Birmingham based Raj TV, known for its willingness to broadcast full-on wedding videos from years ago, and profiled in the hilarious documentary – No Time for Tea at RajTV – relaunched its services last week.

From 6am until 9pm every day you can find them on Sky Channel 187 with a new range of general entertainment programmes. They say: “There is sure to be something for every member of the family, ranging from the ever-popular Shaadi Show in its new primetime evening slot, to hard-hitting politics with controversial public figures including the outspoken MP George Galloway hosting a regular 6pm show from Monday to Thursday.”

Granada Television is currently working on a documentary about young brides. They are looking for girls aged 16 to 18 who plan to marry before the end of May 2007. If this applies to you please email Melanie Tompkins – Melanie.Tompkins@ITVplc.com

The BBC want your ideas on how it can work to promote equality for women, men and transgender/transsexual people. What do you think are the most important things that the BBC needs to do to achieve this?

Tell them what you think. Your ideas could be included in a three-year Gender Equality Scheme action plan that is legally enforceable under the new Gender Equality Duty (April 2007).
See this website.

BBC4 has confirmed the line-up for its Comedy Playhouse season, which will showcase four new productions under the banner Tight Spot. On of the productions, titled Lift, stars Douglas Hodge, Rasmus Hardiker and Nina Wadia.

The Indian version of Big Brother is due to start broadcasting in the country from today. BBC News reports:

Called Bigg (sic) Boss, the programme format is the same as its inspiration and will be hosted by Bollywood actor, Arshad Warsi.

Thirteen celebrities have been chosen to spend three months locked up in a house near Mumbai (Bombay).

Unsurprisingly though “concessions” have been made to stop offending people’s morality. You see, Indians are not averse to sex otherwise the country would notbe the second most-populus country on the planet. They just don’t want it out in the open. Or so they say.

“We have been true to format except we don’t have cameras in the bathrooms and shower rooms and of course the sexuality aspect in the programme has been curtailed and controlled keeping the Indian audiences in mind,” the programmes Chief Creative Director Sandiip Sikcand told the BBC News website.

“Even Indian celebrities are also very concerned about their reputation and do not like to talk about sex openly.

“Also, when there are so many cameras focussed on them sex is honestly the last thing that comes to their mind.”

We suggest AIM magazine readers band together and be the first to offer a £10,000 reward for the first couple to get it on!

30 years after the Race Relations Act, has the dream of a utopian multi-cultural state been shattered? First premiered on More4 earlier this month, Dr Robert Beckford presents the documentary ‘Ghetto Britain: 30 Years of Race’, on Channel 4 this week exploring the state of race in Britain today.

In 1976, parliament passed the first piece of legislation outlawing racial discrimination, the Race Relations Act. Thirty years on, Beckford asks whether Britain has succeeded in embracing the multicultural dream, or whether indeed the plan has spectacularly backfired, and created a multi million pound race relations industry that has lost touch with its grassroots.

Made by Maverick Television, the film was executive produced by Tommy Nagra, former head of the BBC’s Asian Programmes Unit.

The Independent newspaper reports today that Kumars at No.42 may finally be coming to an end. Or moving to another channel, it’s not clear exactly.

Meera Syal told the newspaper: “We won’t do another series in its present form for the BBC because we have now done seven, amazingly. We have had interest from other quarters about doing something different – but keeping the family together. So we’re exploring that.”

So maybe an off-shoot of the current format. After seven series though, isn’t it time to lay it to rest? The Kumars first went out on BBC Two in 2001. The format was also sold to Australia, Germany, Israel, the Netherlands and the USA.

Saving a Stranger is a powerful, heart-wrenching documentary that highlights the suffering of the thousands of people waiting for bone marrow transplants in the UK.

This Community Channel exclusive, which broadcasts Thursday, October 19th at 9pm (repeated Sunday, October 22nd at 10pm), aims to inspire people from asian, black and ethnic minority groups to join the bone marrow register in order to find a match that can help save lives.

The film introduces us to the plight of 12-year-old Yvette Gate from Bristol, whose only chance of survival is a bone marrow transplant. Yvette suffers from aplastic anaemia. Her bone marrow has stopped functioning, which means she cannot produce her own blood, and has to rely on transfusions to say alive. Yvette originates from the Gambia and is more likely to find a match from someone of the same ethnic origin. But there is a desperate shortage of all bone marrow donors and a particular shortage of donors from black and ethnic minority groups.

Yvette’s parents, Mary and David Gate, are becoming increasingly desperate to find a bone marrow match for Yvette. They are pinning all their hopes on a bone marrow registration clinic that has taken months of organisation. The film also concentrates on the inspiring Asma Meer, who lost her three-year old son Ibrahim because they couldn’t find a match for a bone marrow transplant.

Media contact: Rakhee Gokani 07830 275 275 / Rakhee@fnik.com

In a sleepy corner of East Sussex, a battle is underway for the soul of yoga. 82-year-old Hindu swami, Indrananda Ji, believes that yoga – a practice rooted in the Hindu scriptures – has been separated from its ancient spiritual roots and hijacked by pop stars and health clubs.

To make a stand he opens up his world to five supermarket workers from Bolton. But with chanting at dawn, a strict diet, some strenuous postures, and a search to find the self, the life of a yogi was never meant to be easy. Swami Ji is determined, but how many of them will last the course?

All have their own reasons for signing up to the retreat, and all agree to follow Swami Ji’s way of life. But all react differently to the yogic way of life.

Checkout Yoga is on tomorrow Wednesday 18th October, 2006 at 11:20pm, BBC One.