Comic team could defect from the BBC

The BBC has lost The Kumars At No 42, with the fictional family considering a move to a rival broadcaster.

Any defection would come as a blow to the corporation, which nurtured stars Meera Syal and Sanjeev Bhaskar from their days on the Radio 4 sketch show Goodness Gracious Me.

But now Syal says the team behind the spoof chat show want to call it a day – although the Kumars could reappear in another vehicle, or on another channel,

‘We won't do another series in its present form for the BBC because we have now done seven, amazingly,’ she told The Independent.

‘We have had interest from other quarters about doing something different – but keeping the family together. So we're exploring that.’

The Kumars first went out on BBC Two in 2001. It spawned native versions in Australia, Germany, Israel and The Netherlands, all with their own different ethnicities.

But an attempt to adapt the show for US audiences, with a version called The Ortegas, in 2002 proved a flop and enjoyed only a short-lived run on Fox.

Published: 17 Oct 2006