The Spiritual Centre

We're circling Buddha of Suburbia territory with this new sitcom by Suk Pannu, about Bharat, a suburban guru (Vincent Ebrahim), his disciple Henry (Tim Key) and Mrs Sidhu (Shelley King), his termagant receptionist. Bharat's advice is much sought after but what he advises (times of weddings etc) may depend on what's on TV that afternoon. Yet despite his devotion to Quincy, he wants the younger generation to take him seriously.

The most promising new sitcom came from Suk Pannu with The Spiritual Centre because it had a genuine quirkiness, allied with performances which didn't make me grit my teeth, which is always a good start. Most of the best sitcoms of the seventies, the undisputed golden age of the genre, exploited genuine personality flaws in their characters, rather than hyping everything up to fairground level. Here, Pannu has given us Bharat, a self-declared guru of the western suburbs of London, who is expansive on the failings of others while blind to his own faults. Played by the very likeable Vincent Ebrahim, he carelessly exploits the servant classes (his disciple played by Tim Key) and becomes very tetchy if interrupted during the afternoon repeats of old American detective shows.