Couch Potato Pickings
On Channel 4 tonight at 10pm
After an arranged marriage, a Bangladeshi woman movies to London's Tower Hamlets district and begins a dutiful life with her much older husband, but after many years she meets a local man, falls in love and begins an affair.
I've not yet seen this film, based on the novel by Monica Ali, so I'll be interested to see it tonight.
During production, the movie was surrounded by a wave of controversy when shooting was relocated because the residents of the real Brick Lane in east London protested that the book insulted their community. This was followed by problems with the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall pulling out of the royal film performance. Monica Ali, in this article she wrote for The Guardian, explains that the controversy possibly developed out of media distortion as much as the actions of demonstrators.
There's little doubt that this situation must have caused worry for all concerned at the time. However, controversy such as this also helps publicise a film, and it's certainly got me curious to see what all the fuss was about.
