What's new

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

Haven't watched the third episode...but I find the whole thing hideously outdated. It actually feels like an 80's sitcom.

The need to stick in a joke or a punchline every 30 seconds is also annoying.

Why do they all speak in different accents if they are a family from Birmingham. What the hell is wrong with the Fiance?? If he is a 20 something year old, why does he speak in a pained 'fresh' accent.

The whole thing comes accross as cheap, and totally mindless. For me he space for such a programme is there, and the characters have potential....but this needs a reboot. Will be scrapped after this season if it carrys on like this.

BBC used to have some class as well when it came to making shows. Sherlock is the only one I can think of now...which is superb. Way better than the movies I might add.
 
Zahid87 said:
BBC used to have some class as well when it came to making shows. Sherlock is the only one I can think of now...which is superb. Way better than the movies I might add.
Click to expand...

the thick of it comes to mind.
 
It's ok in fact growing on me the only problem is its gone mainstream too quickly it should be on BBC 3 where it can develop its own following like what Gavin and Stacey etc did.

Some say its 'dated' but for some its reinforcing of some stereotypes is comfortably familiar and maybe we all quite fancy a mind your language retread. It's also nice that for once we aren't being portrayed as terrorists or groomers a huge leap forward. To me it is like a Muslim 'My Family' with the gormless girl/ boy relationship, flighty daughter, Adil Ray the idiot husband, Gita the clever long suffering wife etc
 
3rd episode was a marked improvement over the first 2 episodes which indeed felt dated with their jokes!
 
Yeah whisper it but I'm almost a little bit looking forward to tonights episode.
 
Citizen Khan, which has taken a critical fatwa, is a sitcom about a Muslim family in Birmingham. It’s not racist, because its intent isn’t racist. Neither will it incite racism. It’s not clever enough or funny enough to lead to children being bullied or bricks being thrown at mosques. What is offensive about it is that it’s as bad as it is — jaw-droppingly, eye-bulgingly dreadful, a reprise of the worst of 1970s comedy, the deathly setup of this week’s running gag, the artless trudge up to the laugh. The laughter itself echoes from another era, canned and preserved in some BBC morgue. There are no characters, just a series of mannerisms and expressions. Everyone waits dumbly for their turn to speak before gurning into their roles like *battery-operated toys. It was utterly irredeemable, but it wasn’t prejudice. It is, though, bloody cruel to dump this steaming turd of a show on anyone’s cultural doorstep.

http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/culture/film_and_tv/tv/article1124149.ece
Click to expand...

An insightful review from a writer I admire. He seems almost as embarrassed as I have been by this cultural dinosaur of a tv show. English journalism at it's best.
 
I know people like to jump on bandwagons and the bandwagon has decided that this show is rubbish but i watched 2 episodes: last week and this week and i got to say its quite decent. Its not the greatest comedy but its not bad either. All comedies start off slowly, just watch the early episodes of Only Fools and Blackadder and they were terrible, but now both are quite rightly seen as 2 of the best comedies ever made. My advice is to watch it yourself and you might be surprised.
 
Last edited:
kabir000 said:
I know people like to jump on bandwagons and the bandwagon has decided that this show rubbish but i watched 2 epidsodes, last week and this week and i got to say its quite decent. Its not the greatest comedy but its not bad either. All comedies start off slowly, just watch the early episodes of Only Fools and Blackadder and they were terrible, but now both are quite rightly seen as 2 of the best comedies ever made. My advice is to watch it yourself and you might be surprised.
Click to expand...

There is no bandwagon. There are views of men among equals and mice who scurry among lions.
 
Last nights episode only caught a few bits but the Group visit to the Pub was a classic.

Right up there with the No.1 moment from UK sitcoms Delboy falling through the gap in the Pub bar.

'Elephant in the room'

oh and the English convert Dave making polite conversation with another Englishman in the pub

"I used to drink...until I realised it was an abomination against God'
 
Last edited:
The Alia character is very realistic, i have taught girls like her for many a year. Form over substance with mouth like sewers.
 
Looks like this is gaining popularity online. I still haven't watched any of them on iPlayer, keep forgetting. Is it worth watching them all or certain episodes only?
 
