Citizen Khan
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''Citizen Khan'' is a
British sitcom A British sitcom or a Britcom is a situational comedy programme produced for British television. British sitcoms have predominantly been recorded on studio sets, while some include an element of location filming. Live audiences and multi-camera ...
produced by the
BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
and created by Adil Ray. It ran for five series, from 2012 to 2016. It is set in
Sparkhill Sparkhill is an inner-city area of Birmingham, England, situated between Springfield, Birmingham, Springfield, Hall Green and Sparkbrook. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Worcestershire, Sparkhill once existed as a Yardley ...
, South
Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...
, described by its lead character, a
British Pakistani British Pakistanis (; also known as Pakistani British people or Pakistani Britons) are Britons or residents of the United Kingdom whose ancestral roots lie in Pakistan. This includes people born in the UK who are of Pakistani descent, Pakis ...
man named Mr Khan (Ray), as "the capital of British Pakistan". ''Citizen Khan'' follows the trials and tribulations of Mr Khan, a loud-mouthed, patriarchal, cricket-loving, self-appointed community leader, and his long suffering wife Razia (played by Shobu Kapoor) and daughters Shazia ( Maya Sondhi 2012–2014, Krupa Pattani 2015–2016) and Alia (
Bhavna Limbachia Bhavna Jayanty Limbachia (born 21 April 1984) is a British actress. She is known for her roles as Alia Khan in the BBC comedy '' Citizen Khan'' (2012–2016) and Rana Habeeb in the ITV soap opera ''Coronation Street'' (2016–2019). Early li ...
). In Series One, Kris Marshall starred as Dave, the manager of Mr Khan's local
mosque A mosque ( ), also called a masjid ( ), is a place of worship for Muslims. The term usually refers to a covered building, but can be any place where Salah, Islamic prayers are performed; such as an outdoor courtyard. Originally, mosques were si ...
. The title of the show is a play on the title of the
Orson Welles George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American director, actor, writer, producer, and magician who is remembered for his innovative work in film, radio, and theatre. He is among the greatest and most influential film ...
film ''
Citizen Kane ''Citizen Kane'' is a 1941 American Drama (film and television), drama film directed by, produced by and starring Orson Welles and co-written by Welles and Herman J. Mankiewicz. It was Welles's List of directorial debuts, first feature film. ...
''. The character Mr Khan had already featured in the
BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matte ...
comedy series '' Bellamy's People'', on
BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...
's '' Down the Line'' and on his own online series on the BBC Comedy website. On 27 September 2012, the BBC announced that ''Citizen Khan'' had been commissioned for a second series. On 2 December 2013, BBC controller Charlotte Moore announced that ''Citizen Khan'' had been renewed for a third series which began airing on 31 October 2014. On 11 December 2014, BBC comedy controller Shane Allen announced that a fourth series had been commissioned. On 14 October 2015, the official Facebook page of ''Citizen Khan'' confirmed through a video of Mr Khan that the fourth series would begin on 30 October 2015. On 20 January 2016, it was confirmed the show would return for a fifth and final series which started airing on 4 November 2016. Although Adil Ray is a Muslim, the show has divided opinion on whether its humour is a mockery of followers of that religion and of
stereotyping In social psychology, a stereotype is a generalized belief about a particular category of people. It is an expectation that people might have about every person of a particular group. The type of expectation can vary; it can be, for example ...
British Pakistanis. Ray maintains that Mr Khan is a comic character who is intended for families of any ethnic background to relate to, as with other British family sitcoms.


