Copyright resides with the original holders, no reproduction without permission.
These screen grabs are from the Asian magazine series, East. Thanks to editor Ian Collins for making the grabs available. East was a spin off from Network East, a topical affairs series, made by the Asian Programme Unit circa 1990. The editor was Narendhra Morar. I think the presenter in the first photo is Sanjeev Kholi.
The article below is taken from: http://www.desiblitz.com/content/5-bbc-asian-television-shows-to-remember
“The BBC is celebrating 50 years of its programming for South Asian immigrants which started in the 60s and for the subsequent new British Asian generations into the 80s, 90s and onwards.
Programming for Asian immigrants who arrived in Britain started at 9.00am on 10th October 1965 on BBC1.
In Logon Se Miliye was the first programme which was then replaced by Apna hi Ghar Samajhiye known as Make Yourself at Home in 1966.
The programme produced by David Gretton was also repeated on BBC2 and on BBC radio.
Offering a mix of language lessons in everyday English and popular music from Indian and Pakistani films, the programme aimed to help Asians cope with everyday life.
Subsequently, shows like Nai Zindagi Naya Jeevan and Gharbar for women, appeared on BBC television.
Both radio and television progressively began to broadcast shows targeting Asians living and now settled in Britain.
BBC Radio shows like East and West, Midlands Masala and the emergence of BBC Asian Network as a station, all contributed to this programming.
It was the late 80s and 90s when BBC programming for Asians took a new direction, to appeal to new generations of British Asians.
The television programmes were produced by the BBC Asian Programmes Unit (APU), based at Pebble Mill in Birmingham.
The APU was headed by Narendhra Morar and subsequently taken over by Paresh Solanki during this era of BBC’s multicultural programming.
Other members of the team included Narinder Minhas, Tommy Nagra, Fatima Salaria, Farah Durrani, Sangita Manandhar, Gurdip Bhangoo, Jane Dunning and Sara Kozak.
We remember five popular shows from this special era of BBC Asian television.
NETWORK EAST
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This weekly lifestyle and entertainment programme was launched in 1987 on BBC2 on Saturday mornings.
It was the first programme to be fully broadcast in English.
This lively show had a series of well-known presenters through its time, including, Valerie Vaz and Samantha Meah, Krishnan Guru-Murthy, Mo Dutta, Shahnaz Pakravan, Sudha Kumari (now known as Sudha Bhuchar), Sanjeev Kohli and Sonia Deol.
It featured lots of major stars and acts including Amitabh Bachchan, Mehmood, Salman Khan, Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Gurdas Maan and Shobu Kapoor (Geeta in EastEnders).
With Bhangra bands being huge at the time, Azaad, Alaap, Heera, Apna Sangeet and many more were featured on the show.
The Network East Mega Mela event was the first major indoor mela held at the NEC in Birmingham.
The show featured and supported live acts and upcoming bands.
In 1998, Asia 2 was used to group Asian programmes shown on BBC 2 on Saturday mornings, starting with Network East: Big Talk, a show discussing Asian issues.
A late night version of the show called Network East Late was aired in 2001.
EAST
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This was a programme produced to address current affairs and controversial issues affecting the South Asian communities in Britain.
Aired weekly from 1990, on BBC2 on Tuesday evenings, it tackled many areas of Asian life in its episodes. Including:
The increasing number of young Asians choosing mainstream pop over the traditional Asian music market after success of Babylon Zoo.
Growing numbers of elderly Asian parents who expected to be cared for by their children are finding themselves alone or in homes.
Increasing numbers of Asian women in Britain becoming involved in prostitution, after running away from sheltered and unhappy homes
EAST – tackled issue of prostitution
Some episodes of the series instigated complaints for their hard-hitting nature.
CAFE 21
The newer generations of British Asians had many social and personal issues to deal with during the 90s.
Cafe 21 was targeted at this youth and debated topics and matters concerning them.
The setting was usually a ‘student common room’ with an audience of young guests who debated topical issues with the presenter Rajesh Mirchandani.
Participants frequently discussed education, careers, religion, racism, relationships, politics, multiculturalism, integration and lots more.
It was aired on Saturday mornings on BBC2 from 1997.
BOLLYWOOD OR BUST
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This programme was shown on BBC2 on a Saturday morning from 1994 and was an amazing concept of a gameshow using Bollywood as its theme.
Presenters of the show were first Mo Dutta and then Sanjeev Bhaskar.
Four contestants were invited into the studios to take part in a series of question and Bollywood trivia rounds.
