Mind Your Language
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Mind Your Language was a British comedy series shown on ITV, between 1977 and 1979. Produced by LWT, it was set in a language school in London, with the late Barry Evans as the night school English language teacher for a motley crew of assorted foreigners.
The series was known for its humorous take on national stereotypes: the German woman was dour and humourless; the French woman was sexy and flirtatious; the Swedish woman was liberated and straightforwardly sex-mad; the Chinese woman a rampant Maoist; while the Sikh and Pakistani men were often on the brink of war, and the Spaniard, the Greek and the Italian were macho. Much of the humour also stemmed from the trouble the students had with the English language, their often outrageous speech patterns and the students' hilarious mispronunciations of English. In the politically correct days of the late 1990s the show was criticised, but in its day the show was popular with people of many backgrounds because of its light-hearted take on multiculturalism and because it gave some otherwise unrepresented minorities a television presence.
It was cancelled in 1979 by Michael Grade, then LWT's Deputy Controller of Entertainment, who considered the stereotyping offensive. Nevertheless it was sold to other countries, including Australia, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Singapore, and was one of the first British TV programmes shown in South Africa after the end of the boycott by British Equity. It was even resurrected, briefly, for the export market by an independent producer, in the late 1980s. Only Granada Television transmitted the final 13 episodes consecutively as a complete series. Some ITV companies didn't show any of the episodes made in 1986. The programme was remade for US television as What a Country!
Jamilla Massey who played the Indian lady Jamila Rahjha is now appearing as a character in BBC Radio 4's long-running soap opera The Archers.
Written by: Vince Powell
Directed by: Stuart Allen
Produced by: Stuart Allen, Albert Moses
Transmitted: 1977-86
TV Channel: ITV
4 series, 42 episodes
Transmission Details
Number of episodes: 29; Length: 30 mins
Series One (13) 30 Dec 1977-24 Mar 1978 · Fri 7pm
Series Two (8) 7 Oct-25 Nov 1978 · Sat mostly 6pm
Series Three (8) 27 Oct-15 Dec 1979 · Sat mostly 6.45pm
Memorable Phrases
Ali Nadim (Pakistani) : "Squeeze me please!", "Oh Blimey!", "Jolly Good"
Giovanni Cupello (Italian) : "Santa Maria!"
Jamila Rahjha (Indian) : "God heavening!"
Miss Courtney (English) : "MISS Courtney, if you don't mind."
Ranjeet Singh (Punjabi) : "A thousand apologies."
Chung Su-Lee (Chinese) : "But Chairman Mao says..."
Taro Nagazumi (Japanese) : "Aso" (proceeds forward and bows)
Juan Cervantes (Spanish) : "Por favor?", "One fate/fete/fit, Two fate/fete/fit!"
Cast List
Barry Evans as Jeremy Brown
Zara Nutley as Miss Courtney
Francoise Pascal as Danielle Faure (Series 1-3)
Dino Shafeek as Ali Nadim (Series 1-3)
Albert Moses as Ranjeet Singh
Ricardo Montez as Juan Cervantes
George Camillar as Giovanni Cupello
Jacki Harding as Anna Schmidt
Jamila Massey as Jamila Ranjha (Series 1-3)
Pik-Sen Lim as Chung Su-Lee (Series 1-3)
Robert Lee as Taro Nagazumi (Series 1-3)
Kerok Malikyan as Maximillian Popandrious (Series 1-3)
Tommy Godfrey as Sid (Series 1-3)
Iris Sadler as Gladys (Series 1-3)
Zoltan Szabo as Gabor Vernon (Series 2)
Anna Bergman as Ingrid Svensen (Series 2,4)de:Mind Your Language