''The Kumars at No. 42'' is a British
television show
A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed b ...
. It won an
International Emmy
The International Emmy Awards, or International Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. Bestowed by the New York–based International Academy of Television Arts and Sci ...
in 2002 and 2003, and won a
Peabody Award in 2004. It ran for seven series totalling 53 episodes.
It was reportedly a favourite of Queen
Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during ...
.
Plot
The show stars a
fictional British Indian family, including Madhuri and Ashwin Kumar (played by Indira Joshi and
Vincent Ebrahim
Vincent Ebrahim (born 1951) is a South African actor and comedian. He is known for portraying the roles of Ashwin in the BBC later Sky One comedy series '' The Kumars at No. 42'' (2001–2006, 2014), pub landlord Bobby in the BBC One comedy ser ...
), their adult son Sanjeev (played by
Sanjeev Bhaskar
Sanjeev Bhaskar (born 31 October 1963) is a British actor, comedian and television presenter. He is best known for his work in the BBC Two sketch comedy series '' Goodness Gracious Me'' and as the star of the sitcom ''The Kumars at No. 42''. H ...
), and Sushila, Sanjeev's grandmother, normally referred to as Ummi (played by
Meera Syal
Meera Syal FRSL (born Feroza Syal; 27 June 1961) is a English comedian, writer, playwright, singer, journalist and actress. She rose to prominence as one of the team that created '' Goodness Gracious Me'' and portraying Sanjeev's grandmother, ...
, later Sanjeev's real-life wife). The family lives in
Wembley
Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...
,
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
, England. The show's central premise is that Sanjeev's parents have supported his dream of being a
television presenter by having a TV studio built on what used to be their back garden.
Running gag
A running gag, or running joke, is a literary device that takes the form of an amusing joke or a comical reference and appears repeatedly throughout a work of literature or other form of storytelling. Though they are similar, catchphrases are no ...
s include Sanjeev's apparent social ineptitude, Ashwin's obsession with financial matters and his tendency to tell long stories with no real point and Ummi's stories of her absurd exploits with her childhood friend Saraswati the bicycle (so named because of her
contortionist
Contortion (sometimes contortionism) is a performance art in which performers called contortionists showcase their skills of extreme physical flexibility. Contortion acts often accompany acrobatics, circus acts, street performers and other li ...
skills). It is also a regular conceit that the guests' appearance fees are paid in Bimla's
chutney
A chutney is a spread in the cuisines of the Indian subcontinent. Chutneys are made in a wide variety of forms, such as a tomato relish, a ground peanut garnish, yogurt or curd, cucumber, spicy coconut, spicy onion or mint dipping sa ...
.
The show has an
improvisational feel, though in reality much of the regular cast's performance was scripted but the guest interviews were not. 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 for later episodes. Bhaskar stated in a 2009 interview, "We never rehearsed the guests, and the best ones were the ones to keep the ball in the air."
Production
When talking about ''
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' (sometimes referred to as ''HG2G'', ''HHGTTG'', ''H2G2'', or ''tHGttG'') is a comedy science fiction franchise created by Douglas Adams. Originally a 1978 radio comedy broadcast on BBC Radio 4, it ...
'' 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
''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' is a comic science fiction series created by Douglas Adams that has become popular among fans of the genre and members of the scientific community. Phrases from it are widely recognised and often used in ...
.
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.
The show's UK debut was on 12 November 2001 on
BBC Two. It was produced by
Hat Trick Productions
Hat Trick Productions is an independent British production company that produces television and radio programmes, mainly specialising in comedy, based in London.
History
Hat Trick Productions was founded in 1986 by Rory McGrath, Jimmy Mulville ...
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
Gareth Paul Gates (born 12 July 1984) is an English singer-songwriter and actor. He was the runner-up in the first series of the ITV talent show ''Pop Idol'' in 2002. As of 2008, Gates had sold over 3.5 million records in the UK. He is ...
. 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'' was shown in
Asia
Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...
(including
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
and
Malaysia
Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...
) on the
Star World satellite TV
Satellite television is a service that delivers television programming to viewers by relaying it from a communications satellite orbiting the Earth directly to the viewer's location. The signals are received via an outdoor parabolic antenna commo ...
channel and on
SABC
The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) is the public broadcaster in South Africa, and provides 19 radio stations ( AM/ FM) as well as six television broadcasts to the general public. It is one of the largest of South Africa's stat ...
in
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...
. The
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-own ...
screened it in Australia. Its previous time slot, being right before hugely successful Australian comedy ''
Kath & Kim
''Kath & Kim,'' (also written as ''Kath and Kim'') is an Australian sitcom created by Jane Turner and Gina Riley, who portray the title characters of Kath Day-Knight, a cheery, middle-aged suburban mother, and Kim, her self-indulgent daughter ...
'', made the programme successful there. It was very popular in New Zealand as well, where it was screened by
Television New Zealand
, type = Crown entity
, industry = Broadcast television
, num_locations = New Zealand
, location = Auckland, New Zealand
, area_served = Nationally (New Zealand) and some Pacific Island nations such as the Cook Islands, Fiji, and the Solo ...
. It has been broadcast in the United States on
BBC America
BBC America is an American basic cable network that is jointly owned by BBC Studios and AMC Networks. The channel primarily airs sci-fi and action series and films, as well as selected programs from the BBC (such as its nature documentary seri ...
, and in Canada on
BBC Canada
BBC Canada was a Canadian English language specialty channel that mostly broadcast television series originally produced by the BBC, the public-service broadcaster of the United Kingdom. The channel was owned by Corus Entertainment (80% & manag ...