Broadcast and reception

The first episode of ''Citizen Khan'' was first broadcast on
BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...
on 27 August 2012, in a late timeslot of 10:20pm. It received what
Digital Spy Digital Spy (DS) is a British-based entertainment, television and film website and brand and is the largest digital property at Hearst UK. Since its initial launch in 1999, Digital Spy has focused on entertainment news related to television pro ...
referred to as an "impressive" 3.41 million viewers and 20.9% of the audience. ''
The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
''s Hasnet Lais stated "Credit must be given to Adil Ray for not sparing any sacred cows and shining light on the conundrum of some British Muslim women under the patriarchal cosh." The BBC received over 700 complaints following the airing of the first episode with a further 20 complaints to
Ofcom The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, internet, telecommunications and mail, postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has wide-rang ...
. Some British Muslims claimed that the show "ridicules" and "insults" Islam. The BBC claimed it had evidence the complaints were part of a lobbying campaign and countered it saying a number of people, including those of Muslim communities, praised the show and referred to its audience figures as a "very positive start." The first episode of Citizen Khan garnered considerable criticism for a scene in which the character Mr. Khan's daughter pretends to pray and bows before the Qur'an as a "holy charade" for her father's benefit, which was seen as desacralizing Islamic practices. This led to accusations of Islamophobia and the show being labelled as "racist", "embarrassing" and "old-fashioned" in some newspapers. Despite this, the show's writer, Adil Ray, defended it as a product of his own background and familiarity with the community. ''The Independent''s Arifa Akbar commented negatively on its many clichéd jokes and character traits and drawing many comparisons with 1970s-style sitcoms. Mark Jones of ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'' was more optimistic, describing it as "an affable enough debut, deserving a wider audience than this post-watershed slot is likely to attract." The
Islam Channel Islam Channel is a UK-based, free-to-air, English language, Islamic-focused satellite television channel and online media platform funded by advertising and donations. It was founded in 2004 by Mohamed Ali Harrath (born 1963), a Tunisian acti ...
broadcast a special show entitled ''Politics and Media: Citizen Khan – Racist stereotypes or harmless fun?'' Presenter John Rees discussed whether the BBC comedy was stereotyping Muslims, or whether it was fun and could be laughed about by Muslims. By the second episode, broadcast on 3 September, ''Citizen Khan'' clips had gone viral. Opinion outside the United Kingdom was also mixed, resulting in many heated debates. The Pakistani newspaper ''
The News International ''The News International'', published in broadsheet size, is one of the largest English language newspapers in Pakistan. It is published daily from Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi/ Islamabad. An overseas edition is published from London th ...
'' criticised the BBC's use of Pakistani flags in the Khan's home, and Mr Khan's younger daughter quickly putting on a
hijab Hijab (, ) refers to head coverings worn by Women in Islam, Muslim women. Similar to the mitpaḥat/tichel or Snood (headgear), snood worn by religious married Jewish women, certain Christian head covering, headcoverings worn by some Christian w ...
and pretending to read the
