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Citizen Khan : "BBC 1 presents a British Muslim sitcom"

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s28

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and there was me thinking Eastenders Tamil family 'The Masoods' were the BBC's British Muslim sitcom

CITIZEN KHAN

BBC One presents a modern family sitcom set for the first time in a Pakistani Muslim household in Sparkhill, Birmingham.

Citizen Khan following the trials and tribulations of self-appointed Muslim community leader Mr Khan (Adil Ray) and his long-suffering family, including his house-proud and much put-upon wife Mrs Khan (Shobu Kapoor)(EastEnders). Mr Khan loves and loathes affable Mosque manager Dave Goody (Kris Marshall)(My Family)in equal measure. Maya Sondhi and Bhavna Limbachia play his feisty daughters Shazia and Alia and Abdullah Afzal (Lunch Monkeys) portrays Amjad, Shazia's handsome but dim fiancée.

Mr Khan is a larger than life character, with strong opinions and big dreams facing the challenges of many families - how to make ends meet, keep his family happy and impress the neighbours! Things would be so much easier if everyone just listened to him and followed his lead, but his family and friends usually have other ideas.

Created by Adil Ray, Mr Khan has already featured in BBC Two comedy series Bellamy's People and on Radio Four's Down the Line. Mr Khan also hosted his own web series for the BBC Comedy website, in which he covered a variety of topics including the General Election, cricket and even delivered his own Christmas message to the nation.

Citizen Khan was commissioned after it was performed at the Salford Sitcom Showcase and written by Adil Ray, Anil Gupta and Richard Pinto (The Kumars at No 42, Goodness Gracious Me, Fresh Meat).


The show will be tape on Thursdays during June & July at MediaCity, Manchester. Booking is now open so if you would like to join us, then apply now!
 
Thought it might be an April fool so looked for a link

http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2011/10_october/21/khan.shtml

446mrkhan.jpg
 
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Bearded but earnest father....hard working but suffering wife....feisty daughters.

Doesn't sound stereotypical at all. Will I watch it? I think I'd rather spend an afternoon in Guatenamo being water-boarded.
 
Cpt. Rishwat said:
Bearded but earnest father....hard working but suffering wife....feisty daughters.

Doesn't sound stereotypical at all. Will I watch it? I think I'd rather spend an afternoon in Guatenamo being water-boarded.
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should have just called it mind your language starring mr khan..as usual the wife will be downtrodden, the girls will be feisty and rebllious with finacee's and boyfriends etc etc....yawn!!
 
the Great Khan said:
should have just called it mind your language starring mr khan..as usual the wife will be downtrodden, the girls will be feisty and rebllious with finacee's and boyfriends etc etc....yawn!!
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Mind your language...I knew there was some programme I was thinking of which was comparable. East is East was a similar theme (although brilliantly funny) with a patriarchal Pakistani dad, downtrodden wife and rebellious children.

These themes have their place, it's a shame that it's the only story that Britain is interested in. Arranged marriage, corner shops, religious twit, blah, blah, female oppression etc.

Riveting stuff. Again.
 
dont know about this series, but mr khan is jokes, welcome to Lahoreds.....

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The joke never gets old

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Im not gonna lie, Mr Khan is pretty funny...it was a matter of time before he got his own show after all the youtube hits
 
on a positive note if this show is a success it could help with a relaxation of the agression many face from ections of the media and people..
 
Have to admit some good jokes in there but some are just cringeworthy, maybe exercise a bit more quality control and not be so in your face with the punchlines ?

you can be humuourous without hitting people over the head with the gags every few minutes e..g. Gavin & Stacey, The Office, Curb Your Enthusiasm
 
Starts on Monday. BBC1 10.20pm.

Let's see how bad it is.

Having said that was expecting 'Bad Education' to be bad as it was written by and stars Jack Whitehall who I think is a t**t. That has however proved to be quite amusing.
 
s28 said:
Starts on Monday. BBC1 10.20pm.

Let's see how bad it is.

Having said that was expecting 'Bad Education' to be bad as it was written by and stars Jack Whitehall who I think is a t**t. That has however proved to be quite amusing.
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Jack Whitehall isnt that bad, he's pretty funny. I like him and yeah the show is pretty good
 
He is a complete **** with no redeeming features.

re 'Bad Education' maybe someone else helped him write Bad Education? That Gavin guy from Gavin and Stacey is in it so maybe he had a hand in it ? It's a lot better than Sky's 'Gates' which has Stacey from G&S in it. That one is a right train crash.
 