I've watched them all, there are some very funny moments and nice to see areas of my home city which I know very well. However there is no doubt Ray has deliberately put jokes into the script knowing they are going to be offensive to many Muslims. Making fun of the Azan(call to prayer) as some sort of X factor competition made me cringe. I hope I don't bump into him in Bham. :)
 
i saw the last episode, the pub bit was a bit funny, its still a boring show imo. little creativity and strange mentally "different" characters.
 
James said:
Looks like this is gaining popularity online. I still haven't watched any of them on iPlayer, keep forgetting. Is it worth watching them all or certain episodes only?
Click to expand...

Last weeks episode was good, last nights had its moments. Overall, not bad. I agree that the X factor sketch last night was weak but the pub scene with its double entendres was excellent.
 
Last edited:
KingKhanWC said:
I've watched them all, there are some very funny moments and nice to see areas of my home city which I know very well. However there is no doubt Ray has deliberately put jokes into the script knowing they are going to be offensive to many Muslims. Making fun of the Azan(call to prayer) as some sort of X factor competition made me cringe. I hope I don't bump into him in Bham. :)
Click to expand...

Isn't he a Muslim himself?
 
KingKhanWC said:
Making fun of the Azan(call to prayer) as some sort of X factor competition made me cringe.
Click to expand...

:facepalm: That's cringey. Heard there was a Koran joke as well. Bit harsh.


I'm looking forward to seeing some of the show tomorrow though. Watching The Thick of It tonight!
 
Alexander said:
Isn't he a Muslim himself?
Click to expand...

He is but the only way he'll ever be on tv as a muslim is as a caricature figure. Some of the jokes have been decent to be fair, although I only watched the first episode. But even the best jokes start to sound a bit tired after 40 years.

I posted a video from Youtube of It ain't half hot Mum early on in this thread and the video's now been removed from Youtube. Someone must have found the comparison a bit too close for comfort.
 
Episode 5 (24 September, BBC One, 10.35pm)

Mr Khan’s new plasma TV , complete with ‘surroundy soundy’, provides the perfect opportunity to have his friends round to enjoy the Pakistan vs. England cricket match.

But Mrs Khan needs the house to be a place of complete calm as she plans to host a prayer meeting for her recently widowed friend. But the Khan household is rarely quiet, let alone when there is a crucial cricket match on. ..
 
finding good cop more interesting than citizen khan though this week :)
 
That noise Citizen Khan makes with his throat is hilarious.
 
Why does Khan's wife keep calling her mother nani in second episode when she should be calling her mother or Ami?
 
Saw episode 5, thought it was okay! Watchable enough.

Occasionally amusing as opposed to your Only Fools/Blackadder/The Office non-stop hilarity.

The three little pigs joke did catch me off guard though, laughed out loud to that.
 
Last of the series tomorrow. Think it has done enough to get commissioned for second series.
 
Its grew on me a bit. Still not very funny but its watchable and hopefully the second series is an improvment
 
A seven-episode second series has been commissioned as of three days ago.

Despite the criticism and controversy around this show, not to mention its unfriendly time slot - I wouldn't have thought anyone would have bothered staying up for this after their day at work and watching the news - Citizen Khan has been getting relatively strong ratings. There's been an average of 2.5 million viewers with a best of over 3 million, which tends to make up 20-25% of the national audience at that time. Quite amazing!

You kind of have to stick with a show that is shown at an obscure time on a Monday (which clashes with ITV news), to mixed reviews, and still manages to rack up those kinds of figures. I suspect series two will be given a primetime slot on a more prominent night for television, which will make or break the show.

IMO people don't care about acting as much with programmes like this, so really it's the writing that needs to improve for Citizen Khan to last beyond next year. There have to be several handfuls of good jokes from now on instead of the occasional guffaw. People will only watch a show for its novelty value for so long.
 
Last edited:
I reckon it is as good as My Family. With Nick from My Family already in it it gives it a bit more familiarity and would make it more accessible to prime time audiences if they added more 'token' non brown faces
 
I always thought My Family was pretty terrible. A quality cast, but the themes were tepid and the writing desperately weak, apart from one or two episodes per series where it was a funny watch.

Citizen Khan can do better than that.
 
Last show was a bit near the bone in its humour. But funny.

Looks like they have got a second series due in New Year.
 
Some 'catchphrases' starting to catch on ? (well with me anyway)

"I am community leader!"

and

I quite like the recurring

"assalaamu alaikum Mr Khan"
"hello Dave"
 
I like 'bloody racialist'. It's a clever show.

