The Kumars at No. 42 is a British television sitcom. It won an International Emmy in 2002 and 2003, and won a Peabody Award in 2004. It ran for seven series totalling 53 episodes.
Goodness Gracious Me is a BBC sketch comedy show originally aired on BBC Radio 4 from 1996 to 1998 and later on BBC Two from 1998 to 2001. The ensemble cast were four British Indian actors, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Kulvinder Ghir, Meera Syal and Nina Wadia. The show explored British Asian culture, and the conflict and integration between traditional Indian culture and modern British life. Some sketches reversed the roles to view the British from an Indian perspective, and others poked fun at Indian and Asian stereotypes. In the television series, most of the white characters were played by Dave Lamb and Fiona Allen; in the radio series those parts were played by the cast themselves. Some of the white characters were also played by Amanda Holden and Emma Kennedy.
Meera Syal FRSL is an English comedian, writer, playwright, singer, journalist and actress. She rose to prominence as one of the team that created Goodness Gracious Me and by portraying Sanjeev's grandmother, Ummi, in The Kumars at No. 42. She has become one of the UK's best-known Asian personalities.
Nina Wadia is a British actress. She is known for portraying Zainab Masood in the BBC soap opera EastEnders, Aunty Noor in Citizen Khan, Mrs Hussein in the BBC comedy Still Open All Hours and for starring in the BBC Two sketch show Goodness Gracious Me.
Ayesha Dharker is a British actress, known for her appearance as Queen Jamillia, the Queen of Naboo, in Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones, and for her stage performances.
Kulvinder Ghir is a British actor, comedian and writer. He is best known as one of the cast members in the sketch show Goodness Gracious Me (1998–2015). He is also known for playing Aslam in the Yorkshire-based film Rita, Sue and Bob Too! (1987), and Poly Verisof in Foundation.
Nitin Sawhney is a British musician, producer and composer. A recipient of the Ivor Novello Lifetime Achievement award in 2017, among multiple international awards throughout his career. Sawhney's work combines Asian and other worldwide influences with elements of electronica and often explores themes such as multiculturalism, politics, and spirituality. Sawhney is also active in the promotion of arts and cultural matters, is chair of the PRS Foundation, sits on the board of trustees of theatre company Complicité, and is a patron of numerous film festivals, venues, and educational institutions. In 2021, he was an ambassador for the Royal Albert Hall.
Chris Lang is a British screenwriter, producer and actor. Lang has written for many British television series but is best known as the writer, creator and executive producer of Unforgotten.
Shaggy Dog Story is a three-minute promotional trailer for Children in Need, put together by the BBC and Gorgeous Productions in 1999 as a sequel to the previous year's Future Generations video, and the great success of 1997's "Perfect Day" charity single. It was first shown on Christmas Day 1999. A slightly extended alternative version was created but never aired.
Hardeep Singh Kohli is a British presenter, comedian, writer and director who has appeared on various radio and television programmes. Having moved to Scotland at a young age, he has had a long association with the arts in Scotland and is known more widely across the United Kingdom as a presenter on BBC television and radio, and on Channel 4. He was a finalist on Celebrity MasterChef in 2006 and a contestant on Celebrity Big Brother in 2018.
Andrew Zaltzman is a British comedian who largely deals in political and sport-related material.
Sanjeev Singh Kohli is a Scottish actor, comedian, and writer. He is best known for his role as shopkeeper Navid Harrid in the BBC sitcom Still Game, Ramesh Majhu in the radio sitcom Fags, Mags and Bags (2007–present), and A.J. Jandhu in the BBC Scotland soap opera River City (2015–2022). Since 2019, Kohli has hosted his own television talk show Sanjeev Kohli's Big Talk, on the BBC Scotland channel.
Chopratown is a 2005 comedy drama from the BBC about private eye Vic Chopra. In the film Chopra investigates Ali Ergun, a shady Turkish bakery owner. During his investigation he falls foul of Asian wide boy Ash Desai and added to this is the mystery of a missing cow.
Nitin Chandra Ganatra is a British actor. He is known for portraying Masood Ahmed in the BBC soap opera, EastEnders (2007–2019), for which he won a British Soap Award.
David Alexander Lamb is an English actor, comedian, narrator and presenter. He is best known for his narration work on Come Dine with Me as well as appearances in British television and radio programmes, especially comedy programmes like Goodness Gracious Me. He also presented the CBBC game show Horrible Histories: Gory Games.
Sharat Sardana was a British comedy writer, voice artist and producer who worked on TV series including Goodness Gracious Me and The Kumars at No. 42, which won 2 International Emmys.
Sinéad Keenan is an Irish actress with a wide range of television, film, and stage credits. Keenan is best known for playing Farrah Phelan in Fair City and for playing the role of a werewolf called Nina Pickering on BBC Three's supernatural drama Being Human. She has since played DCI Jessica James in ITV1 drama Unforgotten since 2023.
The Indian Doctor is a British television comedy drama, set in the 1960s. Produced by Rondo Media and Avatar Productions, it was first broadcast on BBC One in 2010. The most recent series began on 4 November 2013 on BBC One daytime and concluded on 8 November. It is a period comedy drama starring Sanjeev Bhaskar as an Indian doctor who finds work in a South Wales mining village.
Unforgotten is a British crime drama television series, which initially aired on ITV on 8 October 2015. It was created and written by Chris Lang and directed by Andy Wilson. The programme follows a team of London detectives led by DCI Cassie Stuart, DCI Jessie James and DI Sunny Khan as they solve cold cases of disappearance and murder.
This is a list of scripted British television programmes featuring one or more actors of Asian ancestry as the programme's leading actor portraying the protagonist or protagonists.
