Comedian and actor Romesh Ranganathan, best known for the likes of King Gary and his show The Ranganation, has co-created a new comedy series for the Beeb called Avoidance.
Co-written and directed by Benjamin Green, the show will follow Jonathan (Ranganathan), whose life revolves around his nine year-old son Spencer. 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?
"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," says Ranganathan. "If I say the BBC have committed to three series in this quote, do they have to honour that?"
The six-part first series will be on BBC One and iPlayer later this year.