The UK’S busiest comic Romesh Ranganathan wants to “empower shit men”
The man with the most famous beard in comedy is set to take over our tellies this year. He tells Kay Ribeiro about getting naked and buttering up Idris Elba
Thank you so much. I mean it. Thank you,” Romesh Ranganathan says minutes after his arrival at our shoot. Given his deadpan delivery and dry-as-toast sense of humour, we can’t help thinking he’s taking the piss. But far from being sarcastic, the 40-year-old maths teacher-turned-comedian and father of three is genuinely thrilled to be doing the heat Interview – not least because it’s impressed his wife Leesa. “She doesn’t watch anything I do, but she is so excited I’m going to be in heat. So, thank you,” he laughs.
To be fair, we’re happy to have pinned him down for a chat since he is officially the busiest man in comedy right now. He’s here to talk about his highly amusing and informative new travelogue series The Misadventures Of Romesh Ranganathan on BBC2, where he packs his Trunki and heads to some of the most dangerous and depressing places on the planet. His docu-series Just Another Immigrant – following his attempts to relocate his family to LA – is airing in the US on Showtime; hilarious comedy Judge Romesh – in which he’ll be passing his laconic rulings on real-life disputes – comes to Dave next month; and then there’s his upcoming autobiographical Sky sitcom The Reluctant Landlord, based on his inheriting a pub from his dad, arriving later this year. See? B-U-S-Y.
Then, of course, there’s the fact that he’s replacing Jack Whitehall on Sky One’s brilliant sports panel show A League Of Their Own, alongside Freddie Flintoff, Jamie Redknapp and host James Corden. How will the sweet self-deprecating comic cope with the physical challenges and endless ribbing from the ALOTO boys? After the non-stop roastings from his formidable mum Shanthi on Asian Provocateur, we reckon he can handle anything…
Did your family worry about your safety doing Misadventures?
My mum was worried. She was like [puts on Sri Lankan accent], “Oh my God, darling, I’ve read about these places and I don’t want you to die.” My wife couldn’t have underreacted more. To the point that I was trying to exaggerate the danger to get some sort of reaction. I said, “I’m going to Haiti – it’s a no-frills trip. I’m not staying in luxury hotels…” And she was like, “Oh right.” I’m like, “I might not come back. What would you do if I didn’t come back?” She goes, “Well, are your finances in
order? We’ve got the house, right?” At the moment, I’m more valuable to her dead than alive I think.
What’s more traumatising: going to dangerous countries or travelling around the US with your mum in Asian Provocateur?
That is an excellent question. The honest truth is both are stressful. Going to Haiti, Ethiopia and Albania – there are times when you’re doing really challenging, scary things, and it does get stressful. But none of them are as stressful as the non-stop review of yourself as a human when you travel with your mum. My mum is one of the most supportive human beings I’ve met, but with that comes an ongoing critique of everything. So, I’ll do a thing and I’ll get a text from her, “I thought you were funny, I just didn’t think you looked good and people at work came up to me and said, ‘His beard is out of control, he doesn’t look handsome’.” And I’ll go to her, “Mum, what you don’t understand is that my self-esteem is not at a level where I can take that type of criticism.”
At what point did you realise she’d become the star of the show?
It’s hard, because I knew she would be funny, so what I hoped it would be is, “Oh God, Romesh, you were so funny in Asian
Provocateur and your mum’s funny, too.” What I didn’t want – and what happened – is people going, “Oh my God, your mum is funnier than you. Your mum is a star. Why doesn’t the next series feature just her?”
She’s become a celebrity in her own right. Does she ever get star-struck?
The one thing we’ve talked about incessantly is her obsession with Idris Elba. We actually had an argument about him at the BAFTAS. It was a horrible situation.
What happened?
If you get nominated for a BAFTA, you only get one extra ticket. So, I paid £500-£600 for a second ticket for Mum, because I thought I’d probably never get nominated again and my mum and wife were excited. I popped outside [the venue] and Idris was there with Tom Hiddleston, so I introduced my wife, who loves Idris as well. We chatted, but then my banter dried up super-quick. I said a couple of things I thought were fairly funny and then [puts on a goofy voice], “It’s nice to see you, Idris, I love Luther. Luther !” And I just thought I have to draw a line under this, because I’m making a dick of myself, so we made our excuses and left. I sat down and my mum said, “Can you introduce me to Idris Elba?” I said to her, “I’m sorry, Mum, that can’t happen tonight. If we see him another evening I can, but I’ve exhausted talking to him for this evening. I’m sorry.” She stopped talking to me and was in a mood for the rest of the night.
