Meet the Popats! You will never have seen anyone like them - and that's exactly the problem.
As if being a teenager isn't bad enough, 15-year old Anand must fight a daily battle with embarrassment, trapped in the middle between a bling bling older sister, an insane genius of a younger brother with an IQ of 150 and a showbiz dad big in West London cable TV!
Anand is a dreamer. When the hassle of home just gets too much to stand, he visits a much simpler world inside his head, where fantasies of being a gangster, action hero, or Indian prince provide a useful escape from reality. But with a family like the Popats, real life is usually much weirder than fiction!
15 year-old Anand lives in a fantasy world where he dreams of escaping the chaos of home life. His dad, Ramesh, wants him to follow in his showbiz footsteps while Shoba, his mum, confusingly urges him to be more confident while insisting he has a side parting. Somehow, Anand always seems to draw the short straw in the Popat household. His younger brother is too clever to get caught, and his sister is daddy’s special princess. But in his own head Anand is a leading man, and his family is just a supporting cast in the silver screen story of his life.
Dimple is destined for stardom. Dad Ramesh knew it ever since she spoke her first words, and she has behaved like a diva ever since. Spoiled and materialistic, she can wrap her parents and adoring boyfriend Milan around her little finger,and often does. Anyone who forgets to treat Dimple like the princess she is will regret it – which normally results in a punch round the chops!
Anand’s younger brother Chetan is an 11-year old genius with a wicked sense of humour and a taste for trouble. Whenever a clever scheme has been hatched to make Anand look stupid, you can bet that Chetan is the mastermind behind it. School is a mere pastime (on quiz nights he’s captain of the teachers team) until he can finalise his plans to take over the world. Until then he works on endless scientific experiments and has a fully automated bedroom.
Cousin Milli is trouble! Her parents are wanted by the police for tax evasion and have decided to flee the country, leaving her with the Popats. She’s impulsive, manipulative and uses emotional blackmail like a laser guided missile! Secretly, she’s hurt that her parents have abandoned her and is scared they are never coming back, but she covers this up by winding each member of the family up in turn – particularly Chetan who’s forced to share his bedroom with her. She is fiercely loyal, however, and doesn’t tolerate attacks of any kind against her family!
Lucy is Anand’s new best mate from school. Precocious, fun-loving and deeply appreciative of all the madness of the Popat house - something that really winds Anand up! She loves teasing him and encourages him to try and be more confident, not realising that one of the reasons he can sometimes be a little tongue tied with her is because he’s falling in love with her.
Milan is Dimple’s boyfriend. Whilst he's charming, he's not exactly blessed with the greatest of intelligence. But – much to Dad Ramesh’s excitement – he's loaded. He is currently at sixth form and has his stay in England and credit card financed by his Geneva-based parents.
Anand often finds himself in conflict with tracksuit-wearing, celebrity obsessed Dad Ramesh, who works for a glitzy Asian cable TV channel. He has boundless energy and intense passion for all things glamorous and, as such, can’t understand why his son is so normal. Ramesh’s nouveau riche tastes might not be popular with the neighbours, but he remains oblivious to this. He is proud of his family’s achievements and has complete faith in their ability to become scientists, pop singers or maybe even Bollywood super stars.
Mum Shoba is the cog that makes the Popat machine run smoothly.She is a traditional Asian mother with the kind of female intuition that only comes from years of keeping her eccentric family on track. When Dad Ramesh gets carried away with yet another showbiz dream, or one of her children is unhappy, Shoba is the first to introduce a level head and a solution. She is fiercely proud of her husband’s success and secretly wishes that Anand, Dimple and Chetan could be more like one of her rose bushes – beautiful to look at and easy to control!
