Entertainment
Tamsin Greig admits she ‘probably shouldn’t’ have played Jewish mother in Friday Night Dinner
The actress starred as Jackie Goodman on the show (Picture: Magnus Sundholm/Shutterstock)
Tamsin Greig has looked back at her time on Friday Night Dinner, admitting that she ‘probably shouldn’t’ have played a Jewish mother on the programme.
The actress, who is a practising Christian with Jewish ancestry, starred as matriarch Jackie Goodman in the comedy about a Jewish family from north London.
It comes after the likes of Sarah Silverman recently hit out at ‘jewface’ – the non-Jewish people being cast in Jewish roles in Hollywood – which has been widely discussed in 2021.
‘I think, given our sensitivity today about these issues, I probably shouldn’t have been in that show,’ Tamsin told The Telegraph.
‘We are much more conscious today than we were when that show was first aired.’
The 55-year-old went on to say: ‘For instance, 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 first aired back in 2011 (Picture: Getty)
Friday Night Dinner ran for six series before coming to a close in 2020 after the death of Paul Ritter. The Martin Goodman actor died aged 54 from a brain tumour in April, with stars of TV and film sharing their heartbreak after the shock news.
The show was created by Jewish screenwriter Robert Popper but none of the main cast aside from Tracy-Ann Oberman are Jewish.
It comes after comedian Sarah Silverman hit out at the casting of Kathryn Hahn as Joan Rivers, while also singling out Felicity Jones as Ruth Bader Ginsberg and accusing Hollywood of ‘Jewface’.
The programme came to an end in 2021 (Picture: Channel 4)
She said on her podcast: ‘There’s this long tradition of non-Jews playing Jews, and not just playing people who happen to be Jewish but people whose Jewishness is their whole being.
More: Tamsin Greig
‘One could argue, for instance, that a Gentile playing Joan Rivers, correctly, would be doing what is actually called “Jewface”.’
Friday Night Dinner is available to stream on All 4.
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