A controversial TV soap funded by the NHS and shot in Bradford's Asian community is still sitting on a shelf - two years after it was filmed.

And today, the health service manager responsible acknowledged it might never be seen by a mass audience.

The 13-episode medical soap was filmed in English, Punjabi and Urdu, and was billed as a cross between Casualty and EastEnders. They called it Kismet Road - but with rejections from broadcasters piling up, it has proved a road to nowhere.

The NHS's North Bradford Primary Care Trust commissioned the project to promote better health awareness in the south Asian community. It was funded with £340,000 from the public purse, the biggest sum coming from the Government's Health Action Zone Innovations Fund. Since filming ended, the regeneration agency Yorkshire Forward has weighed in with another £100,000.

But the organisations have yet to see a return on their investment. Shadow Health Secretary Dr Liam Fox said last November it was "scandalous" the drama had yet to be shown when so much public cash was tied into it.

Today, project manager Dr Liz Kernohan said: "We're expecting a response from one broadcaster any day now and we've got another lined up."

But she admitted the soap had already been turned down by the biggest broadcasters and might end up in the hands of a minority satellite channel or even sent direct to schools on video cassette.

Dr Kernohan said: "If this fails we're going to have to do some hard thinking, and one option is just to move on and say, that's it.

"It would be a tremendous disappointment but we can't keep on and on at this."

She said big broadcasters had shied away from the soap, claiming the social and political climate was not right for it.

But broadcast consultant and commentator Philip Reevell said: "It sounds as though they've gone about it the wrong way round."

Mr Reevell, who writes for the TV industry's magazine Broadcast, said: "The normal practice is to get a broadcaster involved before the programme is shot.

"In this case, since they had the money up front, they could have taken that to the broadcaster and co-financed it."

But Dr Kernohan said: "Just because there's a normal way of doing things doesn't mean we should be doing it.

"We didn't want a broadcaster breathing down our necks when we were filming. It was fraught enough as it was.

"We were trying to buck the system. We felt we knew more about the needs of the community than the broadcasters did."

Yorkshire Forward confirmed the agency had poured £100,000 into the project but insisted it was not throwing good money after bad.

"We picked up the project because it was a good idea and because it fitted in with our health agenda," said a spokesman.

Kismet Road was scripted after consultation with members of the south Asian community and the drama touched on subjects like abortion, inter-racial marriage and homosexuality, as well as common killers such as heart disease.

A spokesman for Manchester TV station Channel M said: "I'm sure small stations like ours would screen the show if we were offered it."