Created for television, Asian sketch show Goodness Gracious Me appeared first on the radio. When producer Anil Gupta took the idea to BBC television the executive producer Jon Plowman suggested the team first assemble a radio pilot, a cheap way of demonstrating the potential of an untried idea. This pilot led to a full radio series, which quickly won a prestigious Sony Award. Impressed by its aural successes, Plowman decided the time was right to switch the show to television. (For details of the radio version, see footnote.)

The budget for the first series was minuscule by terrestrial TV standards but Anil Gupta spent cannily, providing at least one glossy, lavish-looking sketch in each show, and saving cash elsewhere by simplifying pieces that didn't call for elaboration. The style of the show was similar to that of The Fast Show, recurring characters providing vital continuity. These included Smeeta Smitten, Showbiz Kitten (Syal), a Bollywood gossip columnist; the nouveau riche Kapoor family, who were desperate to be fully English and insisted their name was pronounced Cooper; Mr 'Everything Comes From India' ('The royal family? Indian! Have arranged marriages, live in the same house and all work for the family business. Indian!'); the Indian mother who could 'make it at home for nothing'; Bollywood superstar Chunky La Funga; the tactless suitor whose verbal gaffes always leave him asking for the 'cheque please'; Asian street kids the Bhangra Muffins; charlatan His Serene Calmness the Guru Maharishi Yogi; and the alcoholic marsupial 'Skipinder, The Punjabi Kangaroo'.

Although the subjects were inspired by the writers' Anglo-Asian experiences the humour was broad enough for the comedy to break out from its target area and make waves in the mainstream. There had been precious few previous attempts at Asian comedy, Tandoori Nights (in which Meera Syal, a leading player here, was involved) being about the only dedicated example. Goodness Gracious Me was exceptional, however, in crossing over to a non-Asian audience. The Asian clichés may have seemed particular (clinging mothers, girls regarded as second class citizens, the snobbery of assimilating Englishness) but the themes were universal - enough to strike a chord with audiences who, though of different backgrounds, could appreciate the sentiments. The breadth of the ideas also helped, ranging pleasingly from satire (biting in places) to slapstick, traditional sketches, film and TV spoofs and hilarious absurdity (ie, the Delhitubbies). Many of the show's most successful moments were simple 'reversals', like the recurring sketch in which an Indian film crew making a travel documentary about London view it in the same patronising manner that such past fare had looked at Delhi or Bombay, and the first-edition sketch in which a bunch of drunk Indians at an English restaurant abuse the waiter and behave with typical English boorishness ('Give me something really bland, right'). Although this latter sketch echoed previous jokes on the same theme by Billy Connolly and, most effectively, by Rowan Atkinson, it made a particular impression on the white audience who recognised its truths.

After just two TV series Goodness Gracious Me had won numerous awards and gathered a following sufficient to support a successful UK theatre tour in 1999. All the cast, Bhaskar and Syal especially, had become respected TV figures, including Roger Lamb, the non-Asian often referred to in the show's publicity as the 'token white bloke'. The February 2001 special Back Where They Came From featured sketches shot on location in India.

Notes. The show's title alludes to the hit comedy record 'Goodness Gracious Me' made by Peter Sellers and Sophia Loren to promote their 1960 film The Millionairess, in which Sellers, in brownface make-up, played an Indian doctor.

Goodness Gracious Me ran for three series on BBC Radio 4. The first two, comprising four editions each, aired before the TV version, from 5 July to 26 July 1996 and 11 July to 1 August 1997, with Nitin Sawhney - partner with Sanjeev Bhaskar in comedy double-act the Secret Asians - in place of Dave Lamb. The third series, six editions, was broadcast from 21 May to 25 June 1998.

BBC2 screened a themed Goodness Gracious Me Night on 24 July 1999, comprising four main items - Unpugged, a behind-the-scenes glimpse at how the show is put together; Brimful Of Asia, a light-hearted look at the portrayal of Asians on British television over four decades; Goodness Gracious Me Live, a documentary following the team as they toured Britain; and finally a repeat of the first TV show from January 1998.

Meera Syal was the subject of the LWT/ITV arts series The South Bank Show on 24 March 2002, the same period in which she was appearing in the BBC1 sitcom All About Me.