Very poor caricature. Nice to see the Beeb is putting the license fee to good use.
 
Saw episode one of Bad Education, thought it was decent, the apartheid joke was quality
 
s28 said:
He is a complete **** with no redeeming features.

re 'Bad Education' maybe someone else helped him write Bad Education? That Gavin guy from Gavin and Stacey is in it so maybe he had a hand in it ? It's a lot better than Sky's 'Gates' which has Stacey from G&S in it. That one is a right train crash.
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agreed
watched one episode and nearly fell asleep
 
the Great Khan said:
on a positive note if this show is a success it could help with a relaxation of the agression many face from ections of the media and people..
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Sure GK, just as shows such as Desmond's helped break down British white fear of British immigrant black people.
 
I thought Mind Your Language did that ?

They should show those again but I guess it's not deemed politically correct now.
 
So just saw it...dissapointed I'll be honest. The live studio audience, cheap set, 'typical' comedy look to it (though they got the model wannabe girl just right, cringeworthy just like real life!) They should havemade it like the YouTube videos, focusing solely on Mr Khan and the 'commmunty' rather than a sitcom.

There were a few funny bits in it (Mr Khan singing Delilah through the Mosque speakers was good lol, or when Amjad was in the Mosque office and Mr Khan tried to get him off the chair lol), but other then that nothing special.

I might watch it if I'm free/nothing on but I won't be making an effort...4/10
 
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That was just embarrassing one or two decent jokes the recent was full of cliches which have been done many time before.
 
seemed abit dated to me, would have been better setting it in 70's or 80's. It was just about OK, just couldn't connect with it.
 
pretty average so far, could have been better but its clearly meant to be "family friendly".

no where near as good as the youtube videos.
 
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It was enjoyable at times. Potraying the hijabi girl constantly as a bad girl was a bit too much IMO.

Otherwise, some were funny scenes... Expected more to be honest. Wouldn't be surprised if we see few people complain against the show sooner then later.
 
jack whitehall is rubbish.

watched the last ten mins of the show i think, thought it was crap. interesting they should make a show on british pakistanis without involving any british pakistanis. i thought it was puerile, unfunny and negative for the community.
 
godzilla said:
jack whitehall is rubbish.

watched the last ten mins of the show i think, thought it was crap. interesting they should make a show on british pakistanis without involving any british pakistanis. i thought it was puerile, unfunny and negative for the community.
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just checked adil ray's bio and im wrong, his father is pakistani and his mother is kenyan.

its still crap though.
 
isnt it "funny" how they get indian actors to perform these type of roles?

would take a real beigharat pakistani to act in something like this that takes the mick out of pakistani's/islam.
 
I found it highly offensive to be honest

How the young girl slammed the Quran when someone can in 'pretending' to read the holy book

It was just full of stereo-typical nonsense....Nowhere near as good as The Kumars or Goodness Gracious Me
 
Very poor. The jokes have been used and abused for decades, nothing new at all. Adil Ray is also a very rubbish actor. Didn't really find it offensive but could have done without the bringing in the Quran.

Bring back goodness gracious me!
 
KingKhanWC said:
Very poor. The jokes have been used and abused for decades, nothing new at all. Adil Ray is also a very rubbish actor. Didn't really find it offensive but could have done without the bringing in the Quran.

Bring back goodness gracious me!
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The constant 'clearing of the throat'
The mountain of toilet rolls
The fake daughter who was really a 'party girl'
The over-acting mother who was taken from CBEEBIES

Did anyone notice the fact it was being portrayed as 'Pakistani Comedy Show'

Flags in every room, in the masjid etc (they were more patriotic than probably people living in Pakistan)
 
Luton Bad Boy said:
The constant 'clearing of the throat'
The mountain of toilet rolls
The fake daughter who was really a 'party girl'
The over-acting mother who was taken from CBEEBIES

Did anyone notice the fact it was being portrayed as 'Pakistani Comedy Show'

Flags in every room, in the masjid etc (they were more patriotic than probably people living in Pakistan)
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It was obviously supposed to be satire of a British Pakistani immigrant and his family. There is nothing wrong with laughing at certain typical stereotypes which have some sort of truth behind them but the jokes were just very very poor. Whoever got paid to write a 'gearstick' joke should be flogged in public!

