Fifty Fifty

About This Drama

Fifty Fifty (1978–1985) was the most inventive and consistently funny comedy programme in the history of Pakistani television. A sketch-based variety show produced and written largely by Anwar Maqsood and Shoaib Mansoor, the programme gave Bushra Ansari the platform to demonstrate her extraordinary range as a comic performer, creating dozens of distinct characters across its long run with a wit and precision that astonished audiences week after week. The show's satirical targets ranged from bureaucratic incompetence to social hypocrisy, and it did so with a lightness of touch that made its observations land without alienating the broad audience it addressed. Fifty Fifty was formative television — a programme that showed what Pakistani comedy could be when given to writers and performers of genuine ability and creative ambition.