The Kumars at No. 42
| The Kumars at No. 42 | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Genre | Comedy |
| Created by | Sharat Sardana |
| Starring |
Sanjeev Bhaskar Meera Syal Indira Joshi Vincent Ebrahim |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of series | 7 |
| No. of episodes | 53 |
| Production | |
| Location(s) | Fountain Studios |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Hat Trick Productions |
| Release | |
| Original network |
BBC Two (12 November 2001 – 26 December 2004) BBC One (27 May 2005 – 18 August 2006) Sky 1 (15 January 2014 – present) |
| Original release | 12 November 2001 – present |
| External links | |
| Website | |
The Kumars at No. 42 is a British television show. It won an International Emmy in 2002 and 2003, and won a Peabody Award in 2004. It ran for seven series totalling 53 episodes.
The show stars a fictional British Indian family, including Madhuri and Ashwin Kumar (played by Indira Joshi and Vincent Ebrahim), their adult son Sanjeev (played by Sanjeev Bhaskar), and Sushila, Sanjeev's grandmother, normally referred to as Ummi (played by Meera Syal). The family lives in Wembley, London, 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 gags 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 skills). It is also a regular conceit that the guests' appearance fees are paid in chutney.
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."
When talking about The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy 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.
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