The Ranganation

Last updated

The Ranganation
The Ranganation.png
Genre Comedy
Directed byBarbara Wiltshire
Presented by Romesh Ranganathan
StarringShanthi Ranganathan
Opening theme"No CD" by Loyle Carner
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of series5
No. of episodes22 (list of episodes)
Production
ProducersMark Barrett
Mia Cross
Monica Long
Production locations Television Centre, London (2019)
BBC Elstree Centre (2019)
Pinewood Studios (2021–)
Running time45 minutes
Production companyZeppotron
Original release
Network BBC Two
Release19 May 2019 (2019-05-19) 
present

The Ranganation is a British comedy show hosted by Romesh Ranganathan and broadcast on BBC Two. Ranganathan joins a group of 25 members of the public, including his mother, to discuss news events of the week. Two celebrity guests are also featured. The first series of six 45-minute episodes premiered on 19 May 2019. The second series of six episodes was filmed remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic and first aired on 10 May 2020.

Contents

Production

A pilot was filmed on 20 May 2018, produced by Zeppotron. [1] [2] The first series was commissioned in August 2018. [3] It consisted of six weekly 45-minute episodes, beginning on 19 May 2019 and ending on 23 June 2019.

Ranganathan said that he wanted the programme to be a "topical show, not a political show". He said that the casting focused on recruiting a diverse group of "regular people who are opinionated and passionate", and that he enjoyed the honesty of the panellists. Asked who his ideal guest would be in 2018, Ranganathan said it would be Justin Trudeau if he was British, or Idris Elba. [4] When asked again in 2020, he suggested Patrick Stewart. [5]

The second series of six episodes aired in May 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic. [6] It was one of several topical British shows to be filmed and hosted by each participant remotely from their home, along with Have I Got News for You , The Mash Report and The Last Leg . Ranganathan filmed in his garage, requiring him to remove DJ equipment he bought to learn how to disc jockey during the pandemic. On Sunday, 10 May 2020 at 9:15 p.m., the first episode aired. The production aimed to incorporate a mixture of topics, despite homogeneous pandemic news coverage. [7] [8] [5]

On 18 January 2021, the BBC Press office announced the third series of The Ranganation would return that February. While Ranganathan was filmed from a studio, the guests participated from home. [9] A fourth series began in October 2021. Following the relaxation of social distancing guidelines in the summer, Ranganathan and celebrity guests record in the studio while members still contribute remotely.

Awards and nominations

AwardDate of CeremonyCategoryResult
British Academy Television Awards [10] 31 July 2020 Best Comedy Entertainment Programme Nominated
Royal Television Society Programme Awards [11] 16 March 2021Comedy EntertainmentWon
Broadcast Awards [12] 27 May 2021Best Lockdown Programme: Entertainment, Comedy and ScriptedWon
British Academy Television Awards [13] 6 June 2021 Best Comedy Entertainment Programme Nominated

Episodes

Series 1

No.
overall
No. in
series
GuestsOriginal air dateUK viewers
(millions) [14]
11 Rob Beckett and Fay Ripley 19 May 2019 (2019-05-19)1.49
22 Natasia Demetriou and Katherine Ryan 26 May 2019 (2019-05-26)1.19
33 Jessica Hynes and Jon Richardson 2 June 2019 (2019-06-02)1.01
44 Tom Davis and Sara Pascoe 9 June 2019 (2019-06-09)N/A (< 1.15) [lower-alpha 1]
55 Kerry Godliman and Richard Osman 16 June 2019 (2019-06-16)1.29
66 Angela Scanlon and Tom Allen 23 June 2019 (2019-06-23)1.25

