Madam & Eve started life as comic strip characters nearly a decade ago. The satirical strip takes a humorous look at the unique relationship between two South African women as they reach out to each other – across the kitchen – in the new South Africa. In 2000, Penguin Films Chief Executive Officer, Roberta Durrant, adapted the cartoon to a live sitcom for e-tv, South Africa’s second free to air channel. It soon became the channel’s top watched local programme, scoring highly across all demographic groups. Its success resulted in the commissioning of a second series that started flighting in February this year. By the second episode, it was again notching up the channel’s highest ratings for a local programme.

Like the cartoon strip, the sitcom examine the fears, prejudices and foibles of white and black South Africans alike. As the famous sit-com “All in the family” did in the 1970’s in America, the Madam & Eve sit-com aims to show South Africans the absurdities of separateness, while keeping audiences laughing.

Madam & Eve is, more than anything else, a comedy of hope and reconciliation.