‘Will Allah be OK with this?’: inside the BBC's first British-Muslim sketch show

They joke about airport security and overindulging over Ramadan. Meet the creators of Muzlamic, the trailblazing comedy exploring the contradictions of modern Muslim lifeAs Ali Shahalom and Aatif Nawaz scan the faces on the walls of the boardroom we’re in, their faces light up. “The BBC have put us in the brown room!” laughs Shahalom, gazing up at the cast of Goodness Gracious Me. It feels fateful that this is where we meet in Broadcasting House, given the impact the pioneering British-Asian sketch show had on these two comics. (“That was the first time I ever saw brown people on TV,” says Shahalom. “That did something to me.”) These days he and Nawaz are the trailblazers; they are about to launch Muzlamic – the first British-Muslim sketch show ever broadcast on the BBC. From airport interrogations to a childrens’ author forced to answer extraneous questions while plugging a book called The Diary of a Friendly Squirrel (“Don’t you think it was insensitive to release it so soon after the anniversary of September 11?!”), the Muzlamic pilot is made up of bite-sized chunks that never outstay their welcome. In one sketch, which they refer to as “the whitest brown guy”, two feuding colleagues stalk one another around an office in Stevenage, playing top trumps with facts like “I’m so white I have a loyalty card at Greggs” and “I think a C is a really good grade.”Shahalom and Nawaz often offer up a jester v straight man dynamic, with Shahalom playing loveable buffoons like... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2019-07-18 13:28:25 UTC ]
News tagged with: #brown people #loyalty card #open mics #unsuccessful attempts

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Cross to sponsor British Sports Book Awards

The British Sports Book Awards will have a headline sponsor for the first time this year, following a deal with luxury pen-maker Cross. Held on 3rd June at Lord's Cricket Ground, this year's awards will give out prizes for categories including autobiography of the year, biography of the year,... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2015-03-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Emerald Expositions Buys Shows, Magazines

Company bets on the benefits of a trade show-and-magazine model in B2B. The post Emerald Expositions Buys Shows, Magazines appeared first on Folio:. Continue reading at Folio Magazine

[ Folio Magazine | 2015-03-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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World Book Day: British and Irish children head to school dressed as book-based characters

World Book Day is celebrated on March 5 in Britain and Ireland and an important part of the day is children dressing up as a literary character for school. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2015-03-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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BBC future report: collaborate with regional newspaper publishers

MPs urge public service broadcaster to back commercial press with licence fee moneyAre we about to see the BBC and the regional press, to use my colleague John Plunkett’s endearing phrase, “getting into bed with each other”?Clearly, the MPs want to see the public service broadcaster and... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2015-02-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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'War and Peace' BBC adaptation will star Jim Broadbent, Gillian Anderson

The adaptation will also star actors Paul Dano and Lily James. It's being directed by Tom Harper of 'Peaky Blinders.' Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2015-02-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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CAMEX 2015: A Show of Amazon and Disruption

Amazon had an outsized presence at this year's campus retail educational conference in Atlanta. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-02-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Inside 4 UK news publishers’ content studios

The clamor for native advertising budgets has led to many of the top news publishers rebranding and up-skilling. Here's how their solutions stack up. The post Inside 4 UK news publishers’ content studios appeared first on Digiday. Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2015-02-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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BitTorrent Will Soon Produce Its Own TV Shows

BitTorrent today announced a partnership with Rapid Eye Studios to launch BitTorrent Originals. Together, the pair will create original video content and distribute it exclusively on BitTorrent Bundle, the company’s publishing platform. The post BitTorrent Will Soon Produce Its Own TV Shows... Continue reading at Wired

[ Wired | 2015-02-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Teicher Says Wi10 Shows 'Resurgence' of Indies

This year's Winter Institute showcased the vitality of independent booksellers. “Anybody who doubts the resurgence of independent booksellers, I wish they could have been in Asheville,” said ABA CEO Oren Teicher. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-02-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Inside the Economics of Digital Comics with Todd Allen

Todd Allen has been keeping tabs on digital comics since the mid-aughts, and he's just released a ground-breaking new edition of 'The Economics of Digital Comics' that reveals a wealth of financial details rarely disclosed. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-02-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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BBC changes ending of Casual Vacancy

The BBC has changed the “bleak” ending of J K Rowling’s The Casual Vacancy for its TV adaptation, due to be screened this month. Screenwriter Sarah Phelps told the Telegraph that she had had to come up with a redemptive ending for the story, set in the fictional village of Pagford. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2015-02-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Hachette UK results show Ferguson fall-off

Hachette UK finished 2014 with a net sales decline of 10% in the final quarter, compared to the same period in 2013 which saw Sir Alex Ferguson claim the Christmas number one, according to annual results released by French parent company Lagardere. Across 2014 as a whole, Hachette UK saw a... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2015-02-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A Look Inside IBM Supercomputer Watson’s New Cookbook

The supercomputer analyzed flavor combinations and profiles to come up with recipes like an Austrian Chocolate Burrito. (It tastes better than you might think.) Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-02-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Pavilion signs "Great British Sewing Bee” finalist

Pavilion has signed a book by “The Great British Sewing Bee” finalist Chinelo Bally. Bally was a runner-up in the second series of the show, aired on BBC Two in 2014. Amy Christian, senior commissioning editor at Pavilion, bought world rights from Stuart Cooper of Metrostar Media Limited. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2015-01-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Investors buy stake in Business Insider for $25M

A group of investors led by Axel Springer SE, Europe's biggest newspaper publisher, has paid $25 million for a stake in Business Insider Inc. as the German media company seeks to expand its digital... To view the full story, click the title link. Continue reading at Crains New York

[ Crains New York | 2015-01-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Inside the Mind of Moses: PW Talks with Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg

Biblical scholar Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg trains her trademark lens on the Book of Numbers, using psychoanalytic concepts to understand the story of the people of Israel wandering in the wilderness. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-01-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Harris attacks BBC books coverage

Novelist Robert Harris calls on the BBC to give books more coverage "at a time when they're really fighting like crazy for a bit of space". Continue reading at BBC News

[ BBC News | 2015-01-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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'Guantánamo Diary,' written by an inmate, reveals inside look at infamous prison

Mohamedou Ould Slahi’s personal diary, which was published Tuesday by Little, Brown, is being billed as the first book written by a Guantánamo detainee. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2015-01-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Children’s reading shows simultaneous rise and decline. How can that add up?

The number of youngsters reading for pleasure has declined sharply, but this sector of publishing is booming – which results in some very strange mathsAre children reading less – or more? I’m confused. If less, then what happened to the 854,262 copies of John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars that... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2015-01-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Why British publishers don’t sweat new US competition

Buzzfeed, HuffPo, Mashable and Vice have all set up in the U.K. Agencies weigh in on their collective impact. The post Why British publishers don’t sweat new US competition appeared first on Digiday. Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2015-01-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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