Season four saw Sunny lose his partner, Cassie (Nicola Walker), who meant so much to him. Season five was about him grieving and also adjusting to a new partner, Jess (Sinéad Keenan). Are Sunny and Jess any closer in season six to becoming what Sunny and Cassie were?
He certainly recognizes that she will never be Cassie; I think that was an important move forward for him emotionally. By the end of season five, I think they’d found some connection, they’d opened up to each other — which neither of them were prone to do. Going into season six, they kind of trust each other, although they still keep some of their personal life away from each other. In that sense, their working relationship has definitely improved a lot — and their personal relationship, on that basis, has improved. But I’m not sure they’ve got to the stage of being “friends” yet.
What is it about Unforgotten that stands out in this very crowded genre?
From what [fans] have said to me, first of all you had — and still have — a central male-female partnership that doesn’t have romantic overtones to it; that’s usually the way that these things head in order to create tension among the characters.
And the other thing is, I don’t think the cops are set up as heroic. You know, the story is very much filled with empathy — empathy for the cops, but also empathy for the accused and for the deceased . . . It’s a show about fairly regular people who did one terrible thing. It was one mistake. There isn’t a plethora of serial killers on the loose . . . There are no car chases and no guns — the tension comes from a slowly closing noose around these people who, hopefully, we’re invested enough to want to know what happens to them.
Do you think your background in comedy informs your acting — even in a very dark, very dramatic project like this?
Definitely. I mean, when you’re doing a scene, whether it’s a dramatic scene or a comedic one, you are looking for beats, you’re looking for rhythms . . . you’re looking for all that kind of stuff. And the interesting thing about comedy is that it’s almost impossible to teach — because so much of it is about timing. The funniest thing in a sentence may be the pause. If the pause is a millisecond too slow, it’s not funny. If it’s a millisecond too fast, it’s not funny. It’s like hitting the sweet spot on a tennis racquet. That’s impossible to teach. And it’s interesting to me that everyone that has been cast across all the seasons [of Unforgotten] can do comedy. They can find a lightness in a scene or in a sentence — and, equally, they’re very good at spotting where the dramatic beats are.
You and Nicola are, of course, still friends. Have you spoken to her at all about the show since she left?
You know what, it’s the one topic we haven’t really talked about. I haven’t asked her if she’s watched it, she hasn’t told me if she’s watched it. We have other things to talk about. In a sense, I think we’re both studiously avoiding talking about it. I don’t want to hear her say she liked it or hated it, and I don’t really want to hear her say she doesn’t watch it. It’s easier for me to live in a slightly fantasy world where she’s watched it and loves it.
The season finale of Unforgotten on Masterpiece airs on Sunday, September 28 on WTVS and KCTS
MEMORABLE ROLES:
After leaving behind a career in marketing, this native of Middlesex, England, got his showbiz break in the ’90s doing sketch comedy on BBC’s Goodness Gracious Me. From there, he went on to star in groundbreaking sitcom The Kumars at No. 42 — while also racking up appearances in hit films like Notting Hill, Yesterday, The Flash and the much-loved Paddington franchise.
CURRENT GIG:
Since 2015, Sanjeev Bhaskar’s proverbial day job has been on Unforgotten playing Sunny Khan, a Met Police detective who specializes in cold cases. Wrapping this week, season six has found Sunny and new partner Jess James (Sinéad Keenan) dredging up the truth behind some peculiar bones found rotting in an East London marsh.