This year's Ramadan talk shows gravitate towards the familiar both in terms of content and guests, says Osama Kamal A breathless race is over the start line, with TV channels racing for the hearts and minds of Egyptian viewers during this month of Ramadan. Wave upon wave of talk shows and soap operas have hit the screens, with frequent commercial breaks hinting at how lucrative the holy month must be for television producers. Ten days into the month, glued to my TV screen and surfing through terrestrial and satellite channels, it is my opinion that this year's programming is like TV dinners: pre- packaged for fast and effortless consumption. Many of the new shows are not new at all; indeed some are faithful reproductions of shows we've seen in the past. Mona El-Hosseini's Hewar Sarih Geddan Geddan (A Very Very Frank Dialogue) is a case in point. It is the same programme she used to present on the State-run Channel Two in the 1990s before she took it to the private Dream channel. The programme is little more than social gossip involving the rich and famous. Al-Hosseini gave generous airtime to two dancers, Dina and Boussi Samir. The two are known for their titillating news. Dina was married to the businessman Hossam Abul Fotouh and Boussi was a poor girl from the countryside before she turned nightclub dancer, then sexy video star. Both had stories to tell. Among the guests on the show were singer Lyala Ghofran, businessman Mansour Amer, MP Ragab Hemeida, artist Talaat Zakariya and actor Ezzat Abou Awf. All these were protagonists in the hottest real-life stories of the year. At one point, the murder of the daughter of Ghofran was discussed. Ragab Hemeida, a man who went from being a sympathiser of Islamist groups to a member of the secular opposition before finally getting chummy with the government, had interesting things to say. The controversial ways of wealthy businessman Mansour Amer before he decided to turn over a third of his fortune to charity offered the material for one episode. Well-known journalists Wael El-Abrashi and Magdi El-Gallad are co-presenting Etnein fi Etnein (Two by Two), a recycling of Etnein Ala al-Hawa (Two on the Air) a show made popular by Tareq Habib and Mona Gabr in the 1970s. In the new version, two people are interviewed simultaneously. In the old version the guests had no idea they would be edited to appear in one show. In the new version, however, they are aware of this and are thus game for verbal sparring. The two guests are usually chosen to represent two opposing points of view. Imagine bringing together football figures Ahmed Shobeir and Samir Zaher; singer Sabah and actress Maryem Fakhreddin; television figures Mahmoud Saad and Mofid Fawzi; singers Hani Shaker and Saad El-Saghir or Ahmed Adawia and Nader Abul Lif; or filmmaker Inas El-Dogheidi and actress Athar El-Hakim. It's boisterous and a lot of fun to boot. In Ana (Myself), Amr El-Leithi revives Mahmoud Saad's psychological tactics. Instead of plying the guests with juice, as Saad does, Leithi gets them to talk with the aid of soft music and a swivel chair. They end up discussing everything, from love and marriage to the intricacies of their work. Leithi likes to talk to people who have left their imprint on public life. One of his guests was Mortada Mansour, the famous lawyer and former president of the Zamalek Club. Another was Ahmad Zaki Badr, minister of education and son of a minister of interior. A third was Ahmed Shobeir, the sports presenter. A fourth was the beautiful actress Yosra. One of Leithi's best encounters was with Gamal El-Sadat, son of late President Anwar El-Sadat. It hit a very personal note, with Sadat sharing some intimate details of his private life, as when he signed his school reports himself instead of his parents, or his grief for his father and his relations with his three sons. The programme Dawam al-Hal (Enduring Circumstances) with journalist Lamis El-Hadidi offers viewers a new angle. Hadidi invites guests whose lives have been in turmoil and asks them to tell her about the change in their circumstances. She talked to Ahmed Shobeir, Hayfa, Nader Abul Lif and Abir Sabri, all common faces on this year's talk shows. I can picture them hopping from one recording studio to another, humouring competitive television producers. The interview with Ghada Abul Fotuh, daughter of the businessman Hossam Abul Fotouh, stood out among the rest. She spoke movingly about the suffering of Abul Fotouh's family after he went to prison, lost the BMW agency, and was humiliated by sex scandals. In his programme Hamra (Red), Ibrahim Issa has come out with something new. He focuses on a simple idea, the colour red and how it changes our environment. Somehow he manages to turn this idea into a gate for social criticism. He