Each round was introduced with a dramatic piece of Bollywood film music and each round was named in Hindi and English.
Each episode progressively led to a semi-final and then a final.
The winning prize was a fully paid trip to Bollywood itself and a chance to meet some of the biggest stars at that time, including, Shahrukh Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Dev Anand and many more.
FLAVOURS OF INDIA
At the time this was one of the first cookery television shows of its kind. It used the concept of on location cooking with the hugely popular, Madhur Jaffrey, as the cookery star, travelling across India.
The six-part series was directed by Navin Thapar and produced by Sara Kozak and a team from the BBC and India. It was aired from 1995.
Different cuisines were brought to you in each episode featuring a specific state of India and its speciality dishes. Including, Goa, Kerala, Gujarat, Punjab and Tamil Nadu.
Madhur narrated her visits and provided historical facts about each place and made the dishes outside on location.
A book was published to accompany the series.
Most of the above shows were aired on Saturday mornings on BBC 2, which was dominated by BBC Asian programmes – a history in the making, in its own unique way.
Although Asian programmes today are still part of the BBC agenda, the Asian Programmes Unit was closed in 2008. So, it’s unlikely that we shall ever witness another era of domination by shows like the ones we remember here.’
The following comments were left on the Pebble Mill Facebook page:
Tony Jover: ‘I recall we used to do a Top 10 Bollywood movies section, a fashion section and more. At one stage it was presented by Sanjeev Bhaskar. I used to edit Network East with Paresh Solanki.’
Viv Ellis: ‘I worked on the very first Network East under Narendhra Morar, as a director, doing studio and location shoots and editing. We recorded the show in the small studio (can’t remember what it was called) [Studio B] with a “band days” in studio A. We had all sorts of amazing music.’
Gordon Astley: ‘I remember my first TV job was boom op. at Gosta Green about 1970. I remember trying to get as near to a sitar as possible. Must have been one of the first of these shows?’
Bridget Catherine Vaughan: ‘I worked in the days of Ashok Rampal.’
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Thanks to Ian Collins for making this titles grab available.
East was the Asian current affairs series, which went out in the spring/summer during the 1990s on BBC2, whilst Network East, was transmitted in the winter.
Here is the Radio Times copy from the first episode of the 1996 series, transmitted on 3rd April, courtesy of the BBC Genome project:
“Return of the series viewing current events from an Asian perspective. Last among Equals Veteran broadcaster Mark Tully reports on the exploitation, violence and even murder to have struck the second-class Christians of India. As the Christian world prepares to celebrate Easter, the Indian caste system – contravening the Christian teaching that discrimination constitutes sin – condemns millions of Christ’s followers to worship, live and even be buried separately from their high-caste brethren.
Producers Yugesh and Sunandan Wallia; Series producer Mike Finlason” http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/4d382bf111844264bf42f8f3d0019731
The following comments were left on the Pebble Mill Facebook page:
Ann Haywood: ‘Pity Arthur Haywood is in the great editing suite in the sky, I used to hear so much about the programme.’
Sarah Dunning: ‘Was it Gary Vollans who did the re-design?’
Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission.
These title grabs are from the Asian current affairs show: East. It was the sister show to Network East and went out during the summer. It tended to be more documentary based. The show was made at BBC Pebble Mill during the 1990s.
Thanks to VT editor, Ian Collins, for making the still available.
The following comments were left on the Pebble Mill Facebook page:
Terry Barker: ‘I remember it well as I was working for Narendhra Morar at the time.’
Sarah Dunning: ‘I think Gary Vollans was the graphic designer?’
Copyright resides with the original holder no reproduction without permission.
This titles grab is from the Asian magazine show: East, which was transmitted in the summer, whilst its sister show: Network East
went out in the autumn/winter, circa 1990s. The weekly series on BBC 2 focussed on current affairs and issues facing the Asian audience. The links and studio items came from Studio B, with pre-recorded VTs.
Thanks to Ian Collins to making this grab available.
The following comment was added on the Pebble Mill Facebook Page:
Dharmesh Rajput: ‘East was the current affairs series that ran in the summer at the same time as Network East ran in the Autumn / Winter. East had different presenters depending on the documentary – a whole variety of people were used, normally chosen appropriately for the subject matter. Names such as Sankha Guha, Mark Tully, Martin Bashir, Rajesh Mirchandani, Mina Anwar, Meera Syal, John Inverdale to name a few that I can remember of the top of my head.’