We’re in it together and we have got each other’s backs
Who is the strongest comedian of them all? MARION McMULLEN chats to Romesh Ranganathan and Rob Beckett about new challenges in Rob & Romesh Vs
Rob: It sort of changes a little bit, don’t you find Rom?
Romesh: Yeah. We talk about what we are going to do and run through different ideas and stuff beforehand.
Sometimes the challenge is locked in and they [the programme makers] tell us well in advance, and sometimes they’ll decide on a challenge and as we are doing it they’ll say, ‘No, that’s not hard enough. We’ll do something else’.
So it’s all up in the air and Rob and I have this kind of conflict of interests where we want the show to be good, but we also don’t want to do the challenge thing.
Inside, you [are] thinking, ‘I want to say this is an absolutely awful idea. I don’t want to do that’, but you do know it will also make the show better. So you do have this battle.
(Laughs) I’ll be honest there have been times when I’ve said, ‘Oh, I’m not sure about the editorial justification of that’ just because I can’t be a **** to do it.
Rob: Sometimes it is slightly sprung on us, like the strongman episode.
They said, ‘We’ve been given access to do this competition at an event next week’ and, especially with sporting stuff, a lot does depend on access.
We’ve got to do stuff that is slightly embarrassing, so that people don’t hate us for travelling around the world doing things, but we’ve been to Birmingham, Milton Keynes and London for recent challenges.
We’ve not really been to exotic places.
Was the strongman episode in the new series a tough challenge?
Rob: That was so hard on my back. Romesh: That gym in Iceland, I reckon they have to sluice out the testosterone at the end of the night. Rob: (Laughs) That’s where Will Smith trains.
Romesh: It’s just really full on. World’s Strongest Man champion Magnus Ver Magnusson is such a nice bloke, but that gym he trains at is called Jakabol (Nest Of Giants) and it is like they have taken a hit of smelling salts and they are ripping these weights into the air.
It’s just so in opposition to how I conduct my life. We were just
King (right) screaming to try and lift these heavy things up. It’s mad.
Rob: (Laughs) It’s still less intense than a gym in south east London.
You also try to get a part in a West End musical for the new series. Was that more of a challenge than strongman?
Rob: No, I’d rather do strongman. I wouldn’t be able to compete at the level of strongman, but I quite enjoyed that training.
Romesh: If there was like a Sunday league, like five-aside, I’d do that level of strongman, but West End is just so hard. It’s just so difficult.
The level of training and preparation and the talent that all the performers have to have. Rob: Strongman training is tangible – you lift it or you don’t.
In the West End, you could be supremely talented but if you don’t know the right people you don’t get an opportunity and you are stuffed.
It’s quite a brutal industry, I think.
What was it like singing for Frozen star Samantha Barks?
Rob: Awful, just awful. I was quite posh and high. Romesh: It was quite posh.
Rob: (Singing) Let it go, let it go. (Laughs) I was so bad at it. Romesh: What was good is that Rob just continued singing. Most people would have heard a little bit what their voice sounded like and thought, ‘We’ve seen what we need to see’ but he was willing to do the whole musical.
This is the fourth series of challenges. Do you have a favourite from over the years?
Romesh: I always have a soft spot for the drag episode.
Rob: That was good fun.
Romesh: It was Rob’s idea and we were both admirers of the drag scene. We just thought those performers were great.
We did an element of drag in a ballet episode to get a bit more confident. We did an afternoon’s drag training and Rob said ‘I think we might be wasting this, I think this could be a whole episode’.
Rob: A lot of people come up to me and say they loved the drag episode. One of my favourite moments was just looking at Romesh’s face before we went out to do a dance at a Jamaican festival.
I was stood there, I was sunburnt – even though I had been wearing factor 50 every day – and I had learned this dance, and I hate dancing, and I just looked at him and thought, ‘What is this?’ and we just looked at each other in silence.
Then they called our names and we went out and later it was like, ‘I can’t believe we did that’.
All these things I don’t really know how I end up doing them.
I was quite a shy, awkward, nervous kid growing up.
I would never have been able to do these shows without Romesh.
My head would have gone completely. We are in it together. We have got each other’s backs. Romesh: Sometimes you do think ‘Am I humiliating myself for no reason?’ and Rob will say ‘No, this will be good. Trust me’.
Rob & Romesh Vs series four starts on Thursday at 9pm on Sky Max and streams on NOW
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