BBC1 sitcom Citizen Khan is set to become the latest British show to be remade abroad with the corporation in talks to make a German version based around an immigrant Turkish family.
Now the BBC’s most popular sitcom among young audiences, Citizen Khan is following in the footsteps of other comedies that have been exported, such as The Office, Fawlty Towers and Yes Minister.
When the show began four series ago, there were complaints and creator and star Adil Ray received death threats, but since then it has become a mainstream success and is proving a hit with audiences around the world, particularly on Comedy Central in India.
The antics of Birmingham-based Pakistani self-appointed “community leader” Khan and his family have been sold to television networks in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, as well as being picked up by audiences in the Middle East such as Iran and on Emirates Airlines.
And now in Germany, where the issue of immigration is topical in light of the country’s attempt to help solve the refugee crisis by taking in an estimated 1.5 million people by the end of this year, talks are taking place to change the format to make their own version.
Ray said: “We’ve spoken to a German broadcaster who said, ‘This is fantastic because it’s a little bit like the Turkish community here in Germany’... we would do a Turkish version of Citizen Khan. I get really excited by that.”
He explained: “For us it’s the Pakistan family in Birmingham but there is that kind of family in every country around the world, that immigrant experience of that family who then is caught between being represented by their original nationality and their new found identity which is either British or American or German ... so I think that gives us quite a nice sort of global appeal.”
Citizen Khan, which returns on Friday with a six part series and a Christmas special, is now the BBC’s longest-running original sitcom and was the first Muslim comedy on British television.
Ray said that people see the show as a modern, “reflection on Britain” and its multiculturalism and “that’s great ... I hear a lot from immigrant communities that have arrived whether it’s eastern European or Somalians and they will watch Citizen Khan and enjoy it and go that sometimes mirrors our immigrant experience what life is like for us.”
He argued that putting diverse shows on mainstream channels like BBC1 can help integration: “Research in America shows that new immigrants actually don’t want to watch ... diverse cable channels, they want to be part of the American experience, they want to watch the big networks. Hence why you’ve got a show called Blackish which is about a black family and a show called Fresh Off the Boat and they are on mainstream networks, I think that’s the right way forward.”
