Anjana Vasan: 'Malala's a pro. She was up for anything'

Culture | TV “Everyone was so nervous about Malala arriving...

” says actor Anjana Vasan, reflecting on the day that the Pakistani education activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai casually rocked up on the set of Channel 4 ’s hit comedy We Are Lady Parts. Vasan stars as Amina, a Don McLean-obsessed microbiology PhD student who becomes the unlikely lead guitarist in a punk band called Lady Parts. All four members are Muslim women, and pen sharply witty, raucous songs with titles such as Voldemort Under My Headscarf, Ain’t No One Gonna Honour Kill My Sister But Me, and Malala Made Me Do It.

That last track appears in the second episode of season two, which is out now, and provides our introduction to the surprise guest in question (comedian Meera Syal also cameos later on). Without wanting to spoil the surreal chain of events that lead up to Yousafzai’s truly iconic appearance, her final reveal made me gasp with delight. “She’s a pro, and she was very game and up for anything,” Vasan adds.

“She was so calm. I think she found us very amusing. I could hear her chuckling on the horse behind us when we were doing silly things.

It was a very lovely day on set.” When it first aired in 2021, We Are Lady Parts was Vasan’s biggest TV role yet following small parts in shows like Fresh Meat and Sex Education. It proved her big screen breakthrough, and the following year she played initially reluctant trainee assassin Pam in the final season of Killin.