The Stage

Fags, Mags and Bags writer Kohli working on “Asian Cold Feet”

Published Tuesday 13 January 2009 at 15:15 by Matthew Hemley

Red Production Company, the independent firm behind Queer as Folk and Clocking Off, is developing a new comedy drama series for the BBC described as an “Asian Cold Feet”.

The show is the brainchild of actor and writer Sanjeev Kohli, who penned the award-winning BBC Radio 4 sitcom Fags, Mags and Bags and starred in the BBC sitcom Still Game.

He told The Stage that his new comedy drama, which has the working title Cousins, follows a group of people who have grown up together.

Kohli, brother of comedian Hardeep Singh Kohli, said it would be a “very British comedy” that just “happens to have Asians in it”.

“They are cousins, five people who have grown up together, and see each other every week - at the temple or for a pub quiz - who happen to be Asian, which gives you all kind of other angles and observations that you can make,” he said.

Kohli said the idea for the comedy initially took the form of a one-off production, which was seen by Red and developed for the BBC.

The Corporation turned it down as a one-off show, but said they would like to see the characters explored further, prompting Red and Kohli to develop it into a series.

“That is how it became this Cold Feet idea. I have always liked Cold Feet - I think it works really well,” Kohli said.

Nicola Shindler, executive producer at Red, which also made the Channel 4 drama The Mark of Cain and is behind ITV’s new Sally Wainwright thriller Unforgiven, described Cousins as “very good and funny”, but said the company was waiting for an official response from the BBC as to whether it had been commissioned.

Kohli said he was optimistic about the series, despite the fact it has been in development for some time.

He said: “Until they firmly shut the door on it, you never say never. There is someone who is keen on it at the BBC and who is championing it, so if that person can fight our case, there is always a chance.”