Speaking exclusively on FUBAR Radio’s ‘The Friday Social‘ with Mikill Pane and Huw Joseph, comedian Romesh Ranganathan told us how the idea for his hilarious new BBC Three show ‘Asian Provocateur’ was initially conceived.
“It came from a routine I’d done about the fact that I’ve got this proud, beautiful heritage that I didn’t know anything about. My Mum was worried because I’ve got kids, she was thinking they’re not going to know anything about our background because you don’t know anything because you’re dumb and haven’t bothered to find out anything. So we had this idea of me going back and my Mum giving me a crash course in Sri Lanka.”
Speaking about the personal effect the show had on him, Romesh was in a reflective mood. “I think it’s something that effects second generation ethnic minorities, how connected are you? I’m a proud Englishman and I love being English but at the same time that doesn’t mean you have to ignore what came before. You can be English and also be proud of your heritage.”
Whilst looking back on the comedian revealed his favourite moments from the show. “In the second episode I go to this village where my family originated from and basically I’m related to everyone in that village. For them it was a massive deal, my Grandad was the only person who left that village to go elsewhere and his children went off all over the world. I wasn’t even aware of the back story, I went back in and it was very emotional but I was also ashamed that I hadn’t known anything about it up to that point. I was genuinely overwhelmed on the show, I was thinking I need to be funny this is bad, I’m crying this is awful.”
You can catch ‘Asian Provocateur’ every Wednesday on BBC Three at 10.30 – we highly recommend it here at FUBAR Radio Towers.
Listen to ‘The Friday Social’ with Mikill Pane and Huw Joseph every Friday between 1pm-4pm.
Download the app for iOS and Android and listen live on the move or download the whole show later.
