Meet The Adebanjos

Bayo Adebanjo

Bayo is a 45 year-old man who was born in Nigeria but came to the UK with his young bride in his 20s as a student. They settled in Peckham, South London, and had two kids in the UK.

He has very traditional family views, i.e. his daughter should not have contact with any man (yes, even holding hands is out of the question) until she gets married; and he expects a home cooked meal every evening.

He is strong headed, short tempered, always has an opinion and is very, very loud. At the same time, he is a very gullible person... which gets him into many sticky situations.

Bayo wants the best for his family and works hard to provide it (he works two jobs - a housing support officer during the day and security guard at night) but he also puts a lot of pressure on his kids to study hard so they can be high flying professionals in the future.

Love him or hate him, all he wants is to make sure there is love and harmony in the family. Even if he is often the one that disrupts it!

Gladys Adebanjo

Gladys is the 40 year-old wife of Bayo. She is an extrovert, and quite sociable.

She is concerned with what everyone outside will think of her and her family. She comes from a higher social class background from Dad and never lets him forget that.

As a mum she is confident, bold and loud but she commands a lot of respect from the kids. Bayo has a way of getting her onside with all his big plans and dreams, but it's always left to her to pick up the pieces when his plans inevitably fall through!

Gladys has now got to the stage in life where she is fed up of playing second fiddle to Bayo and putting up with his shenanigans. She wants to be loved, romanced, wined and dined and taken on short haul holidays to Venice... and, at the moment, the only romance from Bayo she is getting is being told to get some more Guinness as he watches football on telly!

Sade Adebanjo

Sade is the 17 year-old daughter in the Adebanjo household. A typically self-absorbed teenager, she's focused on making sure her father's old-fashioned values do not mess up her social life.

She is frustrated by her parents' over-protectiveness and longs to be allowed to go to more parties and events with her friends. She is single and craves a boyfriend, but has not had much luck in that department.

Being brought up under her parents' strict ways has made her naive to things that happen in the real world and, like her father, she can be quite gullible.

She is desperate to be friends with the most popular girls in college and will do anything to get in their group. She studies in sixth form the subjects that her parents feel will lead her into a good professional job, but she would rather be doing something more creative like Art & Design.

Tobi Adebanjo

Tobi is the 15 year-old son of the Adebanjos. He is bubbly, energetic, bold, cheeky and likes to tease/play pranks on everyone in the family.

He's not too academically gifted but is very good with his hands and picks things up very quickly. He is a great salesman and good at hustling money out of his Mum and Dad.

Tobi is going through puberty - voice, hair, girls and wet dreams. He considers himself some kind of ladies' man, even though has yet to kiss a girl (he is just at the holding hands stage at the moment).

As with his sister, there is a lot of pressure for him to be good at school. He tries his best but it just does not quite click, which drives his Dad nuts.

Tobi mostly enjoys winding up Bayo, who he has a love-hate relationship with. He plans to set up his own online business after he finishes his GCSEs and try to make it the next Facebook. But his Dad will drag him to college if he has to!

Aunty Funke

Aunty Funke is Gladys's 48 year-old older half-sister, who lives in the spare room of the house.

She arrived saying that she would only stay for a few months and pay rent, but she has now been living with them for 5 years - much to the annoyance of Bayo! He would have kicked her out long ago, but is talked around by Gladys.

Funke is eccentric, colourful, stubborn, brash and ignorant. She is not afraid to speak her mind, which is why she rubs Bayo and her bosses at work up the wrong way... this perhaps explains why she fails to hold onto any job for any period of time.

Despite all her problems, she is still a likeable figure in the household because she does not let little things like not having a job bother her. Instead she focuses on her mission of trying to find a rich man to marry.

Her advances on men don't seem to be working now, or for the last 10 years, but as Funke says "Those useless men don't know what they are missing!"

Kevin (Series 1-2)

Kevin is the 15 year-old friend of Tobi, who lives next door. He has grown up around the family so he feels right at home with them and generally gets on with everyone in the house.

He has a massive crush on Sade and would do anything to be her boyfriend (unknown to Bayo of course), but she looks at him in disgust as he is not only younger than her but also is her brother's friend.

Cousin Femi (Series 1-2)

Cousin Femi is a family relative of the Adebanjos. Although he was born in the UK he was sent to Nigeria at an early age and has only recently returned to Britain.

A larger-than-life character, Femi likes to be treated like a king by the kids, even though at 20 he is just a few years older than them.

He thinks he is a ladies' man and struggles to understand why none of his "lyrics" and "game" works on the local London girls.

Pastor Michael (Series 1-2)

Pastor Michael is a 30 year-old larger-than-life Pentecostal youth preacher who is always on a mission to spread the word of the Lord.

Greg (Series 1-2)

Greg is Tobi's tutor who has been entrusted with improving his very poor grades.

Tony (Series 2)

Tony is the English owner of the local café, and always unlucky in love.