Kumars at No 42 creator dies

[faceless]

Kumars At No.42 creator dies of rare infection at the age of 40
30th January 2009

The creator of Emmy Award-winning comedy series The Kumars At No.42 has died after contracting a rare infection. Sharat Sardana, 40, collapsed at his father’s home with a streptococcal virus and died on Tuesday, four days later, surrounded by family and friends in hospital.

Sardana achieved fame and fortune after writing the popular BBC series Goodness Gracious Me. He then went help create and write The Kumars. Most of his characters were based on his family members and Goodness Gracious Me was the first Asian comedy to break into the British mainstream.

His mother, Raj, one of Britain’s first women Indian doctors, died from cancer
less than a year before her son and his best friend also recently succombed to cancer. The writer collapsed at the home of his 82-year-old father, Om, whom he had looked after since his mother’s death.

His cousin, Anita Kirpal, said: 'It is impossible to describe the level of sadness caused by Sharat’s sudden death. We are shocked and devastated by this tragic loss. Many people will miss Sharat. He was a funny, insightful man, a great writer, a true friend and a loving and generous family member.'

As well as reaping terrific success with Goodness Gracious Me, Sardana was able to enjoy the collaboration of long-time colleagues Meera Syal and Sanjeev Bhaskar. The couple, who married in 2005, also worked with Sardana on The Kumars. The Kumars ran for seven series until 2006 and won an International Emmy and three Bafta nominations. Goodness Gracious Me spanned three series and two specials, a theatre tour and also received a Bafta nomination.

Ms Kirpal said: 'By his mid-thirties he seemingly had it all: the Porsche and the loft apartment in Shoreditch. He had even started dating Miss World. But when he was with us, his closest friends and family, he would take pleasure in refusing any invitations that we made to him saying in smug tones: "No, sorry. I can’t stop for a roti tonight, I’d love to but I’m going out to dinner with Miss World." It was all in the timing.'

Sardana - whose comedy heroes were Richard Pryor and Woody Allen - started to develop his love of comedy while attending Forest School in Snaresbrook. It was there that he met his lifetime writing partner Richard Pinto. In the early Nineties, he met Bhaskar and Syal and spent hours with family and friends in Al’s Café Bar in Exmouth Market, Clerkenwell, designing skits for Goodness Gracious Me. They created characters including Mr 'Everything Comes from India', Bhangraman, the boy who thinks he is cool but is a miserable failure with the girls, and the snooty Kapoors.

The sketch about 'going for an English' - satirising the English trait of getting plastered in the pub and then 'going for a curry' - in which Sardana also appears, is consistently voted one of the funniest of all time. Mrs 'I can do that at home for nothing', the mother who thinks restaurants are a rip-off, is based on Sardana’s mother, who boasted she could make most dishes from a base of just one aubergine. The team’s big break came in 1996 when the show was commissioned by Radio Four and later BBC2, with early music by Nitin Sawhney.

Ms Kirpal, 43, added: 'Sharat was always very witty. He was able to take family jokes and make them work with a wide audience.' Childhood friend Paul Kousoulides, 41, said: 'Sharat was genuinely laugh-out-loud funny and his humour was totally irreverent.'

Up to his death he was working on a series he hoped would become a male version of Sex & The City. Sardana’s funeral will be next Wednesday at the City of London Crematorium
in Manor Park at 5pm.

-----------------

That's pretty sad - a lot of people didn't like the Kumars, but I really enjoyed it.