We also have comedy shows ripping into white culture, like Jeremy Kyle or American culture like Jerry Springer....wait those are not scripted but real, my bad. :yk
 
heres my review for this show, posted it on imdb earlier, tell me what you guys think

I went into watching this show with some expectations having seen some amusing online videos and appearances of Mr. Khan in previous shows. To say i was left underwhelmed with this show would be about right.

Same old clichéd sitcom story, hammy acting, and no laugh out loud moments to think of. A lack of thought or attempt to truly push any boundaries means you are left with a sitcom that feels generic, uncomfortable and unrealistic.

Being Pakistani myself i felt the characters had no real depth beyond a few shallow clichés. Its as though the writers have been forbidden from given the characters any individuality beyond the rather banal definition of being a British Pakistani.

The vast majority of the ethnically Pakistani characters are not played by ethnically Pakistani actors, this manifests itself in the cast being unable to bring the discreet mannerisms that would give the Khan family a truly authentic feel, which is so important for a good comedy.

A clichéd idea, let down even further by poor acting and little comedic value.
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It was supposed to be set in Birmingham but none of the actors really had a Brummie accent. :facepalm:
 
I'll be watching it on iPlayer at some point, would like to see it and form an opinion, surely can't be as good as GGM though, 'cheque please!' :))) thankfully I haven't been on dates quite as bad as that, yet!
 
look people stop moaning, be thankful your getting some airtime!! Pakistanis are just indians with different clothes on and a weird flag..also the girls are all rebels and hate their stupid culture etc etc blah blah blah...plz..
 
I had seen the hat before, I was sure of it. Mr Khan's, that is, from Citizen Khan. So I Googled it and sure enough, it was the very same hat worn by the Asian man in Mind Your Language – not the one with the turban but the other one who smiled unctuously and shook his head from side to side every time he spoke. Mr Khan didn't shake his head in the same way, but he may as well have done, and he certainly wore the same hat, which must have been gathering dust in ITV's costume cupboard since the late 1970s, before being taken up now, three decades later, by the BBC.

In fact, the whole show seemed like it was stuck in a 1970s time warp. If the BBC's billing of it as the channel's first British Muslim comedy series had intended to give it some edge, this first episode quickly dispelled the spin. There was even a mention of Mr Mainwaring, from Dad's Army. Perhaps the point was that Mr Khan, a pompous community leader from Sparkhill, in Birmingham, was stuck in the past, but did this mean the jokes had to be too?

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-e...-khan-bbc1-hunderby-sky-atlantic-8082402.html
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Good review. British tv is so embarrassing when it comes to this type of stuff. No doubt Namak Halaal/MC and other fez wearing phlegm-clearing Gunga Dins will have loved it.
 
Wasn't that bad guys ! Sort of My Family level and was surprised they even had that Nick guy from My Family in it.

There are some real shockers masquerading as comedy shows. It think it compares quite favourably with Sky's 'Gates' but probably should be on a minority/specialist channel like BBC 3 to start with.
 
A BBC spokesman said: ‘Citizen Khan has made a very positive start, launching successfully with 3.6million viewers and a 21.5 per cent share in a late-night slot.
'New comedy always provokes differing reactions from the audience. The characters are comic creations and not meant to be representative of the community as a whole.'
In a recent interview with BBC Breakfast, Mr Ray said the show was allowing the Muslim community to laugh at itself.
He said: 'I think it is a great opportunity, with Mr Khan as a Pakistani Muslim and the character, to take that kind of really rich content and laugh at ourselves and I am a firm believer in that.'


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...-accused-insulting-Muslims.html#ixzz24vEqpNQV
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It's not about allowing Muslims to laugh at themselves, the show's premise is really for the non-muslim audience to laugh at them. This is clearly backed up by the storm of support from Daily Mail readers in that article.

Not that I have any problem at poking fun at Pakistani caricatures, it's been done previously and better with East is East. The formats been done to death since the 1970's and there's never been any alternative view of Pakistanis on view that's the problem.

That said I can't see why people bother to complain about it. It's a comedy and it's not aimed at Muslims so why kick up a fuss?
 
Mrs Robert watched it - she found it chucklesome, but not laugh-out-loud funny. There were a few attempts to invert clichés, such as the white mosque manager.
 
A sketch show would have been funnier, sitcoms are alot harder, Kumars at number 42 was different due to the guests.
Nothing like this has been attempted before, since the crosby show

What i liked about this was most pakistanis could relate to it and it wasn't as stereotypically offensive as east is east. The hijabi thing was much ado about nothing and could have been offensive if she had gone out in her hijab.

