Tamsin Greig has acknowledged that she "probably shouldn't" have played a Jewish character in the beloved British sitcom Friday Night Dinner, in a new interview with The Daily Telegraph.
Greig, who has Jewish ancestry but is a practicing Christian, starred in the long-running show as Jackie Goodman, a Jewish matriarch who along with husband Martin (Paul Ritter) welcomes sons Adam (Simon Bird) and Jonny (Tom Rosenthal) home every Friday evening for a family meal.
Though the show's writer-creator Robert Popper is Jewish, none of its four main cast members are. However, Doctor Who alum Tracy-Ann Oberman, who is Jewish, had a regular recurring role as Aunt Val.
"I think, given our sensitivity today about these issues, I probably shouldn’t have been in that show," Greig explained in the interview. "We are much more conscious today than we were when that show was first aired."
She continued: "For instance, Cleopatra has long been on my list of roles to play but I have to step back from that now, because Cleopatra needs to be played by someone who looks like they may have come from that area of the world. That’s absolutely right. But I’ll keep Lady Macbeth on the list."
In recent years there has been a growing number of calls for Jewish actors to be cast in Jewish roles. In 2019, actors including Miriam Margolyes and Dame Maureen Lipman signed an open letter expressing concern that a West End production of Falsettos, a musical rooted in the Jewish experience, featured no Jewish actors in its cast. 
According to London's Evening Standard, the letter stated that this "demonstrates a startling lack of cultural sensitivity and at worst, overt appropriation and erasure of a culture and religion increasingly facing a crisis."
Friday Night Dinner ran for six seasons between 2011 and 2020. Following the sad death of Paul Ritter in April, it was confirmed by Popper that the show has now finished. 
Do you think Tamsin Greig should have been cast in Friday Night Dinner?