Three episodes in and the new BBC sitcom Citizen Khan is sort of improving. Yesterday night’s episode had a throwaway line at the start where Mr Khan got annoyed at being phoned up by a call centre operative from Mumbai – a deft 21st century touch that there are too few of. Whereas “The Kumars at 42″ and “Bend It Like Beckham” recognised the suburbanisation of Asians this grim oop north sub-Hovis ad seems stuck in a 70s groove harking back to the decade that time forgot in interior decor and sophistication of humour. Once again there were loads of tweets flooding in starkly divided between lols and cringes. My longer take on the programme went up over the weekend at Huffington Post and can be read here.

Here is Ali from “Mind Your Language” by way of a memory jog:

In answer to the comments:

Some of the posters have the right idea but others are comically outraged at my original thoughts – disgusted on Tonbridge Wells lives online. One looks like they have just discovered inverted commas so determined to use them every other word, a bit like my eight year old.  Funniest one was someone who said the best thing about it was that it reminded them to renew their EDL membership. Cannot find it now, possibly removed by moderator.

Another declared “As professor of sociology the write [sic] should know better than to dismiss a milestone in the depiction of Islam in the mainstream media”. Thanks for elevating but am several paygrades below this rank I’m afraid.

Further reading: Huq, R. (1996) on all this and “the burden of representation” in the classic text “Disorienting Rhythms” available for download here.

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