I hadn’t thought I would actually get Malala: ‘We Are Lady Parts’ creator Nida Manzoor

We Are Lady Parts, the critically acclaimed British comedy about an all-girl Muslim punk rock band, is back with season two.

The show stars Anjana Vasan and Juliette Motamed in lead roles, along with cameos from Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai and BAFTA Award-winning actress Meera Syal.

We Are Lady Parts is created, written, and showrun by Nida Manzoor, who made her directorial feature-film debut with last year’s Polite Society.

Nida, who loves to tell noteworthy South Asian stories—many of which stem from her experiences in the film and TV industry, says that when she started thinking of Season 2 of We Are Lady Parts, one of her earliest ideas was a song: “Malala Made Me Do It,” a neo-Western hype track celebrating the activist Malala Yousafzai.

Soon another idea struck: Maybe she could get Malala, whom she had met briefly at a talk, to star in the video.

Nida did not waste any time and wrote Malala a love letter. To her surprise, the Nobel Peace Prize winner responded. And this is why, in the second episode of the new season of We Are Lady Parts, Yousafzai appears on a horse, donning a white cowboy hat, while the band irreverently sings her praises: “Nobel Prize at 17/the baddest bitch you’ve ever seen.”

“I hadn’t thought I would actually get Malala, but I saw her talking about her love of Fawlty Towers, which I didn’t expect,” Nida told The Guardian.

She continued, “I guess I saw her as this very serious figure, but oh my gosh, she is so funny.”

Talking about the letter she wrote to Malala asking if she would come on board, the writer-director said, “It’s very silly but she was so game and such a joy. She made everyone feel so comfortable on set. We had such a laugh.”

We Are Lady Parts Season 2 dropped on Channel 4 on Thursday 30 May.