Politically acceptable feel-good films from England are, perhaps, a phenomenon best left in the last century.
Few people, surely, do not dry-retch when faced with a repeat of The Full Monty, where a bunch of up-against-it but decent English folk overcome the odds and probably Margaret Thatcher and endemic unemployment to ultimately take the day in a gritty but heart-warming English tale.
Few people, surely, do not dry-retch when faced with a repeat of Brassed Off, where a bunch of up-against-it but decent English folk overcome the odds and probably Margaret Thatcher and endemic unemployment to ultimately take the day in a gritty but heart-warming English tale.
And ... few people, surely, do not dry-retch when faced with a repeat of Billy Elliot, where an up-against-it but decent youngster overcomes the odds and probably Margaret Thatcher and endemic unemployment to ultimately become a ballet dancer in a gritty but heart-warming English tale.
I know I do.
Sanjeev, from the Kumars at No 42, though, clearly does not.
With creators Deep Sehgal and Tom Ware, he has stormed boots and all into the "nice" territory, with five-part series The Indian Doctor.
The unfortunate thing for the bitter and mocking among us is the niceness portrayed in this production may be closer to the truth than we would like to believe.
The Indian Doctor is the story Dr Prem Sharma (Sanjeev Bhaskar).
Dr Prem arrives in the UK in 1963 as part of a wave of thousands of Indian immigrants attracted by - surprise surprise - the widely reviled health minister Enoch Powell, famous for his "rivers of blood" anti-immigration speech in 1968.
Dr Prem ends up in the Welsh mining village of Trefelin, where one would expect some sort of brutal racism from a Welsh version of the National Front.
But while such racism is shown in episode one, it is at the lower end of the scale.
"I don't want some darkie looking after my kids," one wicked miner says.
Remarkably, this is not necessarily the producers' gentle take on the situation, but perhaps something closer to the truth.
Ware is reported as saying there was little racism directed at the incoming Asians; instead, locals were grateful to welcome any doctor to their midst.
Cue, then, amusing misunderstandings, racists being won over by the lovely Dr Prem, and various plot devices where characters overcome adversity, and everybody becomes more diverse and sustainable as a result.
The Indian Doctor begins on Vibe, 9.30pm, on Monday, October 10.
It is very nice.
