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• The bit in between

  Broadcast On October 6, 1998

  ... comedy starring Felicity Kendall.  Let me reveal a secret.  I have a soft spot for this incredible actress.  Long, long before the BBC made her famous in ‘The Good Life’ ...

• He’s not such a bad fellow

  Broadcast On December 30, 1998

  ... India that are the real hicks. Proof of the reversal lies in a BBC sitcom called Goodness Gracious Me. Scripted, acted and directed by young Asians it does something we in India have not and stubbornly ...

• My kind of place

  Broadcast On February 15, 1999

  ... of characters that each night invaded my bedroom via the television screen. There was the white-haired Hyde, the wheel chair-bound Ruff, the BBC’s and CNN’s smooth-tongued anchormen and, of course, the ...

• The Ladies of Lahore

  Broadcast On February 22, 1999

  ... dilemma was what he would say. At this stage I’ve no idea how the programme came off. If you want to see for yourself catch the budget special on the BBC today. It’s broadcast at 11.00 a.m. and then ...

• Made for television

  Broadcast On April 5, 1999

  ... Dobie announces on BBC World. Something similar happens everyday and not just on the Beeb. CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, Sky News stage similar spectacles. “What’s the mood after last night’s bombing and how ...

• The things we do but should not and the things we should but don’t

  Broadcast On June 7, 1999

  ... on the BBC. He’s even available to Star News. But has any Indian minister made himself similarly accessible? Even when Lyce Doucet embarrassed the Pakistani minister with the critical question ‘How ...

• The third law of bad luck

  Broadcast On June 14, 1999

  ...  Fortune may favour the brave but sometimes it’s safer to be a coward. Things aren’t what they used to be “Rani zara BBC te laga.” That was how my father would ask my mother to switch on ...

• Thank you, merci, danke, shukriya

  Broadcast On June 28, 1999

  ... an event that will matter to the world beyond. Greg Dyke is to be the new boss of the BBC. In April he will take over from John Birt. ‘So’, I hear you ask, ‘Why should that matter? Why should ...

• Lollipoppery, you and I

  Broadcast On July 5, 1999

  ... Sunday Sentiments. I wanted to write the following sentence : “If you think the BBC is good – and it is, in fact, at its best it’s unbeatable ....”, but do you know what the printer turned this into? ...

• Desh ke liye marna acha hei

  Broadcast On July 12, 1999

  ... when I wrote to point out that my opinion the BBC was ‘unbeatable’ had been transformed into the comment that it was ‘unbearable’. The little letter ‘t’ had been altered into a little ‘r’ but the change ...

• Sachin, Kajol and the butt of their jokes

  Broadcast On July 26, 1999

  ... may never find out watch Face to Face on BBC on Wednesday the 4th at 10.00 p.m. and again the week after.) Bombay versus Delhi I find Bombay a mixture of the delightful and the disagreeable. ...

• The sad choice before us

  Broadcast On September 6, 1999

  ... of the day – our politicians fall short, far, far short, of the great democrats we see on BBC and CNN. That is also why, despite Monica Lewinsky, the Americans still respect Clinton. Mr. Mahajan may ...

• Singing for his supper in London

  Broadcast On October 26, 1999

  ...  The BBC, dinosaurs  and your child The BBC has scored again.  Once again one of their televison programmes is topping the charts.  This time its an unlikely series of six on dinosaurs.  ...

• Look to the people, they usually know best

  Broadcast On November 9, 1999

  ... And finally, when Papal masses are broadcast live from outside our borders on BBC, CNN and other channels is there not something ludicrous about Doordarshan refusing to do so although the Mass comes ...

• “Tonight’s the night for a drop. Go on let yerself go!”

  Broadcast On January 3, 2000

  ... signs proclaiming ‘exit only’. Trafalgar Square was a heaving sea of humanity. If it stopped at all it was to marvel at the two enormous screens erected by the BBC. For in the middle of the city, in ...

• When the elderly are, in fact, the young ones

  Broadcast On April 3, 2000

  ... the amazing people he has met and the things he has done – and boy he’s done them all – then watch him on BBC on Wednesday night at 10.00 p.m. If you miss it, don’t panic, there is a repeat on saturday! ...

• Kapil da jawab nahin

  Broadcast On May 8, 2000

  ...  The BBC has asked us to do a series of Face to Face interviews with great cricketers of today and legends of the past. These are to be personality pieces – soft, gentle, anecdotal. Kapil wasn’t very ...

• Can you trust a newspaper?

  Broadcast On May 15, 2000

  ... is connected to the interview I recently did with Kapil Dev for the BBC and specifically to the fact that details of the interview and pictures of Kapil in tears were published in several papers including ...

• The names people call me

  Broadcast On October 30, 2000

  ... opposite happened. It was at a dinner to meet the new CEO of BBC World. I was talking with M.J. Akbar and Salman Haider. If I remember correctly we were at the point of solving the Kashmir issue when ...

• Sharmila Tagore for Christmas and Sanjay Dutt for New Year’s eve

  Broadcast On December 18, 2000

  ... like a couple of big stars to end the year with” the lady from the BBC instructed me. In case you haven’t noticed I do a programme on their channel called Face to Face. Even if others don't, I enjoy ...