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...the snooker table in our one-bedroom flat in Finsbury Park, North London. Two of my older brothers slept underneath it, while my other brother and I slept on the floor in the dressing area. We were all born in Pakistan but came to England in 1956, when I was three, and my sister was born here. My father was studying for his ophthalmology fellowship. We later moved to a house in Balham, south London.
…the wonderful aromas from the spices my mother used in her delicious cooking. If you sat down, she put food in front of you and, if she wasn’t cooking, then she was sewing clothes for us. There weren’t many Asian restaurants in the UK in the 50s and early 60s, and none of my British friends had ever tasted anything quite so good as my mother’s cooking.
…showing my teacher a letter I had written to Blue Peter. She said, “Athar, I’m afraid the BBC isn’t interested in people who aren’t English.” Even as a seven-year-old child I knew that her mindset was wrong and, years later, when I worked for the BBC, I found no evidence of any such racist attitudes.
…being sent to boarding school in Quetta, west Pakistan. I was ten. The school was run by my uncle, an ex-Cambridge man, and two of my older brothers were already there. But, when my mother put us on the Fokker Friendship plane to fly from Karachi [in the south of the country] to Quetta, I bawled my eyes out. My mother returned to the UK and I didn’t see either of my parents for a year.
Art's breakthrough role as Hari Kumar in The Jewel In the Crown (1984)
...seeing Gina [Rowe] for the first time when I arrived at Guildhall School of Music and Drama. I thought her very beautiful. Her beauty wasn’t only external and we became good mates. We got together after we left Guildhall in 1977 and married in 1980. We have two beautiful, talented daughters, Jessica and Keira.
…Arnold Schwarzenegger inviting me to join him to eat sushi in his trailer during the filming of True Lies. “I’m having it flown in from Miami,” he said, with as much insouciance as if he’d ordered a local takeaway. Tom Arnold joined Arnie and I, and they began discussing the cost of Lear jets. Tom told him he’d just got one for $25 million. Arnie said, “$25 million? That’s good,” but all I could think about was that Gina had just rung me to say the silencer on our old Volvo had gone.
Onstage with Keira at the Edinburgh Festival, 2011
…one of the nicest memories was working with Jessica and Keira last year at the Edinburgh fringe. We did a play together called Rose. Jessica produced and I acted alongside Keira. It was wonderful to be with them and the other fabulously energised young people there.
…gaining some wisdom. If there’s a lesson to be learned, then learn it. Perhaps the recession is helping people see what’s important in life—your family and your health, as opposed to what you own. It doesn’t matter whether you learn life’s lessons from the old or young—everyone can teach you something. Right now, I’m learning what it feels like to be an actor in his late 50s—but I still never know what’s around the corner.
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The new series of Upstairs Downstairs begins on February 19 on BBC One.
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