The Grewals

A new series of The Family starts on Channel 4 tomorrow. This year the classic fly-on-the-wall documentary, which first aired on the BBC in 1974 and could be blamed for spawning the horror of reality TV, is focusing on three generations of a Sikh family living in Windsor.

The Grewals have been filmed over eight weeks, with 37 microphones and 28 cameras following their every move around their five-bedroom, pebble-dashed home — and to judge from e-mails I have been sent in response to the pre-publicity, a backlash is brewing.

There seems to be concern that the series will propound stereotypical and negative views of Asian families. Having watched a DVD of the first episode, I can report that such worries are not misplaced.

The Grewals live as a large extended family under the Heathrow flight path. They have at least one German saloon parked on the drive, and the first episode focuses almost entirely on that most clichéd of Asian themes — marriage, arranged and otherwise, with the series building up to a big, traditional Indian wedding. The only way they could be more stereotypical would be if they ran a corner shop.

The show also tackles several negative issues, including caste discrimination (Shay, a recruitment consultant in the City, is shunned by her family because Mandeep, her chosen husband, is from a different caste) and the misogynistic nature of Punjabi culture. Indeed, Arvinder, the father of the family, makes Ali G look like a new man: he doesn’t know where the plates are kept in his house because he claims that the kitchen is no place for a man, and he communicates with his wife Sarbjit almost entirely through remarks such as “I want cup of tea”; “gimme the food”; “bring the tea”; “I asked for jam on this . . . silly fool” and “you are snoring like a pig”.

At one point it seems as if he is finally about to pay his wife a compliment, when he recalls that she was “a very pretty girl” when they were married — but he wrecks it by adding “not like today”. At another point he says: “She is a loving person and I am glad that she is my wife and I care. I have to care because in the end she is the only one who cooks for me.”

But having said that, the show is also brilliant. Why?...

Read atTimes Online