OHMYGOSSIP — Tamsin Greig paid tribute to Paul Ritter on ‘Friday Night Dinner’s 10th anniversary special.
The 54-year-old actress – who played Paul’s onscreen wife Jackie Goodman – spoke about her “dear and most cherished” late friend on ‘Friday Night Dinner: 10 Years and A Lovely Bit of Squirrel’, just over one month after his death from a brain tumour.
She said: “I’m sure you know that very recently we lost our dear and most cherished friend Paul Ritter, who plays Martin Goodman in ‘Friday Night Dinner’.
“We all miss him terribly, incredible actor, a true friend and a lovely human being. Sadly at the time of making the documentary, Paul was pretty unwell and to be honest – don’t tell the producers – I did try and persuade him not to do the interview.
“But it is testament to Paul’s courage and generosity and dignity and complete lack of vanity that he wanted to participate in the documentary, do an interview and to really celebrate this little world that he’s been a part of and that he’s enjoyed so much over the years.
“So I know that Paul would want us to all sit back and laugh and enjoy this celebration of the FND universe. And say, as we do, in his memory: Shalom.”
Meanwhile, show creator creator Robert Popper recently confirmed that the sitcom will not continue after Paul’s death.
He said: “I was thinking this will be the end, because I didn’t want to do a series where they had kids and babies, and Jim would have seven dogs, also, like, the world’s weirdest dog that you couldn’t find seven of.
“So that was going to be the end, yeah.”
The show tells the story of a Jewish family, dad Martin, mum Jackie (Greig), and sons Adam (Simon Bird) and Jonny (Tom Rosenthal) Goodman, who gather every Friday for a Shabbat meal and are always interrupted by their eccentric neighbour Jim Bell (Mark Heap).
Series six came to an end in May 2020 with Adam and Jonny discovering their girlfriends, who were portrayed by Rebecca Humphries and Pearl Mackie respectively, were both pregnant, much to the lads’ surprise.
Big Talk Publications recently said in a statement: “He was a brilliant, kind and talented man much loved by everyone who was lucky enough to know and work with him, and Paul will forever be part of both the Big Talk and ‘Friday Night Dinner’ families.
“Our thoughts are with his own family at this time and following their wishes we will be making a donation to the Old Vic Impact Fund – https://www.oldvictheatre.com/support-us/donate.”
Source: VacationHunter.Online
Find us also on Facebook @Ohmygossip.com