I do fear shows like this have the opposite effect though. Adil and co probably mean well in helping the Muslim community have a chuckle at itself, and amusing the educated whities as well with the try-hard convert imam character. But the majority of white trash in this country are so thick that they probably take Mr Khan semi-literally and don't grasp the satire of it all.
 
My kids love the show and watch each episode at least twice. I have heard young children repeat "assalaamu alaikum Mr Khan"
"hello Dave"
 
That 'hello dave' could be Citizen Khan's version of Seinfeld's 'Numan'
 
Coming back for Series 2 !!

In a week where Ben Elton's Wright Way got panned and canned this is a major achievement.

---------------------------------------------------


CITIZEN KHAN
BBC1 hit Citizen Khan returns to our screens for a second series this year.
This modern family sitcom set in a Pakistani Muslim household in Sparkhill, Birmingham, follows 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). Maya Sondhiand 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 is written by Adil Ray, Anil Gupta and Richard Pinto (The Kumars at No 42, Goodness Gracious Me, Fresh Meat).
The show will be taped on Thursdays from 6th June until 18th July 2013 at MediaCity, Manchester and booking is now open so if you would like to join us for a night of comedy, then apply now via our website
 
I actually googled this today to check when it was coming out. Filming starts from in June and ends in July, with the second season airing in August.
 
Haha I love how 'The Wright Way' has been compared to 'When the Whistle Blows' which was actually a fake and intentionally bad sitcom featured within Gervais's Extras.
 
managed to get audience seat for first series, don't think i'l attempt this time around, i'l probably get seated next to a female if nothing else



apparently kumars at number 42 is back on screen too

More mid aged asians dressed up as oaps making the same jokes about the same crap
 
Last edited:
It's back for a second series starting this Friday.


<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/uqPY9KtU3t0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
Did anyone else see the new series of Citizen Khan?

For the most part I really enjoyed the 1st series but felt parts of last nights were a little weak. I hope the series gets better.
 
I liked it, my favourite bit was amjad saying "fella" and punching the other guy lol
 
Although as others have mentioned it was poor, however i found the way that the religion and the faked perception of the pauperized Pakistani was overwhelming portrayed, i realise that this is to provide entertainment however the offense I believe that it creates is greater than the satisfaction derived from viewing the product.
 
I'm surprised someone hasn't made a sitcom about Indian call centre workers yet.

"Good evening Mr Bogmarsh, my name is William and I am calling today about.." :101:
 
Cpt. Rishwat said:
I'm surprised someone hasn't made a sitcom about Indian call centre workers yet.

"Good evening Mr Bogmarsh, my name is William and I am calling today about.." :101:
Click to expand...

There was one named OutSourced, they even telecast it in India and I have cousins (some working in call centers) who tell me they find it funny.

Have seen Citizen Khan, dont think the show is outright funny, but I find it surprising that Pakistanis in the UK should find the show offensive
 
only watch it to see shazia (maya sondhi) now that is one fit girl

images
 
It's the kind of stuff you might watch on youtube if you have a bit of time to kill but it's certainly not Friday night prime time quality.

I like Adil Ray (used to listen to his asiannetwork shows 10+ years ago) however I think he's only got this show because of his bbc connections (or maybe even an ethnic quota) because if you judge it on merit no way it would deserve a slot on the bbc.
 
It's funny but there is no need to bring religion into the program and mock the call to prayer, islamic greeting and islamic prayer to name a few, leaves a bad taste in the mouth, having said that being from birmingham i can relate to all the characters but no way do muslims mock religion openly like that so that part of the show is a false depiction of british muslims living in birmingham, you will find practicing and non practicing muslims but no one mocks their beliefs like that
 
sad to learn that comedian Felix Dexter (played Omar) in the series has passed away. RIP
 
dirk diggler said:
sad to learn that comedian Felix Dexter (played Omar) in the series has passed away. RIP
Click to expand...

Sad as this news is, it may be a blessing in disguise as Omar (Felix Dexter) was probably the funniest character in the show. And I doubt they will make another series.
 
Felix Dexter was one of the top characters in the movie. RIP.

The last episodes I watched on the 2nd series as been quite boring. They are trying to focus on the Nanni to much.
 
