LAST WORD
Words by: Rianne Ison70 70 SATURDAY MAGAZINESATURDAY MAGAZINEIN TOMORROW’S
MAGAZINE
Eva Longoria on her new role PLUS family favourites
from Bake Off’s Nadiya Hussain AND fashion goes boho Free with the
The stand-up comedian turned TV star is hardly ever off the
box thanks to shows including BBC travelogue series The
Misadventures of Romesh Ranganathan and popular panel
show A League of Their Own. We chatted to him about
haggling over box set viewing and what’s on his bucket list...W
hat do you like to
watch on TV?
I tend to watch box
sets with my wife
Leesa. At the moment we’re
watching Stranger Things. We’re
obsessed with it. But Leesa is
constantly on the look-out for
other shows so we watched Sky
Atlantic’s Save Me, which I
thought was phenomenal.
Are you a binge
watcher or do you
savour a series?
I want to watch
everything
immediately
whereas Leesa
will space it out.
We have to have
two sets of shows- some I can watch
when I want and
others we agree we
have to watch together. If I
watched Stranger Things without
her, she would leave!
Do you ever watch your own
shows with your family?
I would never enjoy watching one
I’m in, but I know Leesa watches
them twice – once to see if I’m
swearing, then again with the
kids, fast-forwarding through the
bits where I do. Misadventures is
the first thing I’ve done that she
thinks has a bit of an education
to it, but she still has to be
careful about my potty mouth.
Speaking of Misadventures,
was it a no-brainer to do
another series?
I think it was because it’s a great
experience to do. You don’t
want to run out of ideas
or for the show to
become formulaic.
But the response
to the first series
was so great and
it’s amazing for
me to go and try
these things. It
also feels like a
cool thing to be
able to do – to show
people the other side of
these countries.
Which location has stuck
with you from this series?
I’m yet to visit an African country
I don’t love. Last series I went to
Ethiopia and adored it, this time
Zimbabwe was incredible. The
food and people are great,
and the wildlife is fantastic.What’s next for you?
I’m going on tour this year so
that will be my main focus. I’m
getting that show ready now and
am going to hit the road.
Do you have any
unfulfilled ambitions?
To be honest with you, I only
wanted to achieve my living
through stand-up, so I really feel
lucky to be doing what I’m doing.
Beyond that, I’d like to do some
more scripted stuff. If I was in a
comedy film, I could retire happy.In fact, I could retire happy now
as I’ve got lucky.
Well, it doesn’t seem like
you’ll be retiring soon.
You’re in demand...
Only in the short term – that will
be all over soon. Next year, I’ll be
back in my teaching job!Romesh
Ranganathan
THE MISADVENTURES
OF ROMESH
RANGANATHAN
Sun 9pm BBC Two‘If I watched
an episode ofStranger Things
without mywife, she’d
leave me!’LA