Hearbeat -sheesh kebab

[Fay Mousse]

Heartbeat is currently set in 1968 and in tonight's episode there was a reference to sheesh kebab - the sheep will be sheesh kebabs.

Can anybody remember if this was an expression likely to be used in rural North Yorkshire at that time?

I come from what is now called the Birmingham Balti Triangle but can't recall many Indian, Pakistani or Bangladeshi restuarants in the 60s.

Is my memory failing or is the Heartbeat researcher at fault?

[hau kola]

Hi Fay, i know the triangle well, i dont live too far away. I think youre right.

[KRUSTYMAN]

Surely sheesh kebab aren't exclusive to the 'Birmingham Balti triangle'! Apart from the well to do, the British Army and the Royal Navy travelled the globe and sheesh kebabs would have been well known to many ex servicemen even in the 19th century! If Heartbeat had been set in the 1920's it would still be a word known and heard by many.

[Fay Mousse]

I appreciate that - but it was never in common parlance like 'doolally tap' or 'char' - as far as I can remember.

I can't remember any of my relatives who were stationed in India using it.

[Ice.Maiden]

Ethel???? Is that you?????

[KRUSTYMAN]

Maybe that's because 'Sheesh/shish kebab' isn't an indian food - it originates from Turkey and the middle east.

[hau kola]

I was gonna say i thought it was Turkish but wasnt sure.

[Fay Mousse]

My point is I can't remember that phrase being in common use before the mid-70s.

[KRUSTYMAN]

But it doesn't have to be in 'common' use to be in a script or even a book. The fact that it was known and certain people - however select - used the expression gives the scriptwriter licence to use the term.

[Postdog]

As a kid back then I had heard of it, knew what it was, but never eaten one. It was sort of "exotic"....

Can't say thet now eh!

[mata hati]

I was given sheesh kebabs in Belarus on a visit there - yummy - lumps of marinated meat and stuff on sticks - much better than the poor excuse they call kebabs these days!