you know, the whole time like that. Cancer got him in three months. The other one I remember was, he said, it reminds me of a hilarious fellow who was in my village in India. And he had one arm much longer than the other one. You know, from one side, it was very long. The other side, not so much. And he was killed the instant the train hit him. Speaker 2 (13:12) And so it was that thing of kind of going, I don't know what to say now. And so I remember with the dad in the Kamaz, that's what we kind of saddled him with. And it was just... I still, Speaker 4 (13:22) every time I watch football... think of here come the boots here come the boots as well one of his story and he had some football boots and every time he got the ball people shout here come the boots here come the boot and that was it and then he just looked at them looked at the guest really pleased Speaker 2 (13:36) that might have been gary lineker that he said that too i don't know what to say but that was all that's what we wanted always oh yeah Speaker 4 (13:45) and now that's you In the split up. Yeah, that's exactly the same character. If Speaker 3 (13:48) only. Speaker 2 (13:51) Yeah, no, the patriarch I play is kind of like, you know, takes himself quite seriously. Yeah. So he's going to, you know, his kids are all lawyers as well. They're all involved in the firm. So it's that weird thing where do you treat them as employees or do you treat them as kids? Yeah. So that's part of the setup. Speaker 4 (14:10) The cast is amazing for it. There's so many like, Sindhu's in it, Mawaan, Lenny Henry. That's right, yeah, Speaker 2 (14:15) yeah. Speaker 4 (14:16) They're only the people who've been on this podcast. I was going to say, Speaker 2 (14:18) all three of them have been on it. Yes. Yeah, yeah. Speaker 4 (14:21) And Ritu's in it as well, who I love. Worked with her like 10 years ago. I know you just saw her again recently. She's doing great. She was in Barbie and that. What Speaker 2 (14:31) did you work with her on? Speaker 4 (14:32) I wrote a pilot for a sitcom and Ritu was there. parts in it and she also was involved in the office run through as well doing that. She was right from the beginning and she's brilliant and I'd seen her at a night in London where her and this other guy whose name I forget were doing a double act sketch thing. It was quite a dark comedy and she was so funny and really wanted to do in that. sitcom it's just great now seeing her popping up in everything and uh she Speaker 2 (15:02) she very i hope this isn't talking out of turn but she showed me uh on a phone video of her when she was nine or ten years old with i think her cousins maybe doing sketches from goodness gracious me oh wow and calling themselves the goodness gracious me kids oh that's so amazing yeah yeah Speaker 4 (15:21) that we Speaker 2 (15:21) get to work together years later i Speaker 4 (15:24) mean what what's it like having like created something like that that still has you can just see the legacy of it still. Not a lot of people can say that. You know, there's a lot of people who've had sketch shows, sitcoms, whatever, and can't literally look around at the comedy landscape and see their influence. Do you ever take a moment to... I Speaker 2 (15:42) mean, it's weird because, you know, as you know, when you're making something, you don't know where it's going to go, you don't know how it's going to be received. And so you pour everything into making of it, you know, have as much fun as you can. And then whatever happens, happens. So the fact that 27 odd years later that people still remember the sketches or, you know, is kind of remarkable. And also that, you know, people very generously like Ramesh and Nish and people like that will kind of like reference it because they've all got stellar careers and they're doing what they do. And so I'm sure they would have made it anyway. But it is humbling to be part of that journey. Yeah, you're right. I mean, in terms of, especially in comedy, which is so disposable as well, to have people still remember something you did fondly rather than, oh yeah, that was shit, is, yeah, Speaker 4 (16:35) it's really nice. Are you much of a foodie, Sanjeev? Total foodie. Yeah? Yeah, love food. You love tuna melts, we know that. Oh. We agreed we weren't going to bring that up, Ed. Speaker 3 (16:44) No, you said you wanted to bring it up. Speaker 4 (16:46) Oh, no. You just went out Speaker 3 (16:47) for a tuna melt. Speaker 2 (16:48) Oh, God, you had to bring up the tuna melt. He