A sit-down with the cast of Shtisel!

You’ll never believe what I did last Tuesday.

While others were watching The One Show and serving up supper, I was having drinks with Dov Glickman and Zohar Strauss.

There were snacks, too, which actor Hana Laslo (Menuka the matchmaker) got stuck into, while model and Shtisel newbie Reef Neeman sat back looking gorgeous before heading off to another gathering. 

Just buy a ticket here www.seret-international.org/category/virtual-cinema and it’s yours.

I never realised how much I missed Shulem Shtisel and his family until I heard the first emotive strains of Avi Belleli’s soundtrack ahead of watching the season 3 premiere.

The achievement of completing  the new series under Covid regulations was not lost on the show’s executive producer, Dikla Barkai, who joined our party and expressed her pride and gratitude at reaching the final episode. I always refer to Barkai as Shtisel’s matriarch, as it was her instinct and ability to recognise talent that resulted in Ori Elon and Yehonatan Indursky’s script being made.

That Shtisel would become a global sensation four years after it premiered in Israel was, however, not something she ever envisaged or the demand for her skills from American studios.

Modest and self-effacing, Barkai, who also created the series Srugim, experienced the same feelings as a top band recording their third album when it came to the making of Shtisel 3.

The anxiety was certainly apparent whenever we spoke last summer, as she was concerned about the welfare of older cast members Glickman and Sasson Gabay,  who plays Shulem’s brother, Nuchem.

Because of the series subject matter, Laslo believes the show is blessed, but this beatification appears to have been extended to other shows in the stable of Israeli network Yes Studios.

The series The Chef, a drama about a celebrity chef starring Rotem Sela was filmed along with an adaptation of Sarit Yishai-Levy’s bestselling novel, The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem.

Both are now part of the 2021 roster and the latter stars Michael Aloni. Switching from payot and tallit to sideburns and waistcoats in the August heat can’t have been easy for heartthrob Aloni, who was last seen on a gallery bench seated beside Libbi (Hadas Yaron).

Of course, if you want to know how things have faired for  the impeded artist Akiva, his father Shulem and their extended family, I suggest you get a ticket, grab a tissue and join me and the cast tonight.

• Tickets £20 for a supreme package from www.seret-international.org/category/virtual-cinema