Small Heath, Birmingham. Guz Khan’s Mobeen Deen, 28 and trying to stay halal, spends his days policing his little sister Aqsa’s homework and his nights batting away Nate and Eight’s next hare-brained scheme. Every episode lands the same question: how long can you play the good Muslim when your criminal CV keeps shouting your name. The answer is usually a chase through back alleys while Aqsa texts that she’s out of milk.
Khan and co-writer Andy Milligan started on YouTube: Mobeen ranting about Fox calling Birmingham a “no-go zone” or boycotting Jurassic World for saying “Pachy”. Baby Cow saw the numbers, BBC Three ordered a 2017 Comedy Feeds pilot, then four more series until 2025. Direction passed from Ollie Parsons to Akaash Meeda and finally David Sant, but the tone stayed fixed: punch-lines delivered in Brummie slang, heartbeats timed to the azan from the local mosque.
Alongside Khan, Tolu Ogunmefun’s Nate provides the eternal wingman optimism, Tez Ilyas’s Eight the schemes that never survive first contact, and Dúaa Karim’s Aqsa the eye-rolls that keep the family afloat. Mark Silcox’s Uncle Shady drifts in to dispense terrible advice, Perry Fitzpatrick’s Officer Harper to remind everyone the law is still watching. Twenty-three episodes, five seasons, one ending: Mobeen walks Aqsa to her graduation, cuffs still rattling in the distance.
Production Details
BBC Three / 5 Seasons / 23 Episodes / 2017
Showrunner(s): Guz Khan, Andy Milligan, Tom Jordan
Writer(s): Andy Milligan, Guz Khan
Producer(s): David Simpson
Main Cast
Dúaa Karim as Aqsa
Guz Khan as Mobeen
Tolu Ogunmefun as Nate
Mark Silcox as Uncle Shady
Perry Fitzpatrick as Officer Harper
Tez Ilyas as Eight
Salman Akhtar as Saj
Art Malik as Khan
Hussina Raja as Uncle Khan's Daughter
Korkmaz Arslan as Turkish Barber
Manoj Anand as Prison Inmate
Monty Sehmi as Uncle Khan's Gangsta Henchman
