This solemn cop is a funny guy (really)

Americans are used to seeing Sanjeev Bhaskar draped in angst and agony.
He plays an earnest cop in “Unforgotten” (shown here) which starts its sixth season at 10 p.m. Sunday (Aug. 24) on PBS. Dealing with years-ago murders, it’s a smart show that feels the pain of friends, family, suspects and cops.
So this is a surprise: Bhaskar is a fun and funny guy. He’s done lots of comedies, met lots of Beatles. He once had the No. 1 song in England … a fact that he apologized for. Also, he married his fictional grandmother.
And he’s definitely surprised to be in a dead-serious show. “I thought, ‘Who’s going to cast me as a detective?'” Bhaskar said by Zoom. “I wouldn’t cast me as a detective.”
But now he’s Sunil “Sunny” Khan, a divorced dad and an earnest police detective who tackles crimes with his boss — first Cassie (who died at the end of the fourth season) and now Jess (Sinead Keenan, shown here)Sanjeev . They dig into tangled mysteries … which Bhaskar never manages to figure out while reading the scripts.
“I haven’t got any better at it,” he said. “I am constantly changing who I think has done it. (But) who did it is not the only interesting thing in the show,” amid all the deep character portraits.
All of this is a surprise for a guy who grew up as a fan of movies, TV, Elvis and the Beatles, then took some detours. “I can’t say anything in my life was planned …. Life is a disrupter.”
The first disruption, before he was born, was when Pakistan was created as a predominantly Muslim state; many Hindu people emigrated to England.
That included Bhaskar’s parents. His dad bought a laundromat in a modest-income neighborhood and worked at a nearby Nestle coffee plant. The family lived in an apartment, unheated except for the laundromat heat below.
Bhaskar spent a lot of time looking — at the community center across the street and at the TV. “I wanted to act and write since I was 5.”
That didn’t fit his family’s pragmatic goals. Bhaskar got a job in marketing — something he didn’t enjoy, but might have kept doing forever.
That changed when he sued a company for breach of contract. He eventually got a settlement, but the dispute left him out of work for two years. To fill the time, he formed a comedy duo (Secret Asians) at 34. Then “we got discovered — like in an Elvis movie.”
They starred in a sketch-comedy show. Then Bhaskar created a truly unique comedy, “The Kumars at No. 42.” He played a socially awkward guy who wanted his own talk show; his obliging parents and grandmother built a studio at home and showed up as the audience.
It was an elusive concept, mixing scripted scenes with unscripted interviews with stars. Fox planned an American version, filmed several episodes … and never aired them. But in England, it ran seven seasons, getting a Peabody, an International Emmy and a No. 1 single.
For a charity fundraiser, the “Kumars” cast did a cover version of a pop hit. The result spent three weeks at No. 1 on the British charts and even put them on “Top of the Pops,” alongside rock stars.
“We were on the same show as Coldplay,” Bhaskar said. “I found Chris Martin to apologize: ‘I’m sorry, it’s for charity; of course your song is better.'”
Bhaskar doesn’t profess to be a music star; he admires the real ones, led by the Beatles.
“Unquestionably, they are the best band that ever existed,” he said. “They’re the only group you hear grow up … from ‘Love Me Do’ to ‘Abbey Road.'”
So Bhaskar he savored his small role in the 2019 movie “Yesterday.” It was about a singer who was the only person who remembered the Beatles.
Bhaskar played the guy’s dad; playing the mom was Meera Syal, a key part of his life. She starred with him in his first variety show … then, under heavy make-up, played his grandmother in “Kumars.” Later, they re-met, started dating and are now married.
Yes, Bhaskar is married to his grandma (sort of). They’re almost the same age — he’s 61, she’s 64 — but he’s seen her much older. “There are no surprises coming for me when she’s 85.”