East Is East is the often hilarious and sometimes painful story of what happens when two cultures collide within one family.

For the seven kids of George Khan - proud Pakistani and chip shop owner - life is one long compromise. Tomboy Meenah prefers playing footie to wearing a sari, hippie Saleem pretends to be studying engineering when he's really at art school, heart-throb Tariq has got a reputation as a local Casanova, and Sajid hasn't even been circumcised yet. For George Khan ('Ghengis to his kids), life is an uphill battle to get his family to conform to traditional Pakistani values. But this is Salford in the 1970's. George's English wife Ella is Lancashire born, and his kids have got minds of their own.

In the Khan's cramped terraced house with it's scant indoor plumbing, anarchy erupts on a daily basis. When the Khan kids begin to oppose their father's petty tyrannies, Ella is forced to make a choice between her love for her husband and the right of her children to make their own way in the world.