The occasional barmitzvah scene has cropped up in drama TV but when an episode of BBC’s long-running series Casualty showed an 83-year-old man celebrating a second barmitzvah, that may have been a screen first.
The scene was shot in Cardiff’s Reform Synagogue, the city where the series has been filmed since last year.
Am I mistaken in thinking that there are more Jewish references on British TV these days? Few series have had as many Jewish characters as the BBC’s crime drama Ripper Street, set in 19th-century Whitechapel, which recently ended its first run — even if they were only minor parts; an orphanage manager with a heart of gold, a noble anarchist done in by antisemitic Russian agents and a meshugge cigarette-seller