Skip to content

Ladner actor saying farewell to popular CBC series

Manoj Sood was with Little Mosque on the Prairie, which begins its final season on Monday, for all six seasons

Ladner actor Manoj Sood has enjoyed his time on the CBC's Little Mosque on the Prairie.

"It was a great six years," he says, adding the role gave him a chance to travel all over the country and meet tons of people on top of it being a lot of fun and opening doors to other projects.

The comedy begins its final season on Monday.

Sood, who plays Baber Siddiqui on Little Mosque, notes six seasons marks a great run for a TV show.

"Very few shows make it one or two seasons. It's so difficult with all the competition from the Internet, and there's so many channels to choose from. It's really difficult for a broadcaster, even a large one like CBC, to keep enough audience to warrant renewing a show," he says. "Luckily our show has done really well."

The show is about Muslims and Christians attempting to live in harmony in the small town of Mercy, Saskatchewan.

Sood, who's appeared in more than 50 TV and feature film productions, says he knew it was going to be catchy, and since it was airing in a post 9-11 environment, it was going to create some controversy.

"I didn't know how long that would last but luckily at the end of the day, the show itself, rather than its controversy, is what lasted," he says. "People came back to the show because they enjoyed watching it, because it was funny, because they enjoyed watching the characters, etc."

Asked if he wished the series could go on longer or if he thought now was a good time to wrap things up, Sood says he'd be happy for it to continue as long as good storylines could be maintained.

"It all comes down to the writers," he says. "If they'd call me up tomorrow and said, 'Hey, we think we can get another season out of this,' then I'd take a serious look at it."

Filming for the final season finished in July and Sood, an avid fly fisherman, says it was nice to take some time off to go on a bunch of fishing trips with his son.

He's currently working on a developing a concept for a new TV show.

Little Mosque on the Prairie airs Mondays at 8:30 p.m. on CBC. The last season, which features guest performances by Peter Keleghan (18 to Life), Mary Walsh (22 Minutes) and Jennifer Robertson (Wingin' It), begins Jan. 9.