Intro: How accurately are Asians represented in 'Life isn't all ha ha hee hee?"

Since the mass isolation of Asians in inner city urban areas in the 1970s, they have come a long way both on and off-screen. Asians as a social group now comprise 3.5% of the population, however this is disproportionately represented on-screen with Asians and other ethnic minorities often playing the roles of ‘token’ characters and rarely those of protagonists. Nevertheless, newspapers such as the Guardians have produced a list called “The most powerful Asians in the media” with Meera Syal being at number two. Syal has been a figurehead in creating the now well established British Asian genre by for example scripting the coming of age film ‘Anita and Me’ (Metin Huseyin, 2002) and producing and starring in ‘Goodness Gracious Me’ (BBC, 1998) This was hugely successful appealing to a multicultural audience evident from its transfer from BBC2, mainly catering for niche needs, to BBC1, clearly for a mass mainstream audience. Although such success, economically and in terms of raising awareness has ensured the rise of the ‘brown pound,’ it has more often than not been based on cliché stereotypes and light-hearted humour as if ‘laughing was the best medicine’ which is epitomised from shows such as ‘Mind Your Language’ (ITV, 1977) and more contemporary shows such as ‘The Kumars at no.42’ (BBC, 2001). However, ‘Life isn’t all ha ha hee hee,’ (BBC, 2005) an adaptation of Meera Syal’s novel, in many respects offers a refreshing, cliché free and post modern twist on what it is really like growing up as a second generation British Asian. Perhaps this is an accurate representation of Asians in 21st century British society, as opposed to the farce of the Ferreiras on Eastenders (2003).