Actor, presenter and comedy writer Sanjeev Kohli is one of Scotland’s best known faces, even if that face has often been artificially aged to allow him to play the role of shopkeeper Navid in smash-hit comedy Still Game. The iconic show returned in a live stage version this month, with an epic 21-performance run at Glasgow’s SSE Hydro venue.
As well as servicing the news and grocery needs of the residents of Craiglang as Navid, Sanjeev has also appeared in numerous other hit comedies including Look Around You, Fresh Meat, The IT Crowd and Bob Servant Independent. All this and he co-wrote and starred in Radio 4 comedy, Fags, Mags and Bags too!
He managed to take some time out from the return of Still Game to tell us more about the varied media jobs he’s done in his career.
We thought Fred MacAulay was the only famous Scottish comedy figure to have come from an accountancy background…but you have a 1st class degree in Mathematics and started a PhD in the subject too. How did you get from that to being the actor, writer and presenter we now know?
“I got asked” is the headline here. I got asked (from nowhere) by a friend to audition for presenting a radio magazine show and got the gig. Being a comedy consumer, I would write gags into the links. I got asked to be a guest and then contribute sketches to a sketch show. Which led to other sketch shows. One of which was Chewin’ The Fat. I got asked to write & then perform in a radio sketch show which went onto the telly. And I got asked by Ford and Greg to play a shopkeeper in Still Game. I’ve basically been obeying orders the whole time…
If you’d ended up sticking with the Maths PhD…where do you think you’d be now?
I was floundering out of my depth doing that PhD, like a Tyrannosaurus Rex trying to negotiate a PS3. I would probably have ended up in teaching.
The success of Still Game means that you’ll probably always have people shouting “Navid” at you in the street, but is there another role you’ve had that has meant as much or more to you personally?
I’ll always be proud of being Synthesiser Patel – Look Around You was right up my comedy alley, so to appear in it as a cult favourite was, frankly, smashing. Not to mention it got me on stage with Wilco at The Royal Festival Hall and The Barrowlands (true story). And Ramesh in Fags, Mags and Bags will always be a favourite because I wrote him and I have deep affection for him.
You always seem to be busy, whether it’s as a writer, presenter or actor. As a freelancer, is it tempting to say yes to everything in case the work ever dries up or are you conscious of only picking and choosing projects that you feel really suit you?
I will NEVER take for granted how precarious this business is; indeed, about three years ago, I was in such little demand I couldn’t even get arrested. It is definitely tempting to say yes to everything, well, almost everything – that BNP voiceover for example – but you temper that by doing low (or no) paid jobs on projects or with people that you really like, for (a) the enjoyment (b) the creative buzz and (c) the possibility that it might lead to something else in the future.
You’ve worked for many years with Donny Mcleary (Sanjeev’s co-writer and co-star in their award winning Radio 4 series, Fags, Mags and Bags), how important has it been in your career to have somebody to bounce ideas off and share experiences with?
Incalculably important. To this day, despite the fact that I am an established comedy writer/performer, I still suffer from confidence issues. If I can make Donny laugh though then I know it must be good. Also, he’s the funniest, sharpest, quickest man I’ve shared a room with, so I’m forced to raise my game. I don’t think I’ll ever write anything as funny on my own as I did with Donny.
Your academic background is quite removed from what you do now, did you ever feel a desire to go back down the degree route and study something like screenwriting? Or will practical experience always beat academia in the media line?
I can’t help feeling that if I HAD tried to pursue my career the more conventional way, I wouldn’t have been half as successful. Obviously that’s purely theoretical, but learning on the job was the best way for me. When I started writing sketches for example, I had to work out for myself why a sketch wasn’t working. This naturally leads you down the path of dialogue, characterisation and so on – all stuff that I learned for Higher English but never made sense till I had to apply it.
The internet explosion has changed the way in which people access and enjoy all kinds of media content, including comedy, have you noticed any particular pros or cons of this while working in the industry?
There without doubt has been a financial hit. I met David Mitchell at an awards thing a few years ago and he was very worried about how people in scripted comedy could make a living when their material would be made available for free online; as talented and successful as he was, he didn’t do stand-up and couldn’t rely on that revenue stream. I’m not a natural live performer myself – the Still Game live show is practically my first venture into theatre and I don’t do stand-up either – so this could be a worry. On the flipside though, Twitter has been a revelation for me in terms of working my comedy muscles and garnering a disparate but sizeable audience.
What advice would you give to any writers or performers looking to establish themselves in Scotland these days?
Make stuff and put it online. It’s advice I should take myself. Peter Serafinowicz, a comedy talentplanet with whom I have had the pleasure to work, will just film stuff and put it out there. It’s how he got his sketch show. The internet might seem like a primordial soup, but the good stuff does get found.
Thank you to Sanjeev for taking the time to speak to us. We’re delighted to see that Still Game’s welcome return is proving to be a huge success!
Photograph supplied by interviewee.