Qur'an The Quran, also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation directly from God ('' Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which consist of individual verses ('). Besides ...
. The Pakistan News Watch website countered "shows like ''Citizen Khan'' are essential in multicultural societies and help put all communities on an equal footing – if everyone can have a laugh at everyone else's expense, then no one can claim superiority." The debate continued for a third week, with the ''
Yorkshire Post ''The Yorkshire Post'' is a daily broadsheet newspaper, published in Leeds, Yorkshire, England. It primarily covers stories from Yorkshire, although its masthead carries the slogan "Yorkshire's National Newspaper". It was previously owned by ...
'' publishing an article by Pakistani journalist Sabbiyah Pervez appealing to her own community to "stop being so defensive and learn to laugh at itself." The BBC ordered a seven-episode second series on 27 September 2012 due to good ratings. On 18 September 2013, the BBC announced that the second series would air on Friday nights in the prime time 9.30pm slot from 4 October. In an interview with ''The Guardian'', Adil Ray stated "What I've intended to do with ''Citizen Khan'' is a good thing – to make Mr Khan a good character, to make him universal and a communication between different communities." Series 3 of ''Citizen Khan'' gained an audience of around 5 million per episode, including iPlayer views. Ahead the Series 4 debut in October 2015, Vicky Power of ''
The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...
'' stated "It's harmless, friendly fun for the whole family." Series 4 of ''Citizen Khan'' made its debut on 30 October 2015. The series attracted a record 3.3 million viewers. ''Citizen Khan'' has been exported to Australia, India, Russia, Bulgaria and New Zealand, spawned Christmas specials and prompted a UK-wide "live" tour of regional theaters. Speaking to ''The Daily Telegraph'' in 2015 ahead of the launch of series 4, Adil Ray stated that fans of the show realise it is a "big laugh out loud comedy, not a reflection of every Muslim or Pakistani family in the country." From Series 4, the role of Shazia Khan was taken over by Krupa Pattani replacing Maya Sondhi. Ray reported that he received death threats for the show, including one threatening a riot. He has stated that his influences came from comedies such as ''
Only Fools and Horses ''Only Fools and Horses'' (titled onscreen as ''Only Fools and Horses....'') is a British television sitcom that was created and written by John Sullivan (writer), John Sullivan. Seven series were originally broadcast on BBC One in the United Ki ...
'' and ''
Fawlty Towers ''Fawlty Towers'' is a British television sitcom written by John Cleese and Connie Booth, originally broadcast on BBC Two in 1975 and 1979. Two series of six episodes each were made. The series is set in Fawlty Towers, a dysfunctional fictional ...
'' that were aimed at family audiences, and he desires for families of all backgrounds to be able to see elements of Khan's character in their father figure. Ray has claimed that for every complaint he had over a scene in which Khan's daughter Alia hurriedly covers her head in the presence of her father, he received ten messages from Muslims, Catholics and Jews relating to the experience of a child behaving similarly. In April 2016, the show was condemned in parliament by Rupa Huq, the Labour MP for Ealing Central and Acton, who called its portrayal of a Birmingham Muslim family "quite backward". In June 2021, Ray was in a debate on Good Morning Britain about 'woke' comedy rows, and stated that the BBC was thinking about making a Christmas Special, but conversations would need to be had about the content and 'offensive stereotypes'.