had one. Painful memory. Yeah, no, only because I arrived really early and I didn't know what to do. And so I thought, yeah, tune them out. Tune them out time. I think whenever you're early for something. Speaker 4 (17:01) Yeah. Speaker 2 (17:01) Tune them out. Really? Yeah. Speaker 4 (17:04) That's a good Speaker 3 (17:04) rule. Speaker 2 (17:05) That's a good rule for life. Have you seen Heated Rivalry? No, I haven't. It's Heated Rivalry. It's Heated Rivalry. Oh, that's a culinary show. No, no, no. It's a hockey. Speaker 4 (17:15) Hockey? Yeah, it's hockey. It's a Canadian... Ice Speaker 3 (17:20) hockey. Speaker 4 (17:20) Ice hockey. Okay. And like two of the players are secretly in love with each other and it follows their romance. I've not seen it, but it Speaker 3 (17:29) seems like mainly just fucking to me. Speaker 4 (17:32) There's a lot of fucking in it. But that's the thing is that, you know, to begin with their relationship seems purely physical. And one of them is very much trying to make out like that's all it is to him. Speaker 2 (17:42) But Speaker 4 (17:43) then there's a moment where he makes the other guy a tuna melt. Speaker 2 (17:47) I was wondering when we'd Speaker 4 (17:49) do some sort of link. You can tell that he's actually been paying attention to what this guy eats and that he mainly just will order fish and doesn't like certain types of food. So he's made in that and it's a little sign that actually he cares and pays more attention to it. That Speaker 2 (18:05) sounds quite Speaker 4 (18:05) sweet. Speaker 3 (18:06) Maybe I've misrepresented Speaker 2 (18:07) it there. And then they fuck. No, well, I'm grateful that I don't have to watch it. Speaker 3 (18:12) Yeah. That's not the main thing. It's not the finale. Well, you made it sound like the main thing. Speaker 2 (18:17) You built up to a tuna mill. Speaker 4 (18:19) Yeah, maybe Speaker 3 (18:19) it is. And Speaker 2 (18:20) then shagging. Yeah. Speaker 3 (18:21) I recently did a live script read-through of an episode of Heated Rivalry. Oh. Because two comedians, Catherine Bohart and Olga Koch, run a podcast about Heated Rivalry called Tonsil Hockey, and they did live read-throughs with comedians. And I'd never seen Heated Rivalry, and I played one of the main characters. There's some stuff in there that genuinely made me blush. Really made me blush. Those guys are going for it. Speaker 4 (18:45) Yeah, yeah. They do go for it. Speaker 3 (18:47) This was episode two we were reading through. Blimey. It's not a will they, won't they? It's they have and they're going to do it again. When will they? Speaker 4 (18:54) When will they again? Yeah, yeah, yeah. How long until the next one? And what are they going to eat before? Yeah, yeah. I actually think I've misrepresented it. I think the tune amount is afterwards. Speaker 2 (19:04) They have sex and then he Speaker 4 (19:05) makes them a tuna melt. Speaker 2 (19:08) Wow. I mean, that sounds kind of, you know, great for the person who's receiving. Not Speaker 4 (19:14) so Speaker 2 (19:14) great for the person who's giving, yeah. Who's receiving the tuna melt. If you like. Yeah, like Speaker 3 (19:20) post-coital, like someone making you a tuna melt, what an amazing feeling. Speaker 2 (19:24) Yeah, Speaker 3 (19:24) but for the Speaker 2 (19:24) person who's going to get up and go, Speaker 3 (19:26) right. Speaker 2 (19:28) Have we got any tuna? Oh, yeah, Speaker 3 (19:30) yeah. Do Speaker 2 (19:31) I add onions? Yeah, yeah. I don't know. Speaker 3 (19:33) And you can't ask them loads of questions about the tuna melt because then that takes the whole romance out of it, doesn't it? 100%. You're Speaker 2 (19:40) allergic to cumin. Speaker 4 (19:44) Yeah. Speaker 2 (19:44) Oh. There's a lot of wild things put in a tuna melt, but I think it would work. Yeah. That's my favourite. This Speaker 4 (19:51) is Speaker 2 (19:51) the expert. Yeah. Yeah, Speaker 4 (19:52) absolutely. He loves tuna melts. Speaker 2 (19:54) I love cumin. Speaker 4 (19:55) Yeah. Yeah? Yeah, I'll add cumin to most things. Oh, maybe we're going to see it pop up in your dream menu. Speaker 2 (20:00) It might well do. Speaker 2 (20:03) Still a sparkling water? Sparkling, I think, because as a kid, I mean, sparkling was just, it was unheard of in the sort of like working class sort of upbringing I had, you know. And so it felt like it was kind of a treat and it was special. Fizzy drinks were, you know. So it was, we had mostly at home, we had cordials. So we had Ribena and sort of, you