''A Small Problem'' 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 ...

originally broadcast on

BBC2 BBC Two is a British free-to-air 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 matter, incorporating genres such as comedy, drama and ...

in 1987. Intended as a

satire Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of exposin ...

on prejudice, and starring

Christopher Ryan Christopher Papazoglou (born 25 January 1950), known professionally as Christopher Ryan, is a British actor. He is best known for his roles as Mike The Cool Person in the BBC comedy series '' The Young Ones'', Dave Hedgehog in the BBC comedy se ...

who had previously played Mike in '' The Young Ones'', the show was set in a Britain with a form of

apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...

based on people's height. Anyone below tall was forced to live in tower-block ghettos south of the River Thames. The main characters of the show were Howard (

), a cheerful cinema projectionist always making fun of things and quoting classic movies, but revealed to be in a member of terrorist group Short Liberation Front; Roy Pink (Mike Elles), who at was previously considered normal height, but with new EEC regulations, he was now considered short as his metric height of now fell below the new 1.55 m mark, thus relegating him south of the River Thames, whilst he always refused to consider himself short and even insulted other short characters, whilst getting no help for his predicament from his tall brother George ( David Simeon), who with his wife Heather ( Joan Blackham) were trying to erase him out of their lives; Fred (Dickie Arnold), the elderly head of the tower-block's Residents Association, who with his wife Lily (Christine Ozanne) are trying to make the best of a bad situation, only seeming to be concerned about trivial matters and not the heightist apartheid; Jenny (Cory Pulman), and petition-wielding activist trying to fight the system not to much success; Sid ( Big Mick), a conniving dwarf who calls everyone a "dickhead", and Mr. Motokura (Tetsu Nishino), a rich Japanese businessman who came to Britain with his wife (Sayo Inaba) looking to build a factory, but ended up directed to the tower-block and trying to escape with his wife, whilst they struggle to communicate with others as they speak no English. It was written by comedy writers Tony Millan and Mike Walling. Walling was short himself at , and one day, whilst walking to Millan's house, had noticed two men, one tall and one short, playing tennis, and how the tall man seemed to have an advantage, so during a brainstorming session, he pitched the idea. The theme tune was written by Mo Foster and Mike Walling.

References

External links

* 1987 British television series debuts 1987 British television series endings 1980s British sitcoms BBC television sitcoms British English-language television shows Television shows set in London {{BBC-comedy-tv-prog-stub

See also

References

External links