Awful series, over acting and poor comics all round.
 
http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2013/oct/03/citizen-khan-critic-proof-tv

Citizen Khan and the importance of critic-proof TV shows

The critics hated Adil Ray's sitcom, but viewers loved it, much like Mrs Brown's Boys and Splash! If reviewers ignore popular appeal, they risk being ignored themselves

There has often been an imbalance between the TV shows that get written up in the media and those that get talked-up at bus stops and in work canteens. For example, soap opera has generally been disliked by reviewers, but loved by viewers.

This gap between popular and critical taste, though, is particularly noticeable at the moment, with the triumphant survival of three shows the reviewing community riddled with bullets from their opening episodes onwards. Adil Ray's Citizen Khan returns for a second series (Friday, 9.30pm, BBC1) despite its first run producing a voluble body of opinion (from which I dissented) that Ray's domestic sitcom about a Muslim community organiser in Birmingham was both crassly unfunny and even racist.

And many (including, this time, me) were equally surprised to hear that ITV has recommissioned for a second series next year Tom Daley's Splash!, an attempt to relocate Strictly Come Dancing to a swimming pool, in which the belly flops of the lesser contestants soon seemed a tempting metaphor for the broadcasting performance of the show.

Ray and Daley now join, as escapees from the grave of critical reputation, Brendan O'Carroll, whose Mrs Brown's Boys was left holed and smoking by most of Britain's professional TV-watchers, but has become a hugely lucrative franchise both on TV and on stage. And, in all three cases, the impressive numbers in the ratings have overcome the raised single digits from the critics.

Despite widespread ridicule, Splash! attracted audiences in excess of five million. These must have consisted of more than teenage girls hoping to see Daley wearing only a scrap of Speedos, which was cynically assumed to be the target audience. Citizen Khan achieved figures of around three million, an expressive performance in a late-night slot. Neither of these returns matches the remarkable figure of circa 15 million that Mrs Brown found across all viewing formats, but most commissioners would still prefer to cater to such proven appetites than to create a new taste from scratch.

What these critique-defeating programmes show is that the small-screen commentariat has consistently underestimated – or refused to acknowledge – the popular appeal of certain types of television, such as broadbrush slapstick and minor celebrities almost drowning.

But this gulf between audiences and opinion-formers is also increasingly visible in the obverse phenomenon of shows that, although watched by relatively small numbers of viewers, dominate media discussion. During the run of The West Wing, I happened to have conversations about it with a long-serving newspaper editor and a long-serving politician, who separately asked me just how big its UK viewing figures were, offering the speculative benchmarks of: "Five million? Ten million?" At that time, the series was screening on E4, where ratings in tens of thousands would have been respectable, and would soon move further out to More4, before becoming largely a box-set phenomenon in the UK.

There has been a similar example this week in the headline coverage across almost all UK newspapers and broadcasters of the final episode of Breaking Bad. The sheer scale of feature articles and discussions on current affairs shows suggested a public hunger to know the fate of Walter White roughly equivalent to the "Who Shot JR?" furore in 1980. However, while almost 22 million people tuned in to that climactic episode of Dallas, the UK audience for Breaking Bad is fractional, although we don't know precisely how small because of the secrecy of Netflix, which streams it here.

However, because Breaking Bad is the sort of high-quality American drama to which leading media figures are drawn – and because newspapers and broadcasters are prone to trend-surfing – a largely unseen show takes on the feel of a mass-audience street-clearer.

This repeats the process by which, because of the proportion of American political obsessives in the newspaper and Westminster worlds, the story of President Bartlet's White House acquired the false buzz of a mega-hit in Britain. In the same way, because there is a greater tolerance of broad comedy among civilians than critics, Mrs Brown's Boys and Citizen Khan take on the false taint of failure.

The result is two paradoxical categories – the popular flop (Splash!) and the niche blockbuster (Breaking Bad) – which, at a time when professional criticism is under heavy pressure from the online democratisation of comment, risk making reviewers even easier to ignore.
 
s28 said:
http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2013/oct/03/citizen-khan-critic-proof-tv

Citizen Khan and the importance of critic-proof TV shows

The critics hated Adil Ray's sitcom, but viewers loved it, much like Mrs Brown's Boys and Splash! If reviewers ignore popular appeal, they risk being ignored themselves

There has often been an imbalance between the TV shows that get written up in the media and those that get talked-up at bus stops and in work canteens. For example, soap opera has generally been disliked by reviewers, but loved by viewers.

