Man Like Mobeen; VE Day 80: We Were There

“Creator and star Guz Khan is a natural clown, and uses his funny bones to power a series that immerses us in a community rarely seen on screen. As a depiction of a specific kind of British Muslim experience – working class, Midlands based – Man Like Mobeen is refreshingly rambunctious and gratifyingly uncompromising.”
Rachel Aroesti, The Guardian

“This is a perfect example of how low-budget, very British, small-scale sitcom can still work in the age of bottomless-pocketed streamers and truncated attention spans. The new series is an intensely likeable and very funny exercise in building characters and then having them make the same mistakes again and again. And that is the very essence of sitcom.”
Benji Wilson, The Telegraph

“Though this was a programme about victory, the famous celebrations, people climbing onto lampposts and snogging each other, for most of these interviewees their minds drifted back to the war, and understandably so. But horror was described with the veterans’ usual stiff-upper-lip restraint. The ‘in memory of’ roll call at the end of the programme listing interviewees who have since died reminds us that this band of heroes is ever-dwindling. It is therefore vital we listen to them while we can.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“Meticulous and sensitive editing of reminiscences from a score of people who lived through the war made this documentary both fascinating and deeply moving. The show also featured well-chosen archive footage, with narration by presenter Rachel Burden helping to give context to the stories. In places, the edit cut from one hair-raising anecdote to another, and back to the first, without ever losing the thread. It was a masterly lesson in how to bring multiple accounts together, to compile a broad picture.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail