Man Like Mobeen, a brand new four-part series, will be launched as a box set on BBC Three on Sunday 17th December. Watch here.
The series, created by Guz Khan and co-written with Andy Milligan, follows a successful pilot last year. Mobeen (Guz Khan), a 28 year old man from Small Heath, a reported no-go zone for anyone who isn't Muslim and hotbed for terrorist activity. In reality Mobeen, like most other people in Birmingham, knows no terrorists, and spends his person al time parenting his best friends Eight and Nate and - most importantly - his little sister and love of his family life, Aqsa.
All Mobeen wants to do is follow his faith, lead a good life, and make sure his younger sister fulfils her potential. But can he juggle these when his criminal past and reputation is always chasing him?
Man Like Mobeen Episode Guide.
Episode one: Bagpuss
Mobeen receives a surprise visit from the armed police, who arrest his friend Eight on suspicion of supplying drugs to school children in Small Heath - based on the description of an 'Asian male in jogging bottoms'.
The real culprit is Shahid, a local dealer who's enlisted his mum’s cousin’s cousin - 14 year-old Kareema - to move his gear. But Mobeen refuses to snitch. When Kareema asks Mobeen’s little sister Aks to help her hide the drugs from the police, she follows her brother’s example. When Mobeen finds out, he has no other option than to go looking for Shahid - but will his actions have more drastic consequences?
Episode two: Wifey Riddim
When Mobeen learns that his little sister Aks has been suspended from school for fighting, he realises that he might not be the best role model to parent her. So when he bumps into two notorious uncles after Friday prayers, they suggest that an arranged marriage might bring a much needed female perspective into Aks’s life.
Initially Mobeen quashes the idea, but after reflecting on it with best friends Eight and Nate, he decides arranged marriage might be the answer after all. When Uncle Habib arranges for Mobeen to meet a prospective wife, Khadijah, and her father, things don’t quite go to plan - thanks to the unexpected arrival of ‘weird’ Uncle Shady.
Episode three: Upper Room
Eight has gone missing, so Mobeen and Nate go on a mission to find him. On discovering him hiding in an abandoned den deep in a Small Heath wood, Eight reveals that his beloved Dadha is dying and wants to see the boys one last time before he passes to the upper room.
When the friends visit him on his death bed, they are disturbed to hear that Dadha has been keeping a dark secret and needs the boys to help him visit the family video shop one last time before he dies. After a terrifying escape, the boys encounter something they definitely weren’t expecting.
Episode four: H-ALTRight
Staring hate, violence and societal fractures in the face, Mobeen and his crew see the far right in their truest form, at an anti-Islam demonstration.
After Aks throws a flask and hits the leader Robbie Worthington square in the face, Mobeen takes the blame and is arrested. He’s then accidentally placed in the same police van as Robbie. As Mobeen and Robbie go head to head inside the van, outside the van (and much to Aks’s dismay) Eight and Nate desperately need to go to the toilet but can’t escape the police cordon. Eventually they decide to brave the toilet in the only pub for miles around, which is packed with skinheads from the demonstration.
