Back in Time for Birmingham, review: an inspiring insight into 1950s and 1960s immigrant life

4/5

The hugely likeable Sharma family were given lessons in hard work, cooking, and community

ByAnita Singh, ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR20 June 2022 • 9:01pm

The Sharma family relive 50 years of British-Asian history CREDIT: BBC/Wall to Wall

The Back in Time “living history” series started off in 2015 as a food programme. Back in Time for Dinner took one family on a culinary journey from the 1950s to the present day, which meant children staring in horror at a plate of bread and dripping. Over the years it has expanded its remit – we’ve had Back in Time for the Factory and Back in Time for School – and now we’ve arrived at Back in Time for Birmingham (BBC Two), which doesn’t make much literal sense as a title but there we are....

20 June 2022

Back in Time for Birmingham tells the story of immigration in postwar Britain

For all its banalities, the BBC’s warm-hearted recreation of the lives of previous generations of British Asians is welcome, even necessary.

By Rachel Cooke

In all sorts of different ways, Back in Time for Birmingham, the BBC’s latest reality-cum-social-history show, is tediously predictable. You know the drill. The series temporarily transforms the lives of a Birmingham family, the Sharmas, the better that they might experience what life was like for their forebears, who arrived in Britain half a century ago. Whizzing them through the decades from the Fifties on, the idea is that they will be thoroughly shocked and appalled, but also (albeit more rarely) delighted and thrilled.

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if you like this then maybe you'll love my first book from 1988

The Butcher The Baker and The Undertaker on Amazon

but in Translations Galore on my websites, the whole world is reading it

but I'll probably be "discovered"

The Butcher The Baker and The Undertaker Kindle Edition

by Michael Casey (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

No reviews

See all formats and editions

Kindle Edition
£0.00 This title and over 1 million more are available with Kindle Unlimited£3.66 to buy
Paperback
£14.66
1 New from £14.66

The Butcher The Baker and The Undertaker is a comedy drama about a street of shops
in Old Forge and Singing Anvil in England . Here's a flavour
Wayne buys a derelict pub and his wife is pregnant with twins , things could not be worse , Mrs Murphy comes to the rescue with a loan , and 2 sets of twins the builders work for nothing , God looks down and helps too , Wayne discovers a hidden cellar underneath the cellar , its full of 40year old whisky left over from the war WWII , the pub was where the local black marketeer left everything . Wayne and family are saved
The Undertaker has a feud with the traffic warden for putting a parking ticket on his hearse. On the way there' a Jazz funeral, a teddy bear called Patrick, a dog called hairy Amjit who has a mind of his own. The Undertaker’s son leaves the business and Percy is at a loss, his son returns with a Prodigal Son plea for forgiveness, "Father forgive me, I now know that computers are not for me, there is no love in computers , but in our business there is love and compassion .
The Undertaker tries to blackmail a bent builder who is going to demolish the street of shops where they all live. Peace is restored so the Undertaker becomes the election agent for the builder and takes him on a tour of all the rest homes, so that the builder ends up getting into the Houses of Parliament. The dodge bookie Smiling Paul has a bet on the election and wins 1million pounds. The Undertaker is furious until her hears that Smiling Paul had a road to Damascus experience and gave away all the money to help save the Chinese restaurant business of his Chinese friends. So Smiling Paul becomes a man of honour, and gets a stunning girlfriend on the way, because the Chinese must honour him. .

I finish with a poem from Percy the Undertaker

The Dead and The Living (c)
by
Michael Casey
I first saw a deceased when I was nine years old, my father said not
to worry as the dead are the same as the living, only the laughter
has left them , the sparkle has gone from their eyes , the worry has
been lifted from their shoulders , and their voice has vanished to
eternity.
In paradise the sparkle will return for it is the twinkle of the
stars, the laughter will return too for it is the morning breeze and
the turning tides are their sides shaking with laughter.

To Chinese readers, I have a Shanghai wife so if you buy my book we can Visit Shanghai again, see our photo at www.michaelgcasey.multily.com
My Chinese name is Panzi which means FAT FAT BOY
To European Readers if you like Don Camillo you will love my books

if you like this then maybe you’ll love my first book from 1988

The Butcher The Baker and The Undertaker on Amazon

but in Translations Galore on my websites, the whole world is reading it

but I’ll probably be “discovered”, never

The Butcher The Baker and The Undertaker Kindle Edition

by Michael Casey (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

No reviews

See all formats and editions

Kindle Edition
£0.00 This title and over 1 million more are available with Kindle Unlimited £3.66 to buy
Paperback
£14.66 1 New from £14.66

The Butcher The Baker and The Undertaker is a comedy drama about a street of shops
in Old Forge and Singing Anvil in England . Here’s a flavour
Wayne buys a derelict pub and his wife is pregnant with twins , things could not be worse , Mrs Murphy comes to the rescue with a loan , and 2 sets of twins the builders work for nothing , God looks down and helps too , Wayne discovers a hidden cellar underneath the cellar , its full of 40year old whisky left over from the war WWII , the pub was where the local black marketeer left everything . Wayne and family are saved
The Undertaker has a feud with the traffic warden for putting a parking ticket on his hearse. On the way there’ a Jazz funeral, a teddy bear called Patrick, a dog called hairy Amjit who has a mind of his own. The Undertaker’s son leaves the business and Percy is at a loss, his son returns with a Prodigal Son plea for forgiveness, “Father forgive me, I now know that computers are not for me, there is no love in computers , but in our business there is love and compassion .
The Undertaker tries to blackmail a bent builder who is going to demolish the street of shops where they all live. Peace is restored so the Undertaker becomes the election agent for the builder and takes him on a tour of all the rest homes, so that the builder ends up getting into the Houses of Parliament. The dodge bookie Smiling Paul has a bet on the election and wins 1million pounds. The Undertaker is furious until her hears that Smiling Paul had a road to Damascus experience and gave away all the money to help save the Chinese restaurant business of his Chinese friends. So Smiling Paul becomes a man of honour, and gets a stunning girlfriend on the way, because the Chinese must honour him. .

I finish with a poem from Percy the Undertaker

The Dead and The Living (c)
by
Michael Casey
I first saw a deceased when I was nine years old, my father said not
to worry as the dead are the same as the living, only the laughter
has left them , the sparkle has gone from their eyes , the worry has
been lifted from their shoulders , and their voice has vanished to
eternity.
In paradise the sparkle will return for it is the twinkle of the
stars, the laughter will return too for it is the morning breeze and
the turning tides are their sides shaking with laughter.

To Chinese readers, I have a Shanghai wife so if you buy my book we can Visit Shanghai again, see our photo at http://www.michaelgcasey.multily.com
My Chinese name is Panzi which means FAT FAT BOY
To European Readers if you like Don Camillo you will love my books

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