The Kumars at No. 42 is a British television talk show. It won an International Emmy in 2002[1] and in 2003.[2]
Plot
The show stars a fictional British Indian family, including Madhuri and Ashwin Kumar (played by Indira Joshi and Vincent Ebrahim), their thirty-something son Sanjeev (played by Sanjeev Bhaskar), his new wife Dorin and Sushila, Sanjeev's grandmother, normally referred to as Ummi (played by Meera Syal). The family live in Wembley, London, England. The show's central premise is that Sanjeev's parents have supported his dream of being a TV presenter by having a TV studio built on what used to be their back garden. Running jokes include Sanjeev's apparent social ineptitude, and Ashwin's obsession with financial matters and his tendency to tell long stories with no real point. It is also a regular conceit that the guests' appearance fees are paid in chutney.
The show has an improvisational feel, though in reality much of the regular cast's performance was scripted. In the early episodes only Meera Syal improvised to any great extent, though as the cast became accustomed to their characters the improvised content increased.
Production
The show's UK debut was on 12 November 2001 on BBC Two. It was produced by Hat Trick Productions and Pariah Television. Seven series of the programme have aired on BBC Two (and latterly on BBC One), with the seventh shown in 2006. In an interview for Radio Times in May 2007 Bhaskar confirmed that the show had run its course and there were no plans for any further series.
The Kumars also made a guest appearance on the 2003 Comic Relief single 'Spirit in the Sky' performed by Gareth Gates. They also starred in the video. It reached number 1 in the charts and sold more than 550,000 copies.
International
The Kumars at Number 42 is also shown in Asia (including India and Malaysia) on the Star World satellite TV channel and on SABC in South Africa, where former President Nelson Mandela appeared as a guest on the show. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation screens it in Australia and, due to its previous time slot being right before hugely successful Australian comedy Kath & Kim, has made the programme hugely successful in Australia, and it is also very popular in New Zealand, where it is screened by Television New Zealand. It has been broadcast in the United States on BBC America, and in Canada, the programme can be viewed on BBC Canada, a digital cable channel, weeknights at 9:00 North American Eastern Time.[1] It was shown in Sweden, as Curry Curry talkshow, by SVT2 in 2004, and in the Netherlands on the public broadcasting foundation NPS (Nederland 3). Currently it is also shown in Switzerland on Swiss TV station DRS.
In August 2002 the American channel NBC entered a deal to buy the format but later dropped out. It was then bought by Fox TV, who planned to air the show in the US under the title The Ortegas with a Latino family, rather than an Asian one, but that too was dropped. No episodes of The Ortegas have been aired in the US.
The Australian version, Greeks on the Roof (featuring Greek Australians), debuted in 2003 but was soon taken off the air because of very low ratings.
ARY Digital has produced a Pakistani Version of the show called Ghaffar at Dhoraji featuring a Gujarati family living in Karachi. Sony Television has produced an Indian version of the show called Batliwalla House No. 43 featuring a Parsee family living in Mumbai.
Trivia
When talking about The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy for the British Book Awards, Sanjeev Bhaskar stated that he chose 42 as the house number because in the Hitchhiker's series 42 features prominently as the Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything.
Sanjeev Bhaskar told interviewer Mark Lawson in August 2007 that the inspiration for the series was an embarrassing evening when he took a girlfriend to meet his parents. They asked her awkward questions and he wondered how they would react if he invited a famous person to his home. Ashwin and Madhuri are exaggerated versions of his own parents.
See also
References
External links