talks to people who are renowned for their great sense of humour, and so far the show has been hilarious. The interview with media figure Amr Adib was particularly interesting, with Adib complaining that, as a fan of Zamalek among a majority of Ahli supporters, he was being persecuted. Not an unusual remark, one would think, but once it is compared with the way that someone who is trying to take on the country's ruling party, the National Democratic Party, might feel, the potential for humour suddenly becomes endless. The interview with Shaaban Abdel-Rahim turned into a show about defending the right to smoke hashish. The episode with Moatazz El-Demerdash focused on the eccentricities of Egyptians and their curious habits, with a lot of fun derived from comparing life in Egypt with life in Europe and America. Ibrahim Issa is double dipping this year, with another programme going on simultaneously on Dream. In Al-Farouq Amiran (The Just One as a Prince), Issa turns himself into a sheikh. Dressed in grey robes, he recounts the history of Omar Bin Al-Khattab (the second khalif), elaborating on his role in consolidating the Islamic state and borrowing some of the methods of government of neighbouring civilisations. To me, it seems that Issa himself would be a potential candidate for one of his Hamra episodes. His ability to combine absolute seriousness and unbridled playfulness, could offer immense room for humour. Government-run television is trying to keep up with the satellite avalanche by presenting interesting talk shows. One is Bein Qawsein (Between Brackets) by Azza Mostafa, the director of Chanel One. Interestingly, a similarly-named programme, with a similar theme, is still on air on the Lebanese Channel Al-Manar. The show involves a discussion with guests holding diametrically opposed views. In one episode we see Islamic lawyer Montaser El-Zayyat engaging in debate with woman rights activist Afat El-Sayyet. Zayyat maintains that the patriarchal model is a workable model and close to the spirit of Islam, whereas Sayyed accepts nothing less than complete equality. Another episode brought the writer Safinaz Kazem and the scholar Helmi El-Namnam face to face. Namnam tried to refute a claim by Kazem that a single intellectual group had taken control of Egyptian cultural life. Another episode touched the impact of the media on tensions in the sports scene. A third episode looked into the adverse impact of talk shows on viewers, especially when presenters side with one of the guests. On Nile Life, writer Mona Serage and her daughter Nasima Yusef Francis presented a programme about the generation gap. Artists Boussi, Intisar, Rania Farid Shawqi, Ahmad El-Saqqa and Hani Salama appeared on the show. So did talk show host Mahmoud Saad. Interestingly, I noticed that the older generation was generally more capable of arguing their views than the young. This was even true for the co-hosts -- with Mona coming across as being more articulate than her daughter. Omar Taher, another journalist who rose to television from the ranks of the written media, is presenting Masri Asli (True Egyptian), the nearest programme one can imagine to a test in Egyptian nationality. Omar asks his guests about Egyptian customs and traditions, unusual vocabulary, and some history. The guests answer, offering observations ranging from football to politics and even the minibus culture. Nine questions are asked before the guest is graded according to his or her command of local culture. Most of his guests so far seem to have impeccable Egyptian qualifications: Maha Ahmed, Salah Abdallah, Hamid El-Shaeri, Sayyed Abu Hafiza, Mahmoud Saad and Belal Fadl all passed with flying colours. Having appeared as a guest in endless talk shows, Shobeir is presenting Sohourna Andak (We Are Taking the Pre-Dawn Meal at Your House ) on Modern Misr Channel. The programme is similar to the famous radio show Invitation to the Pre-Dawn Meal, which was a landmark of Ramadan programming on Sawt Al-Arab for nearly 30 years. A recent reproduction of the same programme, with the same name, was made by Bousi Shalabi on ART. Every day Shobeir brings to his table two people related by blood or friendship and asks them to reminisce about the past. Some of the memorable episodes have been with former Ahli president General Mortagi and his son Khaled, who is currently an Ahli board member. Another episode was with the journalist Hazem El-Hadidi, assistant editor-in-chief of Akhbar al-Yawm, and his friend, the writer Khayri Ramadan. A third episode featured Wael El-Abrashi and the art critic Tareq El-Shennawi, both having worked side by side at Rose al-Yusef magazine. Yet another episode featured Mohamed Hosameddin, president of the Egyptian Referees Committee, and sports critic Ayman Badrah.
