Making his way through heaps of Ramadan TV programmes, Mohamed El-Assyouti watches out not only for the new moon but for its incumbent satellites Monday evening was beset by anxiety as people wondered whether or not Tuesday would be a fasting day. Rumours of a solar eclipse had spread the notion that the new moon, heralding the advent of the holy month, would not be visible to the naked eye -- in which case tradition rules that Ramadan has not yet arrived. Sun and moon conspired to up the suspense to the last minute; and so, it seemed, did national and satellite television channels. Over-abundant to the point of bursting TV CRTs, Ramadan-specific shows, soap operas and advertisements could easily fill airing hours for the rest of the year. An avid couch potato you may be, but even if you give up sleep and skip your working days to see last night's repeats, it is not humanly possible to fit everything into a mere 24 hours. Yet there is no point recording what you will be missing, for Ramadan fare is repeated, again and again, all year round. Like football matches or a new episode of Star Wars, audiovisual consumerism reaches such heights in the holy month that the question becomes, rather, one of seeing something before fellow viewers can get to it. Nor are viewing criteria unaffected by the altered routine: a serial that starts less than an hour after Iftar (breakfast at sunset) is unlikely to prove popular, seeing as bodies are too preoccupied with digestion -- something that encourages idle chat, if not lying down. Indeed the mood of the fast will dictate much of the scheduling. Fortunately or unfortunately, Egyptian perceptions of what the small screen is all about have changed radically over the past two decades. Quantity has undoubtedly multiplied, but where quality comes into it viewers are confused rather than spoilt for choice. In the past Ramadan was all about fawazeer, riddles that would present the audience with a daily challenge for the duration of the month; where all 30 answers were right the spectator would win a prize courtesy of one of the programme sponsors. Today, there are plenty of numbers to dial while you watch -- winning on the spot. Such is the dominance of mood, too, that it is the personal ticks and tricks of selection committees that end up determining what people see. The presence of alcohol, immodest female attire or violence is generally avoided, but so, in the final analysis, are shows not produced by the Radio and Television Union or the company of businessman in personal or official favour; such, at least, is what one can safely surmise. To be expected during the first days, in brand new soap operas, are the soap opera fanatics' favourite stars, for which read those who have been replaced on the silver screen with a younger generation of practitioners. Youssra, who starred in five TV serials over the last five years, is back with writer Mohamed Ashraf and director Magdi Abu Emira in Ahlam Adiya (Ordinary Dreams), in which she plays the atypical role of a swindler, a con-artist named Nadia Anzaha (Nadia the snob). In Al-Marsa wal-Bahar (The Harbour and the Sailor), reportedly screenwriter Mohamed Galal Abdel-Qawi's take on the so-called clash of civilisations, veteran actor Yehia El-Fakharani plays Abul-Arabi, who has lost an eye during resistance of the British occupation in the Suez Canal area. And Awasif Al-Nisaa (Women's Storms), written by Mohamed El-Ghiti and directed by Mohamed Abu Seif, brings Hassan Youssef -- a playboy icon of the 1960s who has since adopted a pious, not to say Islamist persona -- back to the screen. He stars opposite another long absent figure the presenter-actress Nagwa Ibrahim. Due no doubt to his newfound religious bent, Youssef reportedly insisted on turning the two characters' urfi marriage into an orthodox one -- battling it out with the screenwriter. Twenty per cent of the serial Amakin fil Qalb (Places in the Heart), directed by veteran action filmmaker Nader Galal, on the other hand, was filmed in the US; it features a range of serial stars from Hisham Selim, Tayseer Fahmi and Ahmed Maher to Riham Abdel-Ghafour and Ola Ghanem. For his part Ramadan TV serial directorial godfather Mohamed Fadel directs his wife and long-time collaborator Fardos Abdel-Hamid as women liberation pioneer Hoda Shaarawi in the period drama Masr Al-Gedida (New Egypt). Directed by Gamal Abdel-Hamid, screenwriter Mustafa Muharam's new adaptation of Raya and Sekina, the notorious story of two serial killer sisters in 1920s Alexandria, on the other hand, features Abla Kamel and Sumaiya El-Khashab, while Nobel laureate Naguib Mafouz's Al-Harafish (The Rabble), six parts of which were adapted into the same number of feature films in the 1980s, provides the basis of another, eponymous serial with a huge cast including Kamal Abu Raya and Ilahm Shahin -- to be screened on Dubai channel. Producer Safawat Ghattas assigned the direction of the serial Ahlam fil-Bawaba (Dreams at the Gate) to the Syrian Haitham Haqi. Written by veteran Ramadan TV dramatist Osama Anwar Okasha, it stars 1950s and 1960s film star Samira Ahmed. All of which is not to mention that some producers have opted for selling the rights of the first airing to one or more Arab channels, which means greater financial rewards even if it provides less exposure than government TV. Then again, like censorship, business issues will be settled by considerations of mood and personal interest rather than market surveys.
