The Family – Punjabi Reality TV

The new series is the first of its kind

UK’s Channel 4 brings to our screens a new series of the BAFTA nominated television series, ‘The Family’ and this time it is the turn of The Grewals, a British Asian family consisting of nine members; one of whom is born during the series.

The new series is the first of its kind, to film an eight-part observational documentary showing British Asian life in such detail. The Grewals were filmed over a period of 8 weeks with 28 cameras following them around the clock.

The Grewals are a fun-loving, lively Punjabi family living in London, made up of three generations, all living in the same house. The cameras capture moments all around the main rooms in the house and even in the garden.

The episodes of the series will feature the Brit-Asian wedding of the eldest son complicated by his bride’s own family not being part of the wedding and the challenges of a pregnant daughter and son-in-law bringing a new addition to the family whilst running a theatre business.

The programme will give an insight into British Asian life and shows happy funny, emotional, sad and times of conflict too.

It will probably give non-Asians a better understanding of what goes on in a typical British Asian Punjabi household with an extended family.

The characters making up the Grewal family are as follows:

• Sarbjit Grewal – The Mother. Aged 55. Born in Punjab India. Sarbjit is a housewife and has been married for 35 years to Arvinder – a man her parents chose for her. She is the hub of the family and nothing is too much trouble for her.
• Arvinderjeet Singh Grewal – The Father. Age: 54. Born in Nairobi, Kenya. Arvinder is very much the Desi man who claims to be the the head of the household.
• Mandeep Grewal – Eldest Son. Age: 33. Born in the UK. Sunny is the  is proud of his family. He likes to have a joke. He is married to Shay of whom he is very protective. After a register wedding in 2005, their Punjabi wedding is a key event in the series.
• Gursharonjit Grewal – Daughter-in-Law. Age: 24. Born in the UK.  Shay is married to Sunny who is nine years older than her. She is content living with her in-laws and has no contact with her own mother.
• Gurdip Kaur Chaudhary – Daughter. Age: 32. Gurdip had a love marriage with Jeet, who she met in India. She runs a theatre company with her husband.  Together they have two children, daughter Bhavika and son Jaskaranjeet who was born  two months premature during the series.
• Tejind Grewal – Youngest Son. Age: 23. Tejind is a chilled guy and has huge passion for his part-time business as a DJ.
• Jitender Singh Chaudhary – Son-in-Law. Age: 36. Known as ‘Jeet’, he is an actor and professional puppeteer. He runs the Punjabi lingual Matribhoomi Theatre Company with his wife.
• Bhavika – Grandchild. Age 2 1/2 years. Born in the UK. As the first grandchild she knows how to get her own way. Thw whole family fuss over her and she earned the name ‘wah wah.’
• Dusty and Rusty – Dogs. Rutsy is a boisterous one eyed terrier  and Dusty is a gentle German Shepherd.

Gurdip and Jeet, were exclusively interviewed by DESIblitz.com after the fantastic performance of their funny Punjabi play, Patiala Junction, by the Matribhoomi Theatre company at The Drum in Birmingham. So, we will be looking out for them on this series of  The Family!

Simon Dickson, deputy head of documentaries at Channel 4, said: “Following the success of last year’s series, we are lucky to have found another brilliant family through whose eyes we can experience the highs and lows of family life. The Grewals are close knit and wonderfully warm – I know viewers are going to take them to their hearts over the coming weeks.”

The series starts on Wednesday 4th November at 9.00pm on Channel 4.