Research & Development: Nigeria TV Award Winning Series: Papa Ajasco

This was a TV show that I always used to watch as a child into teenage years. It was and still is the most popular show in Nigeria and also now available to watch in Ghana, it is produced by Wale Adenuga Productions.

The show is about Papa Ajasco, the father, his wife Mama Ajasco, their relatives, friends and children. It is a comedy show, however that is not why it became popular, I think it took common stereotypical types of known Nigerian characters and made them unique. For example, Papa Ajasco is always getting himself in trouble and Mama Ajasco is always trying to find out what her husband is up to and their son who always boasts about himself. The other characters like Boy Alinco and Miss Pepeiye, were the trouble makers who lied and cheated to get themselves rewards or out of trouble, of course each character has Nigerian known traits combined to make it appealing to the nation's audience, but most of the humour is made for an African audience. I think it was refreshing because at the time it came out, Yoruba and many Nollywood movies were flooding the network and the show's language was a mixture of English and pidgin english.

The lighting in the show is flat, but I think that's because the focus is on the story, characters and costumes so the lighting is not used as a tool to tell the story, however the scenes are all very colourful due to the character's costumes which are mostly Nigerian attire.

For me, this TV show is an inspiration because though my project is based on Yoruba folktales, the stories told in Papa Ajasco and company are everyday life situations that I think was trying to teach the audience a lesson at the same time as making them laugh. My films are definitely exaggerated in characters, story and influenced by shows like Papa Ajasco, because folktales are told in a way that grabs the attention of the listener for a short amount of time so they can receive the moral at the end of the story.