大象传媒

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.