Sanjeev Bhaskar

Jonathan Ross's old slot is taken up this week by the fourth series of this jovial comedy panel show - a safe play by the BBC, as they figure out how best to plug the gap left by Ross. It's hosted by Rob Brydon, and tonight features Fern Britton, Richard E Grant, Martin Clunes and Sanjeev Bhaskar alongside regular captains David Mitchell and Lee Mack, as the two teams attempt to fool each other into believing a series of plausible lies.

Portrait of the artist: Sanjeev Bhaskar

"I'd like to be in with a shot at playing Mr Darcy on the radio - but even there, I just get offered Asian characters"

It's 30 years since Monty Python's Life of Brian first hit the nation's cinemas, heralded by much controversy about whether it was blasphemous and consequent anxiety about who would back it. But it was both a box office success and a critical one and ever since has been voted one of the funniest films of all time. Sanjeev Bhaskar recounts how it was made and who eventually underwrote it (Beatle George Harrison). Lively interviews with Terry Jones, who directed, producer John Goldstone and all the Python team.

Thirty years after the release of the heretical masterpiece Monty Python's Life of Brian - and a few weeks since RT readers voted it the best comedy film ever - Sanjeev Bhaskar investigates how and why the Pythons did it. The movie was conceived when Eric Idle announced, for a laugh, that the follow-up to Monty Python and the Holy Grail would be called Jesus Christ - Lust for Glory. That throwaway gag ended up as a heartfelt, intelligent, rationalist satire where every scene is a quotable moment. As Terry Jones, Carol Cleveland, producer John Goldstone and others reminisce, it's a chance for fans to celebrate - and for those who dismiss the film as blasphemy to discover what it's really about.

What did 'Life of Brian' ever do for us?

Monty Python's 1979 film, 'Life of Brian', is rightly considered a comedy classic. But, thirty years on, it wouldn't be made today, argues Sanjeev Bhaskar.

The pilot for Mumbai Calling was broadcast so long ago that the catch-up introduction to the new series was almost an episode in itself. For those who missed it, or have scant recall of what happened, the pilot saw Wembley-born Kenny Gupta (Sanjeev Bhaskar) sent off to Mumbai to manage a call centre, along with troubleshooting assessor Terri Johnson, who turned out to be a woman (Daisy Beaumont). An attractive woman. You get the idea.

And it's not bad. It's not great either, but there is enough funny material to inspire cautious optimism, and the central characters definitely show potential, which is the most important factor in a sitcom's success. There is no laughter track, always a good thing, and the sheer originality of the setting merits some acknowledgement. I say give it a chance.

Oddly enough, for a television comedy, many of the best scenes occurred as reported action off screen. Such as the episode's funniest moment in which the India-based team inadvertently directed a funeral cortege away from Milton Keynes Crematorium and into Woburn Safari Park, where the corpse was set upon by lions.

I laughed a lot at that bit and also derived much pleasure from Nitin Ganatra's over the top performance as the amiable but ineffectual middle manager Dev. Every good sitcom needs a scene stealer.

Filmed entirely in Mumbai, this refreshingly original new sitcom stars Sanjeev Bhaskar as a British Asian called Kenny who is sent out (or "home", as his boss puts it) to India to help improve the fortunes of a failing call centre.

No doubt due to empty coffers, and capitalising on the cachet of a post-Slumdog Millionaire comedy set in a Mumbai call centre, not to mention the high profile of the actor Nitin Ganatra (Masood in EastEnders), ITV has dusted off this long-left-on-the-shelf comedy show, which piloted two years ago to decidedly lukewarm reviews. From the team behind Birds of a Feather, Auf Wiedersehen Pet and Lovejoy, it stars Sanjeev Bhaskar as a British-born Indian sent to manage a Mumbai call centre. It manages to swerve the Mind Your Language trap of jokes centred around the fact that the Indian employees don't speak the lingo too well, but only just. There are a few chuckles to be had along the way - mainly from Ganatra, who is a rather good comic actor, but on the whole it's about as funny as a slum clearance.

Sanjeev Bhaskar stars in this inventive new seven-part comedy series, filmed entirely on location in India. Sanjeev plays Kenny Gupta, packed off to Mumbai to try and rescue a struggling call centre, run by the less than reliable Dev Rajah (EastEnders' Nitin Ganatra). Daisy Beaumont plays a troubleshooter whose arrival only adds to the confusion.

Interview: Sanjeev Bhaskar

Sanjeev Bhaskar is back with a new sitcom - but how come we still see so few other Asian faces on British TV?