Singaporeans will remember these beloved characters from huddling around the TV set with their families after dinner on weeknights, and several have gone on to gain recognition beyond our shores. Here are five of them.
Phua Chu Kang (Phua Chu Kang Pte Ltd)
With his voluminous perm, bright yellow construction boots, and signature facial mole, Phua Chu Kang is instantly recognisable. The contractor, who proclaims himself to be the “best in Singapore, JB (Johor Bahru), and some say Batam”, is actor-comedian Gurmit Singh’s signature role. Boisterous, uncouth, but well-meaning, Chu Kang originated on Singh’s TV sketch show, Gurmit’s World, in 1994, before getting his own series, Phua Chu Kang Pte Ltd, which ran from 1997 to 2007. Singh would go on to headline a feature film as the character and star in a Malaysian spin-off, Phua Chu Kang Sdn Bhd.
Phua Chu Kang has transcended the small and big screens, becoming a brand ambassador for various companies and even fronting public health campaigns during the SARS epidemic in 2003 and the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. He even appeared in an episode of the reality game show The Amazing Race in 2002, to hand contestants a clue in an HDB flat in Choa Chu Kang.
Gurmit Singh makes his debut as Phua Chu Kang, the endearing contractor whose bark is worse than his bite.
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Yue Niang (The Little Nonya, Emerald Hill – The Little Nonya Story)
Emerald Hill, the sequel series to The Little Nyonya, sees Jeanette Aw return as Yamamoto Yue Niang, the latter show’s lead character. The Little Nyonya spans 30 years, so Aw plays both Yue Niang and her mother, Huang Ju Xiang.
Yue Niang is skilled in cooking and sewing but is looked down upon because her grandmother, Wang Tian Lan (Xiang Yun), is the second wife of her grandfather. Her mother’s marriage to a Japanese man is also stigmatised. The Little Nyonya follows Yue Niang’s journey as she is pursued by several suitors and earns the jealousy of her older cousin, Huang Zhenzhu (Eelyn Kok). Yue Niang falls for Chen Xi (Qi Yuwu), a wealthy young man who disguises himself as a chauffeur, but she is betrothed to a local gangster. Despite her constraining circumstances, she sets out to make a life for herself.
In Emerald Hill, Yue Niang is a supporting character, the adoptive mother of Zuye (Zhang Zetong), who helps her with her business in Melaka, Malaysia. Zuye is a potential beau of Zhang Xin Niang (Tasha Low), one of the series’ three protagonists.
Conflicts arise with three drastically different “Little Nyonya” living under the same roof.
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Tan Ah Teck (Under One Roof)
“Moses Lim is Tan Ah Teck!” — so goes the catchy theme song to Under One Roof, a landmark English-language sitcom that ran from 1995 to 2003. The late Lim played the patriarch of the Tans, dubbed “Singapore’s funniest family”. He starred alongside Koh Chieng Mun as Ah Teck’s wife Dolly, Vernetta Lopez as their daughter Denise, and Nicholas Lee and Andrew Lim as their sons Ronnie and Paul, respectively. The character would often utter the catchphrase “this reminds me of a story. Long before your time, in the southern province of China …” before regaling his family with a moral fable, which customarily closed out an episode.
Lim was a veteran entertainer, becoming a star of Chinese-language Singaporean TV alongside his comedic partner Jack Neo (see next segment) with the 1990 series Comedy Nite. Lim became the first performer from the Chinese-language Channel 8 to successfully cross over to the English-language Channel 5 with Under One Roof, paving the way for other actors. He was also a celebrity food critic and gourmand. He passed away in 2025 at the age of 75 and will always be fondly remembered for the Tan Ah Teck role.
Meet the Tans and watch how they get into hilarious situations week after week with their neighbours.
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Liang Po Po (Liang Po Po: The Movie)
Jack Neo is a name familiar to many Singaporeans. But the multi-hyphenate — he’s a comedian, actor, and filmmaker — has a role that he’ll always be best known for. As Phua Chu Kang is to Gurmit Singh, so is Liang Po Po to Jack Neo. The bumbling old lady character, hunched over with a cane and sporting a floral blouse, vest, and grey bun, who often goes “hoo-hoo-hoo” because she’s out of breath, originated on the sketch comedy show Comedy Nite. She then got her own film, 1999’s Liang Po Po: The Movie, which sees her escape from a retirement home to seek a new life, only to have a run-in with gangsters.
Fun fact: Neo’s other cross-dressing persona that he popularised on Comedy Nite, the housewife Liang Xi Mei, got her own feature film, Wonderful! Liang Xi Mei, quite a bit later, in 2018. That same year, Neo reprised the role of Liang Po Po on the Channel 8 series Happy Can Already!, a variety sketch show emphasising the themes of health promotion, active ageing, retirement preparation, and support schemes for senior citizens.
Barbarella (The Noose)
Premiering in 2008, the satirical series The Noose quickly gained a following. In Singapore, comedy concerning possibly sensitive current affairs is not widespread on mainstream platforms. Therefore, the show, which parodies TV news shows and pokes fun at Singapore stereotypes, felt slightly edgy and subversive but also comedically broad enough to have wide appeal. A large part of its appeal also lies with its ensemble cast, which often played multiple roles within The Noose’s large stable of kooky characters.
Michelle Chong was one of the show’s stars, playing characters including news anchor Adrianna Wow, KTV lounge hostess Lulu, and domestic helper Leticia Bongnino. Perhaps her most famous character, though, is the weathergirl Barbarella, known for the catchphrase “tanks every-birdy, tanks!”. Barberella is a Sarong Party Girl, a stereotype of a woman in Singapore who exclusively dates ‘ang moh’ (Caucasian) men.
Images: © Mediacorp