K is for... Khan Family

 

Several members of Yasmin Khan's family have been involved in her adventures. Her mother, Najia, was employed as General Manager of a huge new hotel which US tycoon Jack Robertson was about to open in Sheffield, where the Khan family live.

This hotel sat within its own golf course, but few people knew that it had been constructed over a dumping ground for toxic waste. This caused local spiders to mutate and grow to enormous size. Robertson sacked Najia when he found her at the hotel prior to it opening and discovered that the rooms were not ready. She was even threatened by Robertson with a gun. Najia found herself running for her life with her daughter when the giant spiders broke out of their tunnels into the hotel complex.

Najia had no issues with the idea that the Doctor might be Yaz's girlfriend.

Sonya Khan was Yaz's younger sister. There was a certain amount of sibling rivalry, such as Sonya wanting Yaz to move out so she could get her bedroom. She attempted to flirt with Ryan Sinclair. In 2017, Sonya had reported her sister to the police when she became worried about her mental health.

When the Doctor protected Yaz by hiding her from Swarm and Azure in her own time-stream, Yaz found herself playing computer games with Sonya - but knew that this could not be a real memory. A Weeping Angel was meddling with Yaz's timeline.

At her grandmother Umbreen's birthday party, Yaz became interested in the history of her family - especially how her gran had met her grandfather as this had coincided with the partition of India in 1947. Umbreen, a Muslim, had been due to marry Prem - a Hindu - when the country was thrown into turmoil by the creation of Pakistan. Prem was killed by his own brother and his friends. Yaz's grandfather was therefore Umbreen's second husband.

To date, Yaz's father Hakim is the only member of the family not to become embroiled in his daughter's adventures.

Played by: Shobna Gulati (Najia), Bhavnisha Parmar (Sonya), Leena Dhingra (old Umbreen), Amita Suman (young Umbreen), and Ravin J Ganatra (Hakim).

Appearances: Arachnids in the UK, Demons of the Punjab (2018), Spyfall, Can You Hear Me? (2020), Flux: Once, Upon Time (2021).

• Shobna Gulati was well known for her 12 year stint on Coronation Street, and before this she had featured in the Victoria Wood sitcom Dinnerladies.
• Leena Dhingra had previously played Miss Chandrakala in The Unicorn and the Wasp.