Category: TV
Drama
Date: 01.12.2004
Printable version
Childhood friends Tania (Laila
Rouass), Sunita (Meera Syal) and Chila (Ayesha Dharker)
are now in their thirties and at a crossroads in life but their friendship
still holds them together.
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Sunita, the eldest, used to be 'super swot' until she flunked out of
university to marry her psychotherapist sweetheart, Akaash (Sanjeev
Bhaskar), when she turned into 'SuperMummyji'. Now she feels trapped
by two kids and an unfulfilling job.
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'Gob Almighty' Tania is the ambitious career girl who has left her
family and her 'community' behind. Speaking her mind got her into trouble
but out of Ilford.
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The baby of the gang, sweet, naΓ―ve Chila, is getting married. She has
bagged the Prince Charming of Chigwell himself, Deepak Sharma (Ace
Bhatti) - the man of her dreams. But he has a catalogue of former
girlfriends - including Tania.
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Both heart-warming and heartbreaking, Life Isn't All Ha Ha Hee Hee
is adapted from Meera Syal's acclaimed novel.
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A tale of friendship, betrayal and cross-cultural conflicts, the story
exposes the ties that bind the three women to their roots and a generation
of men lost in the wake of feminism.
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Producer Jo Willett summed up: "Life is about female friendships and
how they can endure longer than husbands and lovers, but also about
how much truth real friendship can stand.
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"What would happen if your close friends told you what you never
thought you'd want to hear? Really it asks, 'can the strongest of friendships
survive the ultimate of betrayals?'"
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The novel was originally inspired by the juxtaposition of two news
stories running in the same newspaper on the same day headlined 'Asian
Women Top the Graduate League' next to 'Asian Women Top the Suicide
and Self Harm League' on the opposite page.
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Meera admits: "It disturbed me profoundly to see evidence of how much
we can achieve, laced with our ability to destroy ourselves. It made
me want to look at my life and the lives of my friends, all of whom
were going through seismic changes in our belief systems and relationships.
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"We had to face up to the fact that we weren't our mothers, no
matter how much we loved them, and what would we hand onto our daughters?"
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"I also wanted to celebrate the richness of this journey we were all
taking with immense humour and strength while sometimes making the biggest
dramatic mistakes and discoveries along the way."
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The serial stars Laila Rouass (Footballer's Wives, Hollyoaks), Meera
Syal (The Kumars At No 42, Goodness Gracious Me), Ayesha Dharker (Star
Wars II, Cutting It), Ace Bhatti (The Deputy, Bend It Like Beckham),
Sanjeev Bhaskar (The Kumars At No 42, Anita And Me) and Matt Day (The
Hound Of The Baskervilles, Shackleton).
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It is brought to the small screen by Hat Trick Productions whose recent
successes include The Kumars At No 42 and Jed Mercurio's Bodies.
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The executive producer for Hat Trick, Mark Redhead, said: "Meera has
given us a rich portrait of modern Britain, which deals with friendship,
love and betrayal.
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"Life Isn't All Ha Ha Hee Hee explores the choices that women
- and men - face in today's society where the boundaries between culture,
family, friends and identity are blurred and constantly shifting."
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Gareth Neame, Head of Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Drama Independent Commissioning, added: "Meera's
vibrant and exuberant tale is the latest contemporary adaptation alongside
Jonathan Coe's The Rotters Club, Sarah Waters' Fingersmith and Robert
Harris' Archangel.
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"It represents part of our on going commitment to bring the best
original adaptations of modern fiction to the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ."
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Filming on location in and around London until Christmas, the three-part
serial will transmit on Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ ONE next year.
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Life Isn't All Ha Ha Hee Hee is adapted by Meera Syal (Anita And Me)
with Abi Morgan (Sex Traffic), directed by Andy de Emmony (Canterbury
Tales) and produced by Jo Willett (Dirty Tricks, A Rather English Marriage).
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The executive producer is Mark Redhead.
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A Hat Trick Production for Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ ONE.
