BS: Seeking name of Brit comedy show

Subject: BS: Seeking name of Brit comedy show
From: gnu
Date: 15 Nov 09 - 11:53 AM

Some years ago, I saw a few episodes. Maybe on Maine PBS or The Comedy Network or ? The show starred a half dozen or so young Brits of Indian descent. In those episodes, they were absolutely one of the funniest comedy troupes I have ever seen.

Unfortunately, my memory has become so poor,

Subject: RE: BS: Seeking name of Brit comedy show
From: Will Fly
Date: 15 Nov 09 - 12:00 PM

Gnu - I think it might be "Goodness Gracious Me" which ran for 2-3 years in the late 1990s.

Subject: RE: BS: Seeking name of Brit comedy show
From: GUEST,Falco
Date: 15 Nov 09 - 12:02 PM

It might also have been Tandoori Nights which ran from (1985 and 1987. It) was Channel 4's first Asian comedy series. Though The Fosters (ITV, 1976-77) and No Problem (ITV, 1983-85) had paved the way for black comedy programming, the comedic sensibility of the Asian experience had yet to become a marketable commodity.

The production team of writer Farrukh Dhondy, director Jon Amiel and producer Malcolm Craddock had worked together before on Come to Mecca (BBC, 1982), and their formidable collective television experience must have raised expectations. Unfortunately Tandoori Nights suffered from a comedic deficit - though the fact that it gave rare opportunities to Asian talent behind and in front of the camera is, one can argue, distinction enough.

The second series recruited the talents of Meera Syal, who scripted the first three episodes. Syal's script for 'Welcome Home Sweetie' upends cultural stereotypes, something Goodness Gracious Me (BBC, 1998-2000) was also to do, to great comic effect. But here the laughs are fleeting, perhaps because it takes itself too seriously.

The actors (including the prolific Saeed Jaffrey, whose character here brings to mind his role in My Beautiful Laundrette) make the most of the patchy and rambling scripts. To audiences of the mid-1980s UK, it had the elements of a potentially groundbreaking sitcom: a mixed-race relationship, left wing and sexy Asian women, and a restaurant proprietor more interested in success and money than in his cultural roots. Notwithstanding, the result was a rather unsuccessful attempt at novelty.

Subject: RE: BS: Seeking name of Brit comedy show
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 15 Nov 09 - 12:05 PM

I bet it was 'The Kumars at No 42', gnu....Soooo funny! :0)


And....

a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZAmI9jEzQk">Here it is! :0)

Subject: RE: BS: Seeking name of Brit comedy show
From: GUEST,Falco
Date: 15 Nov 09 - 12:06 PM

Just remembered another great Indian comedy series shown here in Britain, "MUMBAI CALLING".

Subject: RE: BS: Seeking name of Brit comedy show
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 15 Nov 09 - 12:07 PM

OOPS!

Here it is....again! :0)

Subject: RE: BS: Seeking name of Brit comedy show
From: GUEST,Falco
Date: 15 Nov 09 - 12:08 PM

We'll get it yet Lizzie !

Subject: RE: BS: Seeking name of Brit comedy show
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 15 Nov 09 - 12:11 PM

Excitin' ain't it, Falco.... LOL

Which one of us is going to get a kiss from gnu! :0)

Subject: RE: BS: Seeking name of Brit comedy show
From: ard mhacha
Date: 15 Nov 09 - 03:34 PM

I would agree Lizzie, The Kumars, it was the best.

Subject: RE: BS: Seeking name of Brit comedy show
From: gnu
Date: 15 Nov 09 - 04:01 PM

Thanks... I have been laughing a lot!

Subject: RE: BS: Seeking name of Brit comedy show
From: akenaton
Date: 15 Nov 09 - 04:25 PM

"It ain't half hot mum".....now that was really funny, but a bit too non PC for some of the fannies on here....:0)

Subject: RE: BS: Seeking name of Brit comedy show
From: ard mhacha
Date: 18 Nov 09 - 04:30 AM

Father Ted for a good belly laugh, at times hilarious.

Subject: RE: BS: Seeking name of Brit comedy show
From: Smedley
Date: 18 Nov 09 - 04:37 AM

The OP's reference to a comedy troupe suggests a sketch show rather than a sitcom, which means Goodness Gracious Me is the most likely candidate. (It was also funny, unlike Tandoori Nights....)

Subject: RE: BS: Seeking name of Brit comedy show
From: Stu
Date: 18 Nov 09 - 07:16 AM

Goodness Gracious Me's sketch of the indians going to the English Restaurant on Friday night is priceless: Going for an English.

Subject: RE: BS: Seeking name of Brit comedy show
From: GUEST,Helen, cookieless
Date: 19 Nov 09 - 02:03 AM

My bet would be on Goodness Gracious Me. One of the funniest and cleverest shows I have seen. The first show I saw had an English man as the racial minority working on the production team for an Indian tv show. It just got better and better after that, until the last series which began to stoop to dirty humour. Still funny, but not as much as the first 2 series.

Sanjeev Bhaskar and Meera Syal were in The Kumars at No. 42.

Helen

Subject: RE: BS: Seeking name of Brit comedy show
From: SINSULL
Date: 19 Nov 09 - 03:47 PM

I loved the mother in the Kumars. She had an eye for the young men and a back for a tempurpedic.

Subject: RE: BS: Seeking name of Brit comedy show
From: GUEST,Helen, cookieless
Date: 20 Nov 09 - 02:07 PM

Hi Sinsull,

Do you mean the grandmother? That was Meera Syal.

If you ever get the chance to see Rolf Harris's show called Star Portraits, make sure you see the episode where Meera Syal's portrait is painted by the three artists. She is the epitome of beauty, IMHO, and each of the portraits were beautiful, each in the artists' own styles. It looks like the series website is out of action, but if you do aGoogle image search on the following terms you will see the thumbnail images of two of the paintings.

rolf harris star portraits meera syal

When I look at her in the Kumars it's really hard to see that vibrant young woman because she is so much in character that her own self is covered up, although she has the same impish humour, and maybe that's what Meera Syal will be like when she is older.

Helen

Subject: RE: BS: Seeking name of Brit comedy show
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 21 Nov 09 - 10:01 AM

Going for an English! heh heh....

I was in the UK for over a year before I figured out why that was funny. Hadn't learned the English equivalent it was parodying.