, a
digital cable channel. It was shown in Sweden, as ''Curry Curry talkshow'', by
SVT2 in 2004, in the
Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
on the public broadcasting foundation
NPS
NPS may refer to:
Organizations
* National Park Service, U.S.
* National Pension System, India
* National Pension Service, Korea
* National Phobics Society, UK charity
* National Piers Society, UK charity
* National Poetry Slam, competition
* N ...
(
Nederland 3), in
Switzerland on Swiss TV station
DRS, and in India on
Comedy Central
Comedy Central is an American basic cable channel owned by Paramount Global through its network division's MTV Entertainment Group unit, based in Manhattan. The channel is geared towards young adults aged 18–34 and carries comedy programmin ...
.
In August 2002, the American network
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
entered a deal to buy the format but later dropped out.
A new version of the show was planned for Sunday evenings on
Fox
Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush'').
Twelve sp ...
, restyled as a show in the 2003-04 season featuring a
Latino-American
Hispanic and Latino Americans ( es, Estadounidenses hispanos y latinos; pt, Estadunidenses hispânicos e latinos) are Americans of Spaniards, Spanish and/or Latin Americans, Latin American ancestry. More broadly, these demographics include a ...
family called ''The Ortegas'' and featuring
Cheech Marin. However the program was dropped from Fox's post-baseball playoffs schedule to focus the network's schedule on the success of ''
The O.C.
''The O.C. '' is an American teen drama television series created by Josh Schwartz that originally aired on the Fox network in the United States from August 5, 2003, to February 22, 2007, running a total of four seasons. "O.C." is an initiali ...
'' at the time, and became another one of Fox's series which were scheduled, but never made it to air. Six episodes were produced, but never aired.
The Australian version, ''
Greeks on the Roof'' (featuring
Greek Australian
Greek Australians ( el, Ελληνοαυστραλοί, ) are Australians of Greek ancestry. Greek Australians are one of the largest groups within the global Greek diaspora. As per the 2021 census, 424,750 people stated that they had Greek an ...
s), 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
Gujarati may refer to:
* something of, from, or related to Gujarat, a state of India
* Gujarati people, the major ethnic group of Gujarat
* Gujarati language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by them
* Gujarati languages, the Western Indo-Aryan sub ...
family living in
Karachi
Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former c ...
.
Sony
, commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professiona ...
Television has produced an Indian version of the show called ''Batliwalla House No. 43'' featuring a
Parsee
Parsis () or Parsees are an ethnoreligious group of the Indian subcontinent adhering to Zoroastrianism. They are descended from Persians who migrated to Medieval India during and after the Arab conquest of Iran (part of the early Muslim co ...
family living in
Mumbai
Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...
.
In Russia,
Channel One made the Armenian version of the show called ''Rubik Vsemogushchiy'' (
en: ''Rubik Allmighty''; ''Rubik'' is a short for the Armenian name ''Ruben''). The idea of the show was that an Armenian named Rubik (played by Ruben Dzhaginyan) and his family interview the Russian stars (such as pop singers
Vera Brezhneva
Vira Viktorivna Halushka ( uk, Віра Вікторівна Галушка; russian: link=no, Вера Викторовна Галушка, ''Vira Viktorivna Halushka''; born 3 February 1982), better known by her stage name Vera Brezhneva (russi ...
and
Anna Semenovich; TV presenters Dmitri Dibrov, Timur Rodriguez (real name Timur Yunusov), Valdis Pelsh and
Sergei Svetlakov
Sergei Yuryevich Svetlakov (russian: Серге́й Ю́рьевич Светлако́в; born 12 December 1977) is a Russian comedian, film and television actor, TV host, producer, screenwriter. Member of the KVN team "Ural pelmeni" (2000–09) ...
; and actors Igor Vernik and
Anastasia Zavorotnyuk
Anastasia Yuryevna Zavorotnyuk (russian: Анастасия Юрьевна Заворотнюк; born April 3, 1971) is a Russian actress and television presenter. She is best known for her lead role on '' My Fair Nanny'' (2004–2009).
Early ...
). There were just four episodes of the show, and it was soon taken off the air because of generally negative reviews from critics.
Revivals
On 1 May 2012, it was announced that a pilot for a revival of the show would be produced by
Hat Trick Productions
Hat Trick Productions is an independent British production company that produces television and radio programmes, mainly specialising in comedy, based in London.
History
Hat Trick Productions was founded in 1986 by Rory McGrath, Jimmy Mulville ...
as ''The Kumars at No. 42B'' for
Sky 1
Sky One was a British pay television channel operated and owned by Sky Group (a division of Comcast). Originally launched on 26 April 1982 as Satellite Television, it was Europe's first satellite and non- terrestrial channel. From 31 July 1989, ...
. The pilot was said to focus on a divorced Sanjeev and his family who now live in a flat (No. 42B) behind their
Hounslow
Hounslow () is a large suburban district of West London, west-southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hounslow, and is identified in the London Plan as one of the 12 metropolitan centres in ...
gift shop.
A 6-episode series was commissioned after a successful pilot, renamed simply to ''The Kumars'', which started on 15 January 2014.
Episodes
Radio
Meera Syal revived her character from the series in 2021 for
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...
's ''Gossip and Goddesses with Granny Kumar''.
References
External links
*
Hat Trick Productions*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kumars At No. 42, The
2000s British comedy television series
2000s British television talk shows
2010s British comedy television series
2010s British television talk shows
2001 British television series debuts
2014 British television series endings
BBC television comedy
British Indian mass media
English-language television shows
Improvisational television series
International Emmy Award for best comedy series winners
Peabody Award-winning television programs
Sky UK original programming
Television series about families
Television series about television
Television series by Hat Trick Productions
Television shows set in London