Mr al-Qasabi has been a popular TV personality and comedian across the Middle East for a number of years - still something of a rarity for a Saudi.

His best known programme Tash ma Tash has satirised a number of taboos in Saudi Arabia and wider Arab society.

In one sketch several years ago, he turned the issue of Saudi men being able to have four wives at a time on its head. A woman with four husbands is shown facing the dilemma of trying to divorce one so she can marry a fifth.

The episode was attacked by the more conservative elements in Saudi Arabia as blasphemy.

Mr al-Qasabi has won further fame as a judge on the Arabs Got Talent show.

His latest series, Selfie, has already been a big hit this Ramadan.

In one episode, he played a Saudi mutawwa - a conservative preacher - enraged at Muslims indulging in music during the Muslim holy month.

He and one of his fellow actors smash an oud to pieces before an approving crowd of men in Saudi thobes (robes) and ghutras (headdresses). The camera focuses on the shortness of their thobes - a characteristic of the mutawwa.

Shortly afterwards, Saudi preacher Saeed al-Farwa rose to the bait.