4. Goodness Gracious Me (BBC2, 1998 - 2001)
Like a lot of other comedies, Goodness Gracious Me began its life on the radio before graduating to television where it broke new ground by being fronted by a quartet of Asian comedians and focusing pretty much exclusively on Asian stereotypes and the English perception of Asian people. But aside from its broad themes being another culture, it's more or less your average sketch show. Its leading actors (Sanjeev Bhaskar, Nina Wadia, Meera Syal, and Kulvinder Ghir) are almost always on top form, largely because theyre working with stereotypes they know all too well including overbearing parents and arranged marriage. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6h0lkq-Sno As well as standard character comedy, Goodness Gracious Me also featured an Asian take on various pop culture elements including Asian Top Gear, Fawlty Turrets, and The Six Million Rupee Man as well as mocking Bollywood and other parts of Asian culture. Asian culture and values are at the core of the programme but that doesn't limit it in any way, and helps to make it a lot more original than most sketch shows. It was acerbic, brilliantly funny, and almost completely unique in its themes. In its four series run, it helped to break down quite a few cultural barriers as it showed that not only were foreigners fine with making fun of their own culture, they were happy for English people to laugh at it as well. A brilliant programme with some considerable social impact.
What Are Its Best Known Sketches? Two Indian couples who are in complete denial that they are anything but English, a father who claims that everything is from India, and the seminal Going For An English sketch that takes the stereotypical way that way that English people behave in Indian restaurants and reverses it with Indians in an English restaurant.