Romesh creates, writes and stars in new comedy series
BBC Comedy has confirmed Avoidance a new comedy series is coming to BBC One and BBC iPlayer later in 2022, written and created by Romesh Ranganathan and Benjamin Green, who also directs the series. Romesh Ranganathan stars in the warm and bittersweet comedy series about a man with severe conflict avoidance issues who is forced to change for the sake of his son.
Jonathan’s (Romesh Ranganathan) life revolves around his nine year-old son Spencer, and he’s always deferred the big and small decisions to his partner Claire (Jessica Knappett). So when Claire asks him to leave, Jonathan realises he has no home, no friends and no ambition. Except one: to try to preserve his son’s happiness in the face of his parents’ break-up.
Jonathan takes Spencer and runs away. But he only gets as far as the home of sister Danielle (Mandeep
Dhillon) and her wife Courtney
(Lisa McGrillis).
Over the course of the series, the unlikely foursome gradually become a loving but utterly dysfunctional family unit. Can a Beta male find some backbone? And can Jonathan avoid passing his failings (and his really bad dress sense) on to his son?
Romesh says: “Ben and I first conceived this idea in 2017 and have been thinking about it on and off ever since, so if it disappeared after one series it would be really annoying. If I say the BBC have committed to three series in this quote, do they have to honour that?”
Benjamin Green, Co-creator and Co-founder of Ranga Bee, says: “It was not exactly a tough ask for Romesh and myself to imagine what life would be like for a useless, conflict averse, procrastinating Beta male. It was trickier to work out what would happen if he was actually forced to change. We are
delighted the BBC have allowed us to make a show for all those people that cannot turn an invitation down or tell a waiter they have the wrong order and especially for those poor souls that have to live with them.”
Broadcast and further casting details will be confirmed in
due course.