Image: Nina Wadia, Kulvinder Ghir, Meera Syall and Sanjeev Bhaskar as the rival Kapoors and Rabindranaths.
Goodness Gracious Me began life on the radio, like many a successful television comedy. It made its television debut on 12 January 1998. It was a sketch show in the tradition of comedies like Not the Nine O’clock News and The Fast Show, but made by British Asians. As such it offered a new and fresh perspective. The comedy was created by Sanjeev Bhaskar and Meera Syall, with producer Anil Gupta. They co-starred along with Nina Wadia and Kulvinder Ghir.
One celebrated sketch featured a group of rowdy Indians on a night out in Bombay, who go "for an English". Another featured social climbers the Kapoors and Rabindranaths, who want to be known as the Coopers and Robinsons, but whose efforts to assimilate are rewarded with a brick through the window. Alongside the more satirical sketches were ones with silly characters and catchphrases, such as the socially inept Cheque Please.
Goodness Gracious Me ran for four series but has returned for occasional specials since. The stars went on to greater heights. Wadia appeared in Eastenders and with Ghir in Still Open All Hours. Bhaskar and Syall created The Kumars at No 42, an international success. Syall and Bhaskar - who married in 2005 - both continue to write and perform. Bhaskar was awarded an OBE in 2003 and Syall a CBE in 2015, for services to literature and drama.
January anniversaries
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The Six Wives of Henry VIII
1 January 1970 -
The Brains Trust
1 January 1941 -
The Archers
1 January 1951 -
Z Cars
2 January 1962 -
Trumpton
3 January 1967 -
Open University
3 January 1971 -
Camberwick Green
3 January 1966 -
Final edition of The Listener published
3 January 1991 -
Gardeners' World
5 January 1968 -
A Question of Sport
5 January 1970 -
Forces Programme
7 January 1940 -
Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit
10 January 1990 -
First in-vision television weather forecaster
11 January 1954 -
The League of Gentlemen
11 January 1999 -
Goodness Gracious Me
12 January 1998 -
Listen with Mother
16 January 1950 -
Life On Earth
16 January 1979 -
First episode of Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Breakfast Time
17 January 1983 -
Blankety Blank
18 January 1979 -
The Week's Good Cause
24 January 1926 -
Under Milk Wood
25 January 1954 -
Television Dancing Club
27 January 1948 -
Desert Island Discs
29 January 1942 -
Newsnight
30 January 1980 -
The State Funeral of Sir Winston Churchill
30 January 1965 -
Alas Smith and Jones
31 January 1984