Awards

* 2014 –
Royal Television Society The Royal Television Society (RTS) is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present, and future. It is the oldest television society in the world. It currently has fourteen r ...
, Best performance in a comedy – Adil Ray * 2014 –
Royal Television Society The Royal Television Society (RTS) is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present, and future. It is the oldest television society in the world. It currently has fourteen r ...
, Best comedy programme – Citizen Khan * 2013 – Asian Media Awards, Best TV character – Citizen Khan * 2013 –
Royal Television Society The Royal Television Society (RTS) is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present, and future. It is the oldest television society in the world. It currently has fourteen r ...
, Best performance in a comedy – Adil Ray * 2013 –
Royal Television Society The Royal Television Society (RTS) is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present, and future. It is the oldest television society in the world. It currently has fourteen r ...
, Best Comedy Programme – Citizen Khan


Appearances

The character of Mr Khan has made appearances at
Children in Need ''BBC Children in Need'' is the BBC's UK Charitable organization, charity dedicated to supporting disadvantaged children and young people across the country. Established in 1980, the organisation has raised over £1 billion by 2023 through its ...
2014 (in which he appeared as a guest in the ''
EastEnders ''EastEnders'' is a British television soap opera created by Julia Smith (producer), Julia Smith and Tony Holland which has been broadcast on BBC One since February 1985. Set in the fictional borough of Walford in the East End of London, the ...
'' pub),
The Queen Victoria ''EastEnders'' is a British television soap opera created by Julia Smith and Tony Holland which has been broadcast on BBC One since February 1985. Set in the fictional borough of Walford in the East End of London, the programme follows the ...
,
Comic Relief Comic Relief is a British charity, founded in 1986 by the comedy scriptwriter Richard Curtis and comedian Sir Lenny Henry in response to the 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia. The concept of Comic Relief was to get British comedians to make t ...
2015, (in which he joked he was hoping to be considered for
Jeremy Clarkson Jeremy Charles Robert Clarkson (born 11 April 1960) is an English television presenter, journalist, farmer, and author who specialises in Driving, motoring. He is best known for hosting the television programmes ''Top Gear (2002 TV series), T ...
's job at Top Gear), the FA Cup Final 2015 (supporting local Birmingham team
Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club (commonly referred to as simply Villa) is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club, founded in 1874, compete in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The team have p ...
), and in October 2015, took over the train announcements at Birmingham New Street station for an hour. On Friday 18 November 2016, the cast of ''Citizen Khan'' made an appearance on
Children in Need ''BBC Children in Need'' is the BBC's UK Charitable organization, charity dedicated to supporting disadvantaged children and young people across the country. Established in 1980, the organisation has raised over £1 billion by 2023 through its ...
in a live sketch, ''Citizen Khan v Citizen Kane'', in which they were joined by comedian
Russell Kane Russell Kane (born Russell David Anthony Grineau; 19 August 1975) is an English writer, comedian, and actor. He has four times been nominated at the Edinburgh Comedy Awards, winning the Best Comedy Show award in 2010. Although known mainly for ...
and his family for a dance off. On 11 March 2017, Adil Ray appeared as Mr Khan on '' Let's Sing and Dance for Comic Relief'' as a judge.


Episodes


Characters

*Episode count is as of 23 December 2016 (Series 5, Episode 7)


Ratings

Total viewers include overnight views plus views on BBC iPlayer, BBC HD and recorded catch-up services. Official accurate figures are released 10 days after original transmission by BARB. For instance, ''Citizen Khan'' Series 2 Episode 1 attracted overall figures of 4.53m, a consolidated share of 15.1% including 1.17 million BBC iPlayer requests.


Distribution


DVD


Broadcasts

Premiering on 12 July 2013, the series airs on Comedy Central India in
India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
. In the United Kingdom, reruns of the show air on
Gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...
.


Digital

Series 1, 2 & 3 are available to buy on
iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...
in both Standard Definition and High Definition, "A Khan Christmas" and "A Khan Family Christmas" have also been made available to buy. Series 1 to 5 are available to stream on
Amazon Prime Amazon Prime (styled as prime) is a paid subscription service of Amazon which is available in many countries and gives users access to additional services otherwise unavailable or available at a premium to other Amazon customers. Services inclu ...
and
BBC iPlayer BBC iPlayer (stylised as iPLAYER or BBC iPLAYER) is a video on demand service from the BBC. The service is available Over-the-top media service, over-the-top on a wide range of devices, including Mobile phone, mobile phones and Tablet computer ...


See also

These are programmes with a similar premise. * ''
Fresh Off the Boat ''Fresh Off the Boat'' is an American television sitcom created by Nahnatchka Khan and produced by 20th Century Fox Television for ABC. It is loosely inspired by the life of chef and food personality Eddie Huang and his 2013 autobiography ...
'' * ''
The Family Law ''The Family Law'' is an Australian comedy television program created by Benjamin Law. The six-part series, loosely adapted from Law's 2010 book of the same name, was written by Law and Marieke Hardy. The series was produced by Matchbox Pic ...
'' * '' Kim's Convenience'' * '' Brown Nation'' * '' Goodness Gracious Me'' * '' The Kumars at No. 42'' * '' The Real McCoy (TV series)''


References


External links

* * * * {{epguides, CitizenKhan 2010s British sitcoms 2012 British television series debuts 2016 British television series endings Asian-British culture BBC television sitcoms British Pakistani mass media British English-language television shows British surreal comedy television series Fiction about Islam Islamic comedy and humor Ethnic humour Pakistani diaspora in the United Kingdom Television shows set in Birmingham, West Midlands Religious comedy television series Television series about Islam Stereotypes of South Asian people