Kaneez (played by Sunetra Sarker) has brought both emotion and humour as the mother of Ackley Bridge student Nas Paracha (Amy-Leigh Hickman).
As well as finding out her daughter is a lesbian, Kaneez has discovered her husband had a secret family and has embarked on a new romance of her own.
The school dinner lady will face even more challenges this season as she prepares for her eldest daughter to fly the nest as well as continuing to explore her relationship status with biology teacher Rashid Hyatt (Tony Jayawardena).
With fans eager for the Channel 4 drama to return, Kaneez star Sunetra Sarker, 45, has revealed her popular character has an interesting, real-life backstory.
It was a big stretch for me
Sunetra Sarker
Speaking to press, including Express.co.uk about what drew her to the character of Kaneez, Sunetra explained: “It was just so rare to find a character that had been written as a three-dimensional Asian woman living in this pocket of Britain, again, we don’t put the spotlight on.
“For me to find a script that had humour, pathos, drama, a bit of everything, I could just feel the first read I would really enjoy being her.
“But because she was so far away from anything I’d been able to portray on screen before, I knew it was a big stretch for me and whether people would believe that stretch was in me.”
Explaining how Kaneez came to fruition, Sunetra said director Penny Woolcock introduced her to a resident in Halifax who the screen-writers had chosen to base her character on.
“The great Mrs Ikbal was a character I met when I went for the audition,” the former Casualty actress revealed.
“Penny mentioned she’d been doing some research with a lady called Mrs
