Humour is a bit strong for mum in Baz’s edgy new show
Ashmawy steps out at special screening as he admits Nancy not a fan but did make cameo
But she’s a fan and she supports me in anything I do. And she makes a cameo in one episode.
“I just wanted to do something that I thought was edgy or funny. You know, whether or not someone finds it offensive or not, I don’t know. Maybe some people might.
“I just made it the way I thought it was funny.” Speaking at a special screening in the Light House Cinema in Dublin yesterday, Baz admitted he was “terrified” when the show, which was six years in the making, finally got its air date.
He said: “Even sitting in there for the screening was terrifying.
“But it’s that thing of just doing something you’re kind of uncomfortable with and wanting to try something new and being pig-headed enough to maybe not listen to the odds of something like that.
“I suppose in any job you surround yourself with really talented people to make you look better at times or to help you with your job.
“The cast were just brilliant. They’re heavy weights. They’re very polished.” Opening up what the show is about for him, he added: “At the core, it’s about grief and how all of these people, it affects them all individually.
“And it’s not like a stereotypical Muslim family. It’s a mixed family.
“You know, I suppose that’s where my own kind of experiences come from, like, my partner’s half Serbian. I’m half Egyptian, my kids are mongrels.
“I have a Greek Orthodox mother-in-law. My sister’s Muslim, my mother’s Catholic, so I live in that world. So to me, it’s not very strange, but maybe to other people they will think it’s a bit alien. I don’t know.”