This gap between popular and critical taste, though, is particularly noticeable at the moment, with the triumphant survival of three shows the reviewing community riddled with bullets from their opening episodes onwards. Adil Ray's Citizen Khan returns for a second series (Friday, 9.30pm, BBC1) despite its first run producing a voluble body of opinion (from which I dissented) that Ray's domestic sitcom about a Muslim community organiser in Birmingham was both crassly unfunny and even racist.

What these critique-defeating programmes show is that the small-screen commentariat has consistently underestimated – or refused to acknowledge – the popular appeal of certain types of television, such as broadbrush slapstick and minor celebrities almost drowning.
Click to expand...

This is such a lazy and stupid argument. If that's the case, then surely there has to be a case for bringing back comedians like Bernard Manning who got vilified for making jokes about blacks and other ethnic minorities? Or Jim Davidson and his loveable black character "Chalky"?They were probably a lot funnier than Citizen Khan.

I don't personally feel offended as a Pakistani to Citizen Khan btw, because I don't relate to any of the characters, but as a Brit it feels slightly embarrassing that we are basically reproducing humour that went out of date 30 years ago.

What next? Bring back the black and white minstrel show with a bunch of blacked up whites singing "I got these chocolate fingerrss!!"

Or maybe Mind your Language with some smiling Indian nodding his head muttering " Von thousand apologies sirr!":101:
 
this series has been so much better than the first series!!! :-D I'm really sad the person who plays the somalian guy died though, may he rest in peace
 
Braveheart said:
Sad as this news is, it may be a blessing in disguise as Omar (Felix Dexter) was probably the funniest character in the show. And I doubt they will make another series.
Click to expand...

Did you just refer to someone's death as 'a blessing in disguise' because it may lead to the cancellation of a TV show?
 
I have been watching shows having recorded them and think it's been very funny this series. Mr Khan seems to be morphing into an Asian Mr Bean in some scenes.

I was laughing out loud at some of the pithy banter in one of the recent episodes with the new 'Dave'.

Dave : "I want to help the little people..."

Mr Khan : "oh right you mean the Bangladeshis"

Dave : "No the poor, downtrodden, who have lost all hope"

Mr Khan : "Oh I think you're looking for Wolverhampton"
 
s28 said:
I have been watching shows having recorded them and think it's been very funny this series. Mr Khan seems to be morphing into an Asian Mr Bean in some scenes.

I was laughing out loud at some of the pithy banter in one of the recent episodes with the new 'Dave'.

Dave : "I want to help the little people..."

Mr Khan : "oh right you mean the Bangladeshis"

Dave : "No the poor, downtrodden, who have lost all hope"

Mr Khan : "Oh I think you're looking for Wolverhampton"
Click to expand...

Errrr lets not go OTT shall we.
 
This show has severely been depleted in quality since the inaugural episode of Series 1. By attempting to appeal to a wider audience (and possibly to lessen the amount of offensive material present), it has without doubt lost its vintage Pakistani feel - losing a large amount of the inside jokes, instead having an emphasis on more British aspects of life. As a result, the same tedious - and at times cringeworthy - jokes are conjured up repetitively and it has become a merely watchable show but definitely not one an individual would watch if anything else was present on the TV.

To add to its decline in quality, the change in actor who plays the character "Dave" has severly disrupted the flow of the show, with the new appearing too old and too weathered to play the role of the younger, more exuberant "Dave" that was existent in the previous series.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

MenInG
Fears grow for British man detained for taking down Pakistan flag in Pakistan-administered Kashmir
Replies
18
Views
2K
Khan12
K
MenInG
Jemima Khan: ‘Like Lewinsky, I was in a relationship with a powerful older man & was used as a pawn'
Replies
9
Views
3K
Cpt. Rishwat
Cpt. Rishwat
TSA321
Cousin Marriages Could Die Out For British Muslim Pakistanis
Replies
41
Views
2K
Bhaijaan
Bhaijaan
G
"Perhaps if the BJP wins, some kind of settlement in Kashmir could be reached": Imran Khan
Replies
73
Views
4K
Ram Shekhar
R
Varun
Imran Khan assassination threat: Taliban 'plot to ASSASSINATE' new Pakistan prime minister
Replies
5
Views
652
Mueez
Mueez
Back
Top