Does she still go on about it?
Yeah! Since then, I’ve spoken to Idris and I’ve said, “Dude, you’ve got to meet my mum, man. Please, you’ve got to meet her.” And he has OK’D it. But the thing is, she doesn’t deserve it. I’ll sort it out, because I love her, but her behaviour… It’s like when your kid throws a tantrum and you give them a present anyway. If anything, the right thing to do would be to ensure that she never ever meets that man for the rest of her life. Or, for me, Leesa and Idris to have dinner and Mum’s in a soundproof glass box, just watching. [Laughs.]
On your new show, Judge
Romesh, you’re ruling on the public’s disputes. How did that come about?
One of the things that inspired this was my kid got into an altercation with another kid at school. This other kid was being horrible to my kid – he’d taken something from him and there was a scuffle. Basically, the teacher and parents got involved trying to adjudicate, but no one saw what happened. So, it’s my son’s account and this other boy’s account. The teacher goes, “I’m sorry, but it’s his word against his, what can you do?” I said to my wife afterwards, “That boy looks a prick. He’s definitely in the wrong – surely instincts tell you that?” Our kid looks normal, that kid looks like an evil little shit – just adjudicate based on that.
So, you’ve got no actual legal training…
No, I didn’t want to be swayed by any genuine competence. It’s better to shoot from the hip. Sometimes it got really heated and a couple of people launched into me for having no qualifications – like one guy just flipped out. Sometimes I ruled against
someone because their answers were too long or their voice was annoying, and they got aggravated because they had genuine grievances.
Were you chuffed when you got A League Of Their Own?
Yeah, that was obviously a no-brainer, because ALOTO is a laugh. Tomorrow, I’m going to the Isle Of Wight to go power boating with Jamie, Freddie and [comedian] Tom Davis.
Are you prepared for the physical nature of the show?
I was the kid that cried in PE lessons. I was really fat, and I’ve still got that fat kid mentality. So, this is like doing PE, but all of the other kids are sports stars.
Jack Whitehall wasn’t always good at the challenges…
Jack displayed better physical prowess than me. And, also, Jack’s a slim, good-looking guy – I’m a fat mess.
Anything goes on that show – are you scared of what you’ll have to do?
Yeah, I’m scared of everything. I’m not so afraid of stuff – I’m scared of humiliation. The problem is that with humiliation comes entertainment.
You’ve stripped off before on TV, so presumably you’re ready for any naked shenanigans…
I actually think I can be of service here, because I am ashamed of my body – that’s the honest truth. It’s not just my mum [telling me I’m fat], it’s Twitter. But that’s why I think it’s so important for me to take my top off on shows like that. On ALOTO, it’s been Jamie Redknapp and Freddie Flintoff – they’ve got single-digit body fat percentages. I just think it’s nice for people to see someone who’s got the same body fat as an animal about to hibernate. I’m empowering shit men, that’s what I’m doing. That’s my mission in life.
You’ve got so much stuff on this year. You’re the Emeli Sandé of comedy…
What’s Emeli Sandé doing now?
Er, we’re not sure…
I didn’t mean that as an insult to Emeli Sandé – it’s just now our futures are aligned, I wanted to know. Look, I didn’t want this to be, “The Romesh winter is coming,” that wasn’t the intention. I’m not, like, trying to convert people to some sort of cult. My rule is to always sign up for stuff I think will be funny and something I’d love to do.
We’re thrilled this year is the Year Of Romesh…
I feel very lucky. You struggle and struggle and struggle to get anywhere in comedy, and entertainment is such a fickle thing. Who knows if, in a year’s time, I’ll be on anything? Next year will be overkill, and then in 2020, I’ll be applying for teaching jobs – that’s probably how it will go down. Then somebody will be saying to some comic, “I think you might be 2020’s Romesh Ranganathan!”
The Misadventures Of Romesh Ranganathan continues on Sunday, BBC2, 9pm
‘I’m scared of humiliation, but it’s entertaining’