No Problem!
UK, C4 (LWT),
Sitcom, Colour, 1983
Starring: Chris Tummings, Janet Kay, Victor Romero Evans
No Problem! was not only the first British-made sitcom on C4 but also the first
black-made sitcom created for British TV. (The only preceding example,
The Fosters, was a UK adaptation of an American
series.) The cast were members of the Black Theatre Co-operative, which staged plays in and around London in the early 1980s. Unbeknown to them, LWT''s Head of Comedy Humphrey Barclay had been along to see many (if not all) of the BTC events and he duly commissioned the series, financing a four-week drama-and-
writing workshop in which writing ideas and acting talent could be assessed. Co-writer Farrukh Dhondy - born in India, university-educated in England and the author of five BBC1 plays later in 1983, the first drama series about British-Asian life - became co-writer of
No Problem! with Mustapha Matura.
The idea was
not to make
No Problem! into a vehicle for racial complaint but to make the programme as funny as possible. This did not suit various black causes which actively came to dislike the series and criticised its lack of a ''stance''.
No Problem! drew its comedy in ensemble fashion. Set in a council house in Willesden Green, north London, episodes focused on the young-adult Powell children, whose parents (never seen) have returned to Jamaica, leaving their offspring to fend for themselves. Terri is hoping to become established as a model; her boyfriend, Beast, opens a night club; Toshiba runs a pirate radio station (Radio Runnings) and later releases his own hit record; Melba is their cousin, visiting from Jamaica; and so on. Even if
No Problem! was not radical, black culture was embraced from first to last, right through to the reggae band Aswad appearing in the final episode. The series ended, incidentally, when Farrukh Dhondy, in a feat of great integrity, was appointed Commissioning Editor of Multicultural Programmes at C4 and axed his own show. He returned in July 1985 with
Tandoori Nights, however.
Note. The principal cast of
No Problem! - Chris Tummings, Janet Kay, Victor Romero Evans, Judith Jacob, Malcolm Frederick and Shope Shodeinde - turned up together in C4''s 1983/84 New Year''s Eve hour-long special
Party At The Palace, performing especially
written material in character. Romero Evans was also appearing regularly at this time on C4''s magazine programme
Black On Black.
Researched and written by Mark Lewisohn.
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