Citizen Khan

[Mat ov CPFC]

Anybody watch it ?

Managed to last 5 minutes before just having to turn it off, primarily for the canned laughter. Appalling.

[Jordan's Jacket]

Watched 3 mins, it was absolutely dreadful, mainly because of the sterotyping

[Kevan Woz Awful]

As Jordans Jacket says - dreadful stereotyping, but I found it a bit 'car crash' and watched it right through in the hope it might get better.

Only reward was the main character knocking on his daughters bedroom door and saying "open the door, it's your father - Mr Khan" and even that doesn't seem as funny in the cold light of day.

[hull eagle]

Not for me, not funny at all

[Dave]

[Kipungu]

Was really bad. Reminded me of mediocre 80s/90s sitcoms. Mr Khan's character in his short videos online was great, but this family sitcom stuff is too old fashioned. And full of stereotypes.

[ChaceTheAce]

Watched the end cause I was waiting for Gavin and Stacey. Laughed out of pity at "I like the cricket too".

[palacelad1970]

Terrible and i wont watch again

[Mat ov CPFC]

Originally Posted by Kipungu

Was really bad. Reminded me of mediocre 80s/90s sitcoms. Mr Khan's character in his short videos online was great, but this family sitcom stuff is too old fashioned. And full of stereotypes.

Its a perfect character for short sketches and so on but a full 30 minute sit-com, its just too shallow.

Which is a shame because I reckon that given the complexities of life for families from a similar background then in the right hands it could provide a lot of very good material that could sustain such a format.

[jone-zee]

Ticks all the boxes at the Beeb.

Unlike another series of Shooting Stars

[Cartoon Head]

you never would've guessed it was on the bbc,doesn't matter how shite this was,it was always going to get commisioned because..............

better not go there i suppose

[Mat ov CPFC]

Originally Posted by Cartoon Head

you never would've guessed it was on the bbc,doesn't matter how shite this was,it was always going to get commisioned because..............

better not go there i suppose

FFS grow a pair.

If you are trying to insuitate that the BBC probably went commisioned this show in part because they want to be more widely representative of the British polulation then you are probably right. I would be willing to guarantee that if a white script writer had submitted this shite it would never have even got to the first meeting, let alone into production but I think the BBC should be looking to expand its range of writers and what it puts out.

Dont get me wrong the programe is question is utter tosh and is an example of 'positive' discrimination at its absolute worse but hopefully it might spur some more British Asian writers to think, and with a lot of justification, that they could do a much better job and get the pens and paper out.

The BBC is funded in part because its meant to take risks. To push boundaries. And sometimes it fails miserably as in this case but hopefully it could lead to something else.

[west country boy]

Originally Posted by Mat ov CPFC

The BBC is funded in part because its meant to take risks. To push boundaries...

You'd hope so, but this is rather depressing: http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/abo...riters-academy

Now in its eighth year, the Writers Academy is a major initiative aimed at discovering and training the next generation of writers for BBC One’s flagship shows: EastEnders, Casualty, Holby City, and Doctors.

[Mat ov CPFC]

Originally Posted by west country boy

You'd hope so, but this is rather depressing:http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/abo...riters-academy

I once had a group of potential tenants who were studying for a degree in TV screen-writing at South Bank University. Me, being me, started chatting to them and asking if they studied things like 'Boys from the Blackstuff' and some of the earlier stuff like 'Cathy come home'. They looked at me just blankly. They had no clue what so ever.

Their collective ambition was to write an episode of Casulaty because they paid, supposedly, £80K a pop.

So yes, it is depressing.

But there is still some good stuff being produced and I still think the BBC has a positive remit. Its run by soc.lib divs, of that there is very little doubt, but they do still get it right on occassion.

These days I tend to focus more on the radio drama output than TV but have hopes that they could evolve into a more constructive drama output on all levels.

With the biggest irony being the current sub-continental immigrant and subsequent 2nd and 3rd generation population probably has more potential than most for offering all sorts of dramatic situations on all sorts of levels than a lot of others. Its just a crying shame that sub-standard shite like this series under discussion gets the chance. There must be a lot better stuff floating around out there.

[Kipungu]

Let us not forget the classic that was Goodness Gracious Me, and a fairly decent Kumar's at Number 42. Sanjeev Bhaskar and Meera Syal are quite decent writers.

The problem with Citizen Khan is the fact that the character Mr Khan himself was a massive hit online in his short online videos. From there, they've tried to milk it. The writer(s) just don't have the skill to expand the concept into a show.

[west country boy]

GGM featured Amanda Holden and is therefore dead to me. (Also, its most famous sketch ripped off Alexei Sayle.)

[ExiledStirling]

Originally Posted by Mat ov CPFC

I once had a group of potential tenants who were studying for a degree in TV screen-writing at South Bank University. Me, being me, started chatting to them and asking if they studied things like 'Boys from the Blackstuff' and some of the earlier stuff like 'Cathy come home'. They looked at me just blankly. They had no clue.

Have just been watching 'Boys from the Blackstuff again' over the last few days. How depressingly brilliant. One of the greatest TV series ever made.

More depressing is the fact that these students are not studying the likes of Alan Bleasdale's work.

[Mat ov CPFC]

Originally Posted by ExiledStirling

More depressing is the fact that these students are not studying the likes of Alan Bleasdale's work.

I was stunned.

I would have thought that any sort of formal study of writing for British TV would include things like Galton and Simpson (the impact of Steptoe and Son on popular British TV culture just cannot be measured), Alan Bleasdale and even things like 'Play for today' and so on should be absolute definites.

I guess the problem is that these days so much British TV writing seems to be done by numbers in terms of any and everything that I guess you probably could teach a formula for writing for something like Casulty without ever needing to really examine how the genre developed but I think it would be a much poorer experience for it.

[fang]

Originally Posted by Kipungu

Let us not forget the classic that was Goodness Gracious Me, and a fairly decent Kumar's at Number 42. Sanjeev Bhaskar and Meera Syal are quite decent writers.

The problem with Citizen Khan is the fact that the character Mr Khan himself was a massive hit online in his short online videos. From there, they've tried to milk it. The writer(s) just don't have the skill to expand the concept into a show.

Spot on. But you can't blame the writer. The quality of commissioning executives in TV at present is woeful. Inexperienced, risk averse unable to communicate in anything other than cliches.

They will have looked at the online video's and thought 'well, it works there'.

Tossers.

[ExiledStirling]

Originally Posted by Mat ov CPFC

I was stunned.

I would have thought that any sort of formal study of writing for British TV would include things like Galton and Simpson (the impact of Steptoe and Son on popular British TV culture just cannot be measured), Alan Bleasdale and even things like 'Play for today' and so on should be absolute definites.

I guess the problem is that these days so much British TV writing seems to be done by numbers in terms of any and everything that I guess you probably could teach a formula for writing for something like Casulty without ever needing to really examine how the genre developed but I think it would be a much poorer experience for it.

You are right, done by numbers, for the numbers.