PICK OF TODAY’S TV

BACK IN TIME FOR BIRMINGHAM, 8PM, BBC2

THE Sharmas — dad Vishal, mum Manisha and children Alisha and Akash — are the latest family to take a ride in the TV time machine as, over the next four nights, they go back in time to discover what life was like for people who came from South Asia to settle in Britain. The whole family throw themselves into this fascinating and eye-opening experiment as they adapt to a new era of life in Brum in each episode. They start in the 1950s, when the living conditions and privations for immigrants from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka come as something of a shock. While Vishal puts in a shift at a local factory, Manisha and Alisha (pictured) are put to work sewing buttons on shirts. As the decade rolls on, their prospects steadily improve, and some home comforts start to become available, from imported spices and ingredients to a boom in Indian cinema. We also discover the impact of the 1961 Immigration Act and the Race Relations Act of 1968. Guiding the Sharmas through their living, breathing period drama are the BBC Asian Network presenter Noreen Khan and the historian Dr Yasmin Khan, whose own relatives came to Britain from Pakistan in the last century. Tomorrow, the family enter the 1970s, and get a taste of the shopkeeper’s life.