My Life as a Popat

My Life as a Popat
Genre	Comedy
Directed by	Beryl Richards (series 1 - 6 episodes) Charles Martin (series 2 - 4 episodes) Jonathan Gershfield (series 2 - 4 episodes
Theme music composer	The Kray Twins
Country of origin	UK
Language(s)	English (UK)
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	14 (at the end of Series 2) (List of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Philip Clarke (series 1 and 2) Laurence Bowen (series 2)
Producer(s)	Laurence Bowen (series 1) Nick Pitt (series 2)
Location(s)	Ealing Studios (series 1) Greenford Studios (series 2)
Running time	Approx. 30 mins and Episode
Broadcast
Original channel	ITV Network (Series 1); CITV channel (Series 2)
First shown in	Series 1 - 10 September 2004 Series 2 - 11 April 2007

My Life as a Popat follows the lives of an Indian family, through the eyes of their eldest son, Anand. The teenager fights a daily basis full of embarrassment. The second series brings a change to storyline, with brainbox Chetan Popat sometimes taking centre stage. Milli Patel (the Popats' cousin) also comes for the whole series.

Cast

• Sonny Gill Dulay - Anand Popat
• Kulvinder Ghir - Ramesh Popat
• Shaheen Khan - Shoba Popat
• Chandeep Uppal - Dimple Popat
• James Gandhi - Chetan Popat
• Laura Greenwood - Holly Saviour (Series 1 and one episode of Series 2)
• Felicity Montagu - Ivy Saviour (Series 1 and one episode of Series 2)
• Dave Hill - Alf Saviour (Series 1)
• Yasmin Paige - Lucy Miesels (Series 2)
• Manjeeven Grewal - Milli Patel (Series 2)

Trivia

My Life as a Popat was first not recommissioned after the second series due to CITV budget restrains. However, after the show won a BAFTA, a second series was commissioned. Laura Greenwood (Holly Saviour) was axed in the second series so (after a farewell appearance in the first episode) the character was written out. The new character of Lucy Miesels (played by Yasmin Paige) was introduced in the next episode.

Following further budget cuts to CITV My Life as a Popat was not recomissioned for a third series.

Game

CITV made a My Life as a Popat game which can be found on the CITV website: [1]

Episodes

Series 1 (2004)

Episode #	Title	First broadcast	Synopsis
1.	"Men in Turbans"	7 September 2004	Anand Popat arrives with his family in Harrow and is particularly keen to make a good impression with his next door neighbour Holly. Will he ever pluck up the courage to invite her to see ‘Men in Turbans’?.
2.	"Entertaining Radha"	14 September 2004	Anand’s heart sinks when his parents announce that bratty showbiz cousin Radha is coming all the way from Bombay to visit.
3.	"Dimplicious"	21 September 2004	Dimple’s endless singing practice for an important end of year Pop Idol style school concert is driving Anand and Chetan to distraction.
4.	"Health is Wealth"	28 September 2004	When Anand is given a school project to assess his family’s eating habits, he sees that their high fat curry diet gives them all almost zero life expectancy. He must do something to make them change before it’s too late.
5.	"Happy Diwali"	5 October 2004	It’s the night before Diwali – the Indian Festival of light – and Dimple, Chetan and Anand are dreading yet another record-breaking speech from their father, Ramesh. They have much more exciting plans and need to escape.
6.	"Take Your Child to Work Day" (aka "Got to be Ghee")	12 October 2004	Anand is assigned yet another school project that fills him with dread. Ramesh, his father, hates to be disturbed when he’s filming for his Asian satellite channel- how will he take to ‘take your child to work day’ ?

Series 2 (2007)

Episode #	Title	First broadcast	Synopsis
1.	"Tit for Tat"	11 April 2007	Mili and Chetan join forces against Anand and Dimple. Meanwhile, Holly has an announcement for Anand...
2.	"Ghost"	12 April 2007	The Popats think that they are being haunted by Uncle Sailesh's ghost. Chetan doesn't believe in ghosts but wants to make contact with an alien. Does either exist - or is there a human hand behind the unexplained goings-on?
3.	"Evil Granny"	13 April 2007	Ramesh's eccentric mother comes to stay - and she's the most evil, twisted gran in history. Anand discovers that he may have been adopted - looking at his gran he might wish he were. But in the end, blood is thicker than water.
4.	"Juvenile Delinquent"	16 April 2007	When Milli beats him the Matholympics exam, Chetan temporarily abandons his brainbox persona and becomes a hoodie. Milan pretends to be poor to see if Dimple only loves him for his money
5.	"Like Father, Like Son"	17 April 2007	Ramesh and Anand undergo a body swap. Ramesh has to go to school and Anand has to go to work - with unexpected consequences.
6.	"Girlfiend"	18 April 2007	Chetan is on a quest to find his perfect partner, Anand is on a quest to prove himself, and Dimple is on a quest to improve Milan's memory.
7.	"Popat Idol"	19 April 2007	Anand joins a boy band to save the family holiday. Milli plots to stay with the Popats for longer.
8.	"Royal Popats"	20 April 2007	Dimple is Milan's princess. But when his parents ask to meet her, the Popats come up with a crazy plan to pretend to be an ancient, royal Indian family. Anand is about to lose Lucy to the school bully - only ballroom dancing can prevent it.

External links

• My Life as a Popat at itv.com/citv
• My Life as a Popat at the Internet Movie Database
• My Life as a Popat at TV.com