Clare Atkinson
An award winning yet controversial programme is starting next week based on migrants in Leicester.
Make Leicester British airs on Monday, November 3 on Channel 4 for a second series after it was previously set in Bradford.
Mustafa Kavak, who moved to Leicester from Turkey, said: “I don’t think it will cause too many problems as long as the show doesn’t make fun of them culturally or because of their religion.
“If they respect the people on the show and it’s not focused too much on ethnicity then it will be fine.”
The idea of the programme is to put eight people, four who are British and four who are not, into a house to explore the topics of immigration and what it means to be British.
The first series was filmed in Bradford and looked at the problems in the city and to see if there was a divide in cultures.
Anita Singh, of The Telegraph, wrote an article on the previous series saying: “Watching the show brought back uncomfortable memories of the Big Brother ‘race row’ between Shilpa Shetty and Jade Goody”
Mr Kavak, who owns a kebab shop in the city, has lived in Leicester for 14 years and does not see a divide.
He said: “It’s safer than other cities like Birmingham or Manchester, it’s a very friendly place to live.
“It is multi-cultural so I think that helped me to settle here.”
The first of two episodes will be on Channel 4 at 9pm on Monday.
