I enjoyed both episodes, Mr Khan sort of reminds me of a Pakistani Hyacinth Bucket the way he acts so smug about being the 'community leader' and how he keeps referring to his 'business meetings'

I enjoyed this week. The immigration comment reminded me of a what a young British Pakistani woman said to me while I was shopping in her fabric shop in Bolton.....10 years ago and this was before the influx of Eastern Europeans: And I loved Granny's reaction to the idea that she should come and live in Birmingham. Granny was a bit of a star. And yes I want to see more of rebel daughter..what a perfect chavvy hijab!
Again a lot of what you might call "basic humour" but hey, I laughed. Poor Dave marshalling pensioners and Khan kerbcrawling reminded me of Father Ted scenarios..

Does anyone know what the viewing figures are for this comedy? Two million? Or is it higher or lower than that?

There's some comedy gold in there:

Dave: There are a lot of them[80 yr old Pakistani women]
Khan: Careful Dave, that sounds a bit racist.
Dave: They all look alike.
Khan: That's better.

1st ep (Bank Holiday): 3.4m
2nd ep: 2.8m

So it's doing OK I think. I definitely preferred the 2nd ep, there were a few laugh out loud moments this time e.g. Mr Khan kerb crawling.

I caught most of the second episode and that was well funny and very good! The granny I thought was cute, not in a sexy way either, just normal cute.

It reminded me of the great comedys we used to get of the 70's and 80's. I will have to try and catch the first episode too now.

What's the name of thje actor that plays the mosque manager? I've seen him before loads of times but his name isn't springing to mind.

Why talk about the Bullring, show the exterior of the Bullring and then film the shopping interior in Touchwood Solihull? Do they think people of the West Midlands don't watch? Theres no Marks and Spencers in the Bullring anyway.

They lost the Gran in Touchwood Solihull and then started looking for her (in the kerb crawling scene) on Ladypool Road and those places arent exactly next to each other....

Kris Marshall?


They think we wouldn't notice. I'm from Birmingham and I've been to bullring numerous times and I thought it was actually the Bullring

I read somewhere that it was filmed in Manchester, am I right?

And they should have gotten more Pakistani actors, even the grandmother wasn't Pakistani as I would have expected considering she spoke Urdu.

That was a great bit!

Am deffo tuning in for ep.3.

I'm noticing the theme/incidental music getting steadily more irritating to me, but I didn't mind this episode in places either. Mr Khan inadvertently kerb crawling, hauling his mother-in-law round on the prayer mat to face in the right direction and finding himself face to face with a pot-bound guest in the lav with a faulty lock were all funny to me because they had their roots in reality and you could actually imagine them happening.

Where it fell flat was with the bits that were plain ridiculous and wouldn't happen, e.g. the NHS hats. The idea of just one of these being available was too silly for words, and then they go and put a load of other elderly ladies in them as well. As if.

I think that may be why the prospective son-in-law doesn't work for me. I know there are eight year-olds wandering round in mens bodies, but I find it a stretch to believe any of them are capable of reeling a fiancee in. Unless it's an arranged marriage... but no, I just can't get my brain to go there. I'm not dismissing arranged marriages - I gather they do work for some people, but I can't see a girl's parents doing anything else other than knocking themselves out to get out of having arranged that a daughter should marry someone so obviously inadequate.

I do like prospective son-in-law's mother and her acid comments, though. Granny could be fun if she could be persuaded that the place was not too much of a 'shitehole' to stay in, but I expect we've seen the last of her unless PG Tips proves to be too much of a lure

Set in a Muslim household.
But, with obvious cultural changes, it could be a Jewish family.
Or an Anglican family.

No! Just consider Episode 2 to be the first one! You'll thank me later.

Agree with you completely Amjad (the future son in-law) is definitely the worst character on the show.

That name rings a bell, now I'm trying to remember exactly what I've seen him in before.

As for the locations, they do say in the credits "Thanks to the people of Sparkhill, Brimingham" and I'm sure I've seen some of those places before in Birmingham.

How old is Adil Ray anyone? Is he a trained actor and script writer?

Kris Marshall was in My Family for years and he also did the BT ads.

I like the show, the second episode was better than the first, Amjad is highly annoying.

Adil Ray is 38. According to Wikipedia, the only piece of acting he has done apart from Citizen Khan is in 'Bellamy's People'. Also, it claims that the show was 'co-written'. He has done a lot of presenting, on TV and radio.

What I don't get about the mosque is apparently a gurdwara but converted into a mosque (the images here are 4 years old): https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=B12...,210.1,,1,0.99

Kris Marshall was also in Love Actually

WHAT?! Is that Mr Khan? No way is he 38! Wowzars, he looks about 20 years older

Edit: just googled him and he does in fact look his age when he's not got all his Mr Khan gear on

Still can't believe that's him though!

Amjad? Frank Spencer..I always wondered what woman would marry him either.

Blimey. Just looked on Google images, and I'd never have believed it was the same person either. He actually looks quite tasty

T'was ever thus!

I live in Jersey (as you can probably tell by my user name!) and Bergerac did that a lot! He'd start running after someone in Gorey (on the east coast where I live) then turn a corner and be in St Ouen's Bay 9 miles away as the crow flies on the opposite west coast! It takes 40 minute to cover that distance in a car (believe or not - it's a small island, but we don't exactly have straight/big roads that go from A to B in anything like the UK manner!) so on foot would be pie in the sky of the highest order!

It's just one of those things - it's not that they don't think 'the locals' won't notice, they do know the locals will notice. It's just that the majority will neither know, nor care, and it's artistic licence, filming permissions, practicalities or whatever which determines what is filmed where and in what order.

I don't see it as something to get upset about, to be honest. Yes, it's mildly irritating to those of us who recognise that our localities have been somewhat mis-representated, but it's not the end of the world. What matters is the quality of the programme (or not) over all, not the editing together of locations.

IMHO, anyway.

That's exactly what I thought when I read GloriaSnockers post about how does a man/child get a woman.
It was a hard sell with Frank Spencer too, in fact the incongruity of it seemed to be part of the humour for me.
Betty seemed to be totally in love with him and forgave all his faults, maybe they want to use the same tack here.

The beard is fake

This ^^, apart from the occasional local, who's going to give a flying, seriously.
In response to the post you quoted.
Why use the Bullring exterior, because it's a well known local landmark and Birmingham seems be a bit part of the program.
Why not film inside, probably couldn't afford it or couldn't get permission.

I didn't watch btw, it's not my sort of thing, but I'm still subscribed to the thread.