The negatives were some of the jokes fell flat and it wasn't as funny as some of the youtube hits
 
It was a bad show but I'm glad I watched it, would've formed a different opinion judging from the comments of others alone. I found some of the jokes were...distasteful but a lot of of that had to do with them just being not funny at all.

Some of those twitter comments seem to be wearers of the hijab feeling offended, I guess that could be an issue for some young muslim women, hard to relate to.

I hear a lot of non-muslims found it hilarious, I don't know why. I've also come across some who described the Quran scene with just a tiny hint of embellishment to aid their angry cause which is not cool at all. I expect a similar trend to follow with the remaining eps but I don't intend to follow it.
 
Not to sure why hijabis are offended - I'm sure we've all seen the hijabis who wear a hijab but the bit of their face that is showing is covered with the entire make-up collection of a major department store.
 
the theme centred around the booking of a mosque for a wedding

i've never know anyone book a mosque for a wedding ??

the joke abut the white mosque manager being a ginger was moderatlely amusing

other than that it's major failing is that it simply wasn't funny

give me george from east is east over citizen khan any day
 
TAK said:
the theme centred around the booking of a mosque for a wedding

i've never know anyone book a mosque for a wedding ??

the joke abut the white mosque manager being a ginger was moderatlely amusing

other than that it's major failing is that it simply wasn't funny

give me george from east is east over citizen khan any day
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I watched it finally, and yes that joke about the gingers did crack me up, also the one about how Pakistanis can't be racist :91:

Other than that though it was cringe-worthy stuff. Why was the young lad who was getting married (arranged marriage theme for a refreshing change!)speaking with a pained Indian accent?
 
Very disappointed with the show, heard the jokes many times before, won't be watching again unless I'm paid to.
 
I thought it was ok.

Some funny bits and some not so funny.

I think we can all relate to an uncle who resembles Citizen Khan :)
 
Cringeworthy second episode if I'm being honest. Genuinely feels like it was filmed in the 90s.
 
Made a point of not watching it due to the disrespect shown in the first episode

Read the synopsis for the second episode and continued to watch the 3rd ODI
 
I think it is a good attempt but would the BBC air something similar on Jews living in London who control the financial world and global geo-politics....?
 
I actually caught the last 15 minutes, thought i wouldnt watch it after episode 1 but was flicking through and thought 'might as well'...it was better than episode 1 actually, losing 'Nani' lol
 
I'm going to watch. There ain't any great comedy shows out there right now.

No Curb your Enthusiasm, no Extras or Office. Thankfully Daily Show provides some humour on regular basis.
 
s28 said:
I'm going to watch. There ain't any great comedy shows out there right now.

No Curb your Enthusiasm, no Extras or Office. Thankfully Daily Show provides some humour on regular basis.
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where do u watch daily show, i always seem to miss it.
 
ElRaja said:
where do u watch daily show, i always seem to miss it.
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comedy central extra channel on virgin media 185

got it series linked on my tivo

Channel 4 / More 4 started doing the Global Edition weekly so its great to get full Daily Show back again
 
One or two funny moments BUT largely meh

Lots of cliched stuff and the acting was rubbish

The funniest moment in the hour we have seen so far was end of the 2nd episode, the granny saying "Birmingham is a ****hole"
 
citizen khan seems to have evolved into uncle tom which is probably at the insistence of the bbc, still funny in parts tho
 
s28 said:
comedy central extra channel on virgin media 185

got it series linked on my tivo

Channel 4 / More 4 started doing the Global Edition weekly so its great to get full Daily Show back again
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thx for that
 
didnt find it as funny but question is would we all be as offended if ARY or GEO or any other pakistani channel had made the show?
 
M&S cardigans..lol..think I was back in the 80's lol..cmon who hasnt really heard that one?
it was ok, I laughed in bits but snoozed in others...that weird fiance is just weird!! overall it was ok..I think it may actually have potential.
 
I have to say, the joke about women's rights on tonight's episode was pushing on the boundary of acceptable. The rest of it was reasonably funny.
 
After the first episode, its actually slowly slowly got much better...the part about the woman wanting a new mini-bus and bigger bathroom motion failing without a single vote and the motion for a bigger TV to watch the cricket on, passing with 100% vote :)):))
 
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