Series 2

No.
overall
No. in
series
GuestsOriginal air dateUK viewers
(millions)
71 Danny Dyer and Katherine Ryan 10 May 2020 (2020-05-10)TBA
82 Jon Richardson and Scarlett Moffatt 17 May 2020 (2020-05-17)TBA
93 Rob Beckett and Jo Brand 24 May 2020 (2020-05-24)TBA
104 Jason Manford and Aisling Bea 31 May 2020 (2020-05-31)TBA
115 Tom Allen and Paloma Faith 7 June 2020 (2020-06-07)TBA
126 Andrew Flintoff and Sara Pascoe 14 June 2020 (2020-06-14)TBA

Series 3

No.
overall
No. in
series
GuestsOriginal air dateUK viewers
(millions)
131 Jack Dee and Alex Jones 7 February 2021 (2021-02-07)TBA
142 Katherine Ryan and Mo Gilligan 14 February 2021 (2021-02-14)TBA
153 Nish Kumar and Rosie Jones 21 February 2021 (2021-02-21)TBA
164 Judi Love and Joe Lycett 28 February 2021 (2021-02-28)TBA
175 Jamie Laing and Roisin Conaty 7 March 2021 (2021-03-07)TBA
186 Richard Madeley and Maisie Adam 14 March 2021 (2021-03-14)TBA

Series 4

No.
overall
No. in
series
GuestsOriginal air dateUK viewers
(millions)
191 Jack Dee and Hannah Waddingham 3 October 2021 (2021-10-03)TBA
202 Jon Richardson and Nadiya Hussain 10 October 2021 (2021-10-10)TBA
213 Roisin Conaty and Guz Khan 17 October 2021 (2021-10-17)TBA
224 Richard Osman and Harriet Kemsley 24 October 2021 (2021-10-24)TBA
235 Jo Brand and Ranj Singh 31 October 2021 (2021-10-31)TBA
246 Scarlett Moffatt and Josh Widdicombe (Christmas Special)19 December 2021 (2021-12-19)TBA

Series 5

No.
overall
No. in
series
GuestsOriginal air dateUK viewers
(millions)
251 Alex Brooker and Anna Maxwell Martin 1 October 2022 (2022-10-01)TBA
262 James Acaster and Lady Leshurr 9 October 2022 (2022-10-09)TBA
273 Jack Dee and Sophie Willan 16 October 2022 (2022-10-16)TBA
284 Sara Pascoe and Big Zuu [15] 23 October 2022 (2022-10-23)TBA
295 Lucy Beaumont and Stephen Mangan [16] 30 October 2022 (2022-10-30)TBA
306 Oti Mabuse and Jo Brand [17] 6 November 2022 (2022-11-06)TBA

Topics

The first series included a wide variety of discussions including:

Series members

Each series of The Ranganation includes a diverse cross-section of the public with each member having a unique nickname. Some notable participants include Romesh's mum, Scott Caizley under the nickname OMG PHD, and Param Singh who is Wheeler Dealer.

Series 1

In the first series, 29 people appeared on the show: Vlogger, Vicars Daughter, Privileged, Yes Miss, Football Mad, OMG PHD, Lord Dave, Selfie Queen, EcoVegan, Wannabe MP, Mindful, Oxbridge, Dog Father, Technophobe, Table for One, Small Town Girl, Ex Banker, Gen Z, Wheeler Dealer, The Skipper, Single Dad, You're History, Witness the Fitness, Romesh's Mum, Never Voted, Granny To Be, Pride of Wales, Comic Book Guy, and Green Fingers.

Series 2

Series two included 25 members from the public: Romesh's mum, Craft Beard, Privileged, You're History, Never Voted, Lord Dave, Small Town Girl, Pride of Wales, Ex Banker, Mani-Pedi, Vlogger, Glam Gran, Wheeler Dealer, Technophobe, Metalhead, Old Bill, Green Fingers, Gen Z, Football Mad, Watch Your Language, Wine Buff, The Dogfather, Oxbridge, The Skipper, and Comic Book Guy.

Series 3

The third series included 20 members from the public including Romesh's mum, Old Bill, The Dogfather, You're History, Never Voted, Lord Dave, Small Town Girl, Ex Banker, Pride of Wales, Oxbridge, Country Life (New Member), Vlogger, Wheeler Dealer, Technophobe, Gen Z, Picture This, Football Mad, Watch Your Language, The Skipper, Comic Book Guy, Metalhead, Glam Gran, and Folk Hero.

