From Solihull and Sparkhill to Hounslow and Heathrow, the overkill of stereotypes and cliches of South Asian immigrants during the 50s, has been screened in series like Citizen Khan and films like Bend it like Beckham and Bohemian Rhapsody.
The on-screen depictions of immigrant mums are often characterised wearing glasses, with the circumference of the circle that meets the bottom of their cheeks and immigrant dads, wearing knitted sweater vests and driving small family cars like Austin Allegros.
The BBC takes on the standard format of other back-in times, of throwing people in the deep end, with the kids trying to connect with something that they are not used to, which has been deemed as a step in the right direction, as far as authenticity goes, as the period drama-documentary comes with a twist.
In a four-part series called Back in Time for Birmingham, the series will air on BBC Two each day at 8.00 pm starting Monday 20 June until Thursday 23 June.
The show sees the Sharma family go back in time to discover what life was like for families who came from South Asia to settle in Britain from the 1950s onwards. The city of Birmingham is now home to more than 250,000 people of Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi or Sri Lankan descent.
Explored through the story of the vibrant, ever-changing city of Birmingham, we meet the Sharmas: mother and father Vishal and Manisha, with their children Akash and Alisha.
Together, they put themselves in the historical hot seat, as they relive 50 years of British Asian history.
Last night the programme broadcast its first episode of series one, receiving mixed views from the viewers some said: “Great viewing, more so very accurate. Must see for all”, whilst others have accused the show of being “too uncritical, picking its fights carefully, so as not to offend”, referring to the reference of racism by Enoch Powell, called out in the show.
In an interactive documentary style, BBC Asian Network’s radio presenter Noreen Khan, the DJ-turned-radio presenter said “I’m genuinely so excited to be a part of this incredible series! Taking viewers on an insightful, emotional journey over five decades of the South Asian story will be fascinating. Can’t wait for everyone to watch this”.
The BBC Commissioning Editor Nasfim Haque also commented saying “I’m really looking forward to telling the story of Birmingham through the eyes of the British Asians who have made the city the vibrant and exciting place it is.”
As the story evolves, the South Asian family of four is given the task of adjusting and going back in time 50 years to experience what their fathers and forefathers had to go through to be able to make ends meet and provide for their families back home.
The Sharmas, whose family are Hindu and originally came from India and Uganda, are living in Sparkbrook. Now a predominantly Muslim-Pakistani suburb of Birmingham, in 1950, was one of a handful of neighbourhoods in the city where new arrivals from across the subcontinent and of all faiths began to settle.
Vishal Sharma talks to Asian Sunday about the experience that he describes as “humbling
“It’s humbling, because our ‘buzurg’, our elders, are old and are not going to be around in 10 or 15 years, as the 50s was a long time ago, and we’ve heard all their stories and we tend to dismiss it or it brushes over us, but when you actually go see what the factories were like, and see what the housing was like the bedding, and how every single penny was put aside to send back home and they survived on absolutely nothing, it puts into a perspective, but it really grounds you and humbles you”.
He says he part of the journey, as his mum came by herself in 1972 and he “Heard of her hard times, and people before her went through worse things as well.
“This is the best way to get snippets from the hot bedding to the cooking and selling daal, even though it’s a light-hearted re-enactment, we lived in the house and experienced everything, but with the actuality of knowing we were going back to our normal lives”.
Father Vishal and 19-year-old son Akash arrive first and are shocked at the accommodation available in 1950, where a dingy room with a mattress on the floor, is their makeshift bed and a rota attached to the wall, reveals the shared access to a basic kitchen and bathroom, which they had to sometimes queue up for to use.
“We slept on that mattress on the floor, me and Akash, we ate the food they ate, all of our gadgets were taken off us, so whatever that era-appropriate stuff was, what you ate, listened to and read was in the 19550s anything outside of that, you weren’t allowed”.
In the first episode of the series, Akash is put to work in a whistle factory, to show the manual labour and often gruesome working conditions of their forefathers and the 19-year -old son Akash has been given instructions to make a spicy bean stew, to which he adds a dollop of Branson pickles and a tsp or two of the bright yellow coloured curry powder.
Sharma said, “We take these things for granted a fridge and having different foods when all your spices are stripped back and you’re left with basic curry powder, and Branson pickle, you just get on with it”.
The TV series is a raw and unfiltered depiction of the lives lived by those who migrated to Britain for better life prospects and explores the casual racism faced by the immigrants by fascists.
Back in Time for Birmingham, a 4×60’ series for BBC Two and iPlayer, is made by Wall to Wall Media the Executive Producer is Emily Shields and the Series Producer is Naveed Chowdhary-Flatt.
The series was commissioned by Patrick Holland, Director, Factual, Arts and Classical Music and Catherine Catton, Head of Commissioning, Popular Factual and Factual Entertainment. The BBC Commissioning Editor is Nasfim Haque.
