''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 ...

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

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