Ali Nadim is a student in Jeremy Brown’s EFL class. He is played by Dino Shafeek.

Ali is from the city of Lahore in Pakistan, though he also tells Anna that he lived in Delhi when he was a child. He is a Muslim, and religious and cultural differences bring him into frequent conflict with Ranjeet, a Sikh from the Punjab region. He has several catchphrases: “Yes please” (instead of “Yes indeed”), “Squeeze me, please” (instead of “Excuse me, please”), “Jolly good” and “Oh blimey!” are his most common, and he also exclaims “You damn fool!” when someone does something extremely stupid or thoughtless.

Ali is one of the most honest and hardworking students in the class, and his honesty sometimes gets Mr. Brown and him into trouble, such as when they go to the police station. He used to work at the Taj Mahal Tandoori Restaurant, but is unemployed at the beginning of the series and later gets a job as a traveling salesman. He is married, and his wife appears in “Better to Have Loved and Lost” and “What a Tangled Web”.

Ali enjoys watching cartoons like Tom and Jerry and detective shows like Starsky & Hutch. He also seems to be quite a heavy gambler, as he plays the slot machine in The Red Lion and bets in lotteries although it is against his religion to do so.

QUOTES

Oh blimey

Ali Nadim

Jolly good

Ali Nadim

We just picked a few out of his repeated quotes.