Pond Reviews - Mind Your Language

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Added: May 16, 2008

Duration: 1:21

A tribute to the late Barry Joseph Evans (June 18, 1943 - February 11, 1997) and the cast of the series. Clip taken from Mind Your Language, Season 2 Episode 8 entitled "After Three" (circa 25 Nov 1978). Mr. Brown and his pupils singing the "Mind Your Language" theme song. Mind Your Language is a British comedy television series originally shown on ITV between 1977 and 1979. Produced by LWT and directed by Stuart Allen, it is set in a school for adult students in London, focusing on the English as a Foreign Language class taught by Mr. Jeremy Brown, portrayed Barry Evans, who had to deal with a motley crew of foreigners. The series focuses on the English as a Foreign Language class for adult students in a London school. The classes take place in the early evening, and are taught by Mr. Jeremy Brown (Barry Evans), though on occasion other individuals take over the class if Mr. Brown is not available. The class consists of foreigners with varying degrees of English proficiency, with no two students from the same country (with the exception of Jamilla Ranjha and Ranjeet Singh, who come from two very different regions of India). The humour of the show is derived from the students misunderstanding English words or terms, and plays up to the cultural stereotype of their individual nation of origin. More recently the show has been criticised for unimaginative racism and political incorrectness, but in its day the show was popular with people of many backgrounds because of its light-hearted take on multiculturalism and because it gave some otherwise unrepresented minorities a television presence, albeit represented as caricatures. The show was cancelled in 1979 by Michael Grade, then LWT's Deputy Controller of Entertainment, who considered the stereotyping offensive. Nevertheless it was sold to other countries, including Pakistan, Australia, Sri Lanka, India, Malaysia and Singapore . It was also one of the first British TV programmes shown in South Africa after the end of the boycott by Equity. It was resurrected briefly for the export market by an independent producer in the mid 1980s. Only ITV region Granada transmitted the final 13 episodes consecutively as a complete series. Some ITV companies didn't show any of the episodes made in 1986. The programme was remade for US television as What a Country! In India, a comedy serial based on Mind Your Language was aired on DD2. In the program Zaban Sambhal Ke (Hindi for Mind Your Language) people from diverse regional Indian background studied Hindi. By the late 1980s, Evans' youthful image was working against him, and he found it difficult to obtain mature acting roles in line with his age. By the 1990s, he was driving his own minicab in Leicestershire, where in 1997 he died alone in a dilapidated bungalow at the age of 53. Police discovered the actor's body after going to his house to tell him they had recovered his stolen car. James Leadbitter, 18, was arrested over the theft and later accused of attempted murder. He told police he was a friend of Evans, and had visited him on the day he died to say he would not be calling round again. Leadbitter said that the actor became upset and drank half a bottle of whisky. Recording an open verdict, coroner Martin Symington said there was insufficient evidence to prove Evans had intended to kill himself. The charge of attempted murder against Leadbitter was later dropped.

Channel: Comedy

Tags: allen as barry british brown class comedy english evans foreign language mind mr sitcom stuart your