Here’s the thing about Ramadan television – you have to settle into its rhythm or it can feel overwhelming.
As the holy month approaches, expected to begin around March 1, hundreds of productions, from premium dramas and variety shows to culinary exhibitions and religious programming, will flood our screens. This creates the kind of fierce competition across dozens of major Arab broadcasters that would be broadly unthinkable for western counterparts. And I just love it. If variety is the spice of life, the sheer abundance of eclectic shows aired during Ramadan is akin to the most lavish iftar buffet you can experience in many of the UAE's leading hotels.
But there is a method to the madness. Expect stations and streaming platforms to begin teasing their key titles before unveiling the full slate only days before Ramadan begins. As for the timings, we may have to wait, in some cases, until just hours before the first day of Ramadan. This approach is all designed to maximise the chances that rival programmes don’t air at competing times.
And once all that strategising is done, which increasingly feels futile, as many titles are also available on demand and through daytime repeats, it’s up to us viewers to find the time and tenacity to catch some of the best content the region has to offer.
As an avid viewer of the season, I find the late nights in front of the TV worthwhile. A high-profile Lebanese drama about a town enforcer’s search for his missing son may be vastly different from a heart-warming Emirati documentary series about the joys of charitable deeds. Yet, what connects them is the shared creative drive to entertain the whole family through emotive storytelling with an ethical heart at its core.
In Ramadan dramas, the good character almost always prevails – or falls on their sword for the greater good.
This is best illustrated in the works of Egyptian actor Mohamed Ramadan, who has released a stream of successful dramas throughout the holy month over the past 10 years, capturing all the notes demanded by viewers – action, comedy, melodrama and reflection. In 2022's Meshwar, he plays a man on the run from a ruthless cabal of businessmen, an experience that forces him to re-examine his questionable priorities in life. Meanwhile, in the 2019 hit Zelzal, he portrays Khalil, who miraculously survives an earthquake that devastates his neighbourhood and becomes a guiding light to his community, emphasising the importance of family and elders. Meanwhile, in the 2016 crime drama Al Ostora, Ramadan portrays the titular character, a man striving for redemption, yet ultimately surrendering to his fate after a life steeped in crime. I wish I could tell you what he’ll return with this year, but like everyone else, I’ll have to wait for the big reveal.
These powerful emotions are also reflected in the many socially conscious documentaries and lifestyle series created to highlight and inspire the values of Ramadan. Al Dunya B’Khair – Awnak, a local hit in 2022, was a heartfelt daily program that took viewers inside the UAE Red Crescent, showcasing their humanitarian work across the Arab world. It served as a reminder to embrace the spirit of giving, encouraging us to make a difference in our own small ways. While the annual series Al Sadma remains a candid camera show with a purpose, it places members of the public across the Arab world in socially fraught situations to observe their reactions, offering insight into the current state of societal norms.
With Ramadan offering a rare opportunity for families to come together to break the fast, comedy also plays a significant role. The holy month has long been home to ground-breaking comedies, from Saudi Arabia's Tash Ma Tash to Syria's Maraya, both of which used sharp and, at times, fierce satire to highlight key issues in Arab society and the human condition. Their morally driven storylines often explored the family and societal dangers of anger and greed, delivering poignant messages through humour.
The Arabic prank show, epitomised by the ratings juggernaut of Egyptian comedian Ramez Galal's annual series, has been a television institution for about 50 years, with celebrities and public figures getting pranked on screen.
Once again, there are deeper motives at play in broadcasting many of these shows just after sunset. "They are a mood booster during the month," Mazen Hayek, a media consultant in Dubai and former official representative for MBC, told me in an interview last year. "At the end of the fasting day, people are a little tired, and after they eat and complete their prayers, they often want to unwind together as a family. This is why prank shows and comedies are firmly established in that post-prayer, post-iftar slot, followed by more hard-hitting dramas. That has always been the case for decades because viewers need that dose of fun after a long day."
At its core, this is what Ramadan television offers. More than just melodrama, it serves a greater purpose – bringing us together and offering fleeting moments of insight or much-needed relief from an increasingly uncertain world. It’s an annual chance to tune out from the chaos outside and lose ourselves in stories that resonate, entertain and remind us of the emotions we all need to feel.
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Director: Laxman Utekar
Cast: Vicky Kaushal, Akshaye Khanna, Diana Penty, Vineet Kumar Singh, Rashmika Mandanna
Rating: 1/5
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What can victims do?
Always use only regulated platforms
Stop all transactions and communication on suspicion
Save all evidence (screenshots, chat logs, transaction IDs)
Report to local authorities
Warn others to prevent further harm
Courtesy: Crystal Intelligence
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Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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China
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UAE
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Japan
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Norway
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Canada
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Singapore
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Australia
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Saudi Arabia
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South Korea
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Emergency phone numbers in the UAE
Estijaba – 8001717 – number to call to request coronavirus testing
Ministry of Health and Prevention – 80011111
Dubai Health Authority – 800342 – The number to book a free video or voice consultation with a doctor or connect to a local health centre
Emirates airline – 600555555
Etihad Airways – 600555666
Ambulance – 998
Knowledge and Human Development Authority – 8005432 ext. 4 for Covid-19 queries
The candidates
Dr Ayham Ammora, scientist and business executive
Ali Azeem, business leader
Tony Booth, professor of education
Lord Browne, former BP chief executive
Dr Mohamed El-Erian, economist
Professor Wyn Evans, astrophysicist
Dr Mark Mann, scientist
Gina MIller, anti-Brexit campaigner
Lord Smith, former Cabinet minister
Sandi Toksvig, broadcaster
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Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
North Pole stats
Distance covered: 160km
Temperature: -40°C
Weight of equipment: 45kg
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What is graphene?
Graphene is a single layer of carbon atoms arranged like honeycomb.
It was discovered in 2004, when Russian-born Manchester scientists Andrei Geim and Kostya Novoselov were "playing about" with sticky tape and graphite - the material used as "lead" in pencils.
Placing the tape on the graphite and peeling it, they managed to rip off thin flakes of carbon. In the beginning they got flakes consisting of many layers of graphene. But as they repeated the process many times, the flakes got thinner.
By separating the graphite fragments repeatedly, they managed to create flakes that were just one atom thick. Their experiment had led to graphene being isolated for the very first time.
At the time, many believed it was impossible for such thin crystalline materials to be stable. But examined under a microscope, the material remained stable, and when tested was found to have incredible properties.
It is many times times stronger than steel, yet incredibly lightweight and flexible. It is electrically and thermally conductive but also transparent. The world's first 2D material, it is one million times thinner than the diameter of a single human hair.
But the 'sticky tape' method would not work on an industrial scale. Since then, scientists have been working on manufacturing graphene, to make use of its incredible properties.
In 2010, Geim and Novoselov were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics. Their discovery meant physicists could study a new class of two-dimensional materials with unique properties.
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Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
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