Family Pride

1 9 9 1 – 1 9 9 2 (UK)
51 x 30 minute episodes

This short-lived soap opera followed the intertwined lives of three Asian families – the Bedis, the Rizvis and the Lais – living in Birmingham.

The heads of the respective households came to Britain 30 years ago and lived by and maintained the traditions, beliefs and culture of their homeland. But their children were born in England and did not always see eye to eye with their parents, preferring the ways of the country they called home to ideas they considered outdated and irrelevant.

Balbin Bedi (Zia Mohyeddin) – known as “BB” – was a self-made millionaire Sikh who had built up an import/export empire known as ‘BB Worldwide’ from humble beginnings as a door to door salesman.

Shahid Rizvi (Marc Zuber) was a highly-respected lawyer who was bringing up his two occasionally rebellious teenage daughters – Nusrat (Humaira Husain) and Arifa (Anjuu Misra) – single-handedly since the death of his wife five years ago.

Tarun Lai (Rashid Karapiet) was a schoolmaster in India and tried to take a similar job in Britain, but ended up working for British Rail. He was confined to a wheelchair after an accident at work and found it hard to accept that he now relied on his wife (Chanda Sharma) and daughter Nina (Nereem Aaron), who was a young and proud primary school teacher, to support the family.

Produced by Zia Mohyeddin, Family Pride was the first British television soap to reflect the role of the Asian community in the country, around half a million of whom lived in the Central region where the series was made.

Balbin Bedi (BB)
Zia Mohyeddin
Mrs BB
Jamila Massey
Vikran Bedi
Tanveer Ghani
Kiran Bedi
Sudha Bhuchar
Shahid Rizvi
Marc Zuber
Nusrat Rizvi
Humaira Husain
Arifa Rizvi
Anjuu Misra
Tarun Lai
Rashid Karapiet
Nina Lai
Nereem Aaron
Mrs Lai
Chanda Sharma
Mrs Doshi
Heather Emmanuel
Raj Doshi
Saleem Bagarsrawalla
Geeta Doshi
Kim Vithana
Eva
Rula Lenska
Theresa
Susan Jeffrey
Peter
Michael Bray
Munshi
Kaleem Janjua
Mr Llewellyn
Terry Pearson
Bish
Surinder Sanyo
Melissa
Emma Davies
Suresh
Ace Bhatti
Mrs Evans
Joyce Gibbs
Yussif Ali
Talat Hussain
Salma Ali
Surendra Kochar
Rashid
Ronny Jhutti
Nasreen
Shobu Kapoor
Shoba Kilmar
Shaheen Khan