The display screen also changed to show the current speaker in the centre with the other people appearing around them. The central talking member still appears in the smaller windows around them.

Series 4

The Ranganation series 4 has included 22 members from the public including Romesh's mum, Vlogger, You're History, The Dogfather, Never Voted, Lord Dave, Small Town Girl, Pride of Wales, Folk Hero, Technophobe, Wheeler Dealer, Country Life, Renaissance Man, Oxbridge, Chippy Tea, Ex Banker, Glam Gran, Football Mad, Metalhead, Watch Your Language, Comic Book Guy, Flying Circus, and Gen Z.

Notes

  1. Not reported in the weekly top 15 programmes for BBC Two

Related Research Articles

Thomas Paul Allen is an English comedian, actor, writer and presenter. In 2005, he won the So You Think You're Funny contest at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Geoffrey Frank Norcott is an English comedian, writer and political commentator. He first performed in 2001 and has appeared on Mock the Week, Live at the Apollo and Question Time, and written for The Daily Telegraph, The Independent and Spiked.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jess Robinson</span>

Jess Robinson is an English comedy actress, singer, impressionist, voice artist and comedian.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Simon Bird</span> English actor and comedian

Simon Antony Bird is an English comedian, actor, director and producer. He is best known for playing Will McKenzie in the multi-award-winning E4 comedy series The Inbetweeners (2008–2010), as well as its two films, and Adam Goodman in the Channel 4 comedy series Friday Night Dinner (2011–2020).

<i>Newsjack</i> Satirical sketch show on BBC Radio

Newsjack was a British satirical sketch show which was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra between 2009 and 2021. It was hosted by Miles Jupp, Justin Edwards, Romesh Ranganathan (2014), Nish Kumar (2015-2016), Angela Barnes (2017-2018) and Kiri Pritchard-McLean (2019-2021). It was first broadcast on 4 June 2009. The series was notable for having an "Open door" policy on writing, advertising itself as "the scrapbook sketch show written entirely by the Great British public" meaning that unsolicited writers without contract to the BBC could send in material. The show was designed to give new writers an opportunity to get material broadcast. It was hoped by the people behind the show that it would be a modern version of Week Ending, an earlier sketch show which also accepted material the same way. Most shows were recorded in front of a live audience at the BBC Radio Theatre in Broadcasting House.

A League of Their Own is a British sports-based comedy panel game that was first broadcast on Sky One on 11 March 2010. The show is currently hosted by Romesh Ranganathan and features Jamie Redknapp and Jill Scott as team captains and Micah Richards and Mo Gilligan as regular panellists.

<i>Stand Up for the Week</i> British television comedy series

Stand Up for the Week is a British television comedy series that was shown on Channel 4, featuring stand-up comedy performances reflecting topical events. The show began in June 2010 with a six-episode series aired on Friday nights, moving to Saturday nights for the second series which began in March 2011. The first series was hosted by Patrick Kielty, with regular performers Jack Whitehall, Kevin Bridges, Andi Osho and Rich Hall. Bridges replaced Kielty as host for the second series, with Jon Richardson joining as a regular performer. Richardson took over as host of the show for the third series which aired in late 2011, and aside from Rich Hall returning, an otherwise entirely new group of regular performers joined the show: Seann Walsh, Sara Pascoe, Josh Widdicombe and Paul Chowdhry. For the fourth series Andrew Lawrence replaced Rich Hall. For the fifth series, Chowdhry took over as host and new regulars Angela Barnes, Simon Evans and Romesh Ranganathan replaced Chowdhry, Lawrence and Pascoe. In October 2015 Channel 4 confirmed there are no plans to produce more episodes of the show.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Romesh Ranganathan</span> English comedian

Jonathan Romesh Ranganathan is an English comedian, presenter