Look Who's On TV

It’s no secret that diversity on the screen in the 80s and 90s, when I was growing up, was limited. The odd occasion a brown family appeared on Family Fortunes or the arrival of Sanjay and Geeta on Eastenders was what got my Indian Family, living in North London, excited and shouting through the house – ‘come, look who’s on TV!’. This is not to say there wasn’t any quality programming back then that depicted the South Asian or Black communities living in the UK. In fact, it was quite the opposite with brilliant, life-altering shows like The Real McCoy, Goodness Gracious Me and Desmond’s which made teens like me feel seen and helped navigate the identity crisis of being British Born but not white.

However, these shows were relegated to niche viewing and were not part of the mainstream conversation. They were great shows and did a lot for the communities they represented but did not shift the opinions of the majority. I mean I never dared to wear my ‘Kiss my Chuddies’ T-Shirt out in public, as I knew I’d just get questions.

In more recent years the conversation around diversity on TV and Film has been far more animated and there has been a wave of new shows, especially for the South Asian Diaspora in the US and Canada, such as Mindy Kaling’s Never Have I Ever, Hasan Minhaj’s Patriot Act and The Lilly Singh Show. However, it’s the second season of Bridgerton, Shona Rhime’s period drama, set in a make-believe regency era, that has got everyone talking. Season 2 has two Tamil actors cast as the female leads and boy is it great to see. I binged watched the second season in just a few days and then got obsessed with reading all the reviews and differing opinions. There has been admiration for the show casting two ‘dark-skinned’ characters and celebrating the feature of Haldi, cardamon tea and costumes with Indian embroidery. However, there has also been criticism of the lack of reference to colonialism and the British Raj and the confused usage of language – a mix of Hindi, Bengali, and Tamil words referenced.

I do understand both sides of these opinions, but it also makes me question why there is so much ‘opinion’ over this show. The same happened during season one which features a Black Duke. I mean I have not seen reviews like this for other British shows like Indian Summers or the axed Beecham House. What it boils down to is that what Bridgerton stands for is just different to anything else we have seen on TV and that in itself is justification for opinion. When there is so little representation to begin with, in this case of the South Asian community, when a show like this comes along, there is a desire for it to represent everybody from that community. With a community so diverse in terms of language, religion, culture, and history, this is just not realistic. This pressure to represent and the inevitable failure happens over and over again and often results in the downfall of a project. Those in power, see these results and take away funding that for marginalised communities in the Arts are so limited in the first place. Yes, authenticity is important, and it is right to question this when a show is attempting to represent a community, .but this should not be to the detriment of future shows.

So how can we break this cycle and ensure that shows ‘with people like us’ that right now come along once in a while, become the norm? For me, the desire is not always ‘to be seen and understood’ by the mainstream, but for there to be a better understanding that not everyone is the same. We should be making every attempt not to re-enforce stereotypes and instead continue to tell different types of stories, from differing regions, experiences, and times.

In my ideal world, I want the future generations to grow up with scenes of all types showing them what this world is, rather than what the majority feel most comfortable seeing, which is more like theirs. This would include intersections of cultures with disabilities or stories from eras where the voices of the suppressed are heard. All these stories would be celebrated and revered without the pressure of representation, be part of the mainstream conversation and not be relegated to the sidelines.