The only 'REALLY DISGUSTING' thing about 'Citizen Khan' was the stupid 'Brummie' accent perpetrated by the actor paying 'Citizen Dave' (sic) the Mosque Manager in my opinion....We need to know more about other peoples' traditions and cultures so I welcome 'Citizen Khan' as an important step along that particular road, otherwise Birmingham will become 'ghettoised' with people living in ethnic silos in their own suburbs......In London, all races, creeds and cultures live 'cheek by jowl' mostly together and there are no particular 'ethnic' be it white, black, yellow or brown neighbourhoods. This is patently not the case in Birmingham and until we learn about our neighbours' culture and way of life we will not be truly 'One Birmingham'.....a great diverse melting pot of a city....Oh and another thing, the correspondent who criticises 'Citizen Khan' for poking fun at (Aktar) Islam (sic again!) saying that there are no similar sitcoms parodying Judaism or Christianity needs to watch more TV....what about Dawn French's comedy female vicar Geraldine in the BBC's Christianity-parodying 'The Vicar of Dibley' or the recent BBC2 hit sitcom 'Rev'....? Or Channel 4's excellent 'Father Ted'. All three poke fun at Christianlty mercilessly. I think some of those following The Qu'ran need to take their religion far less seriously and need to develop a particularly British trait: tolerance and being able to laugh at oneself, the typical self-deprecating 'Brummie' humour if you like? And as for there being no 'Jewish Jokers' poking fun at the Jewish faith please, please please look on YouTUbe at the much-missed Jack Rosenthal's 'Bar Mitzvah Boy' or anything that his lovely widow Maureen Lipman is in, such as the 80's BT TV adverts. And what about the great American tradiition of 'Jewish' comics.....from the Marx Brothers, to Woody Allen, to Jackie Mason, to Jerry Seinfeld.....are they not 'taking the Mickey' out of Jews......Sorry about the rant......I rest my case M'lud, Citizen Khan is in the dock on 'Trumped-Up charges. In my eyes it is an excellent sitcom in the tradition of 'Love They Neighbour' pillorying racism and pointing up its stupidity and paints a very positive portrait of a vibrant 'Multi-Cultural' diverse Sparkhill in Bimingham.....one other thing.....why couldn't the BBC film the interior scenes in Birmingham rather than Manchester? Ah.....yes I forgot the BBC abandoned Birmingham in favour of Manchester.....Birmingham with its fantastic tradition of ground-breaking TV production at the former ATV studios in Broad Street which gave us the revolutionary and anarchic TISWAS and the BBC's own Pebble Mill in Edgbaston near to the University of Birmingham which produced an hour of live televison every day in the 1970's with the lunchtime magazine programme : 'Pebble Mill at One'. Whatever happened to these fantastic centres of live TV production....? The ATV Centre is awaiting demolition as part of the new Arena Central development at the bottom end of Broad Street, opposite the new 'Library of Birmingham' scheduled to open this time next year (can't wait!) and Pebble Mill was demolished 5 years ago to make way for a new Science Park linked to the nearby University. Pebble Mill produced such iconic programmes as Birmingham-based 'Gangsters' and groundbreaking 'eco thriller' : 'Edge of Darkness'. Why has the BBC forsaken the creative TV talent in Birmingham? We see the new generation of Asian writers, actors and producers in 'Citizen Khan' put on screen by Adil Rai who wrote the sitcom and plays the main character, a parody of a Brummie Pakistani-born businessman, always striving to be accepted by the ' Birmingham Institute of Pakistani Businessmen'. The programme portrays a vibrant multiracial community in Birmingham's Sparkhill with affection and humour, and is a welcome addition to Asian British TV programming in the tradition of sketch show: 'Goodness, Gracious me' which gave us Sanjeev Bhaskar and Meera Syal, groundbreaking comedy performers who are now the first couple of Asian TV with Sanjeev now starring in new Sunday evening show: 'The Indian Doctor' set in South Wales. Perhaps this is a trend and Birmingham will be the centre of new Asian TV production: 'Brummaywood' in the making.......We can but dream....!
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