Citizen Khan on BBC 1

BBC1 bosses have decided to commission their first Asian sitcom created by presenter and journalist Adil Ray.

Citizen Khan will be a six-part series set in Sparkhill, Birmingham and follows self-appointed "Muslim community leader" and businessman Mr Khan and his British-Pakistani family.

The show is set to be filmed at the BBC's MediaCity in Manchester and has been described as a warm family comedy. It has been some time since there was a comedy show on the BBC involving an all-Asian cast, with hit shows like The Kumars at No.42 and Goodness Gracious Me and it's great to see a mainstream channel wanting to increase Asian visibility in their programming.

Citizen Khan is based on Mr. Khan's views on life in what he calls Pakistani Britain. The fear is that it will be a show full of clichés and stereotypes which will get cheap laughs from the audience.

Some would say Mr Khan isn't the best representation of the British Pakistani population and the show may portray the community, which isn't always painted in the best light in the media, in a negative way.

Sitcoms usually exaggerate certain perceptions we may have of people and communities, but it will be interesting to see whether the writers of Citizen Khan will look to use lazy stereotyping in order to get some cheap laughs.

Ijeoma Mbubaegbu

Picture: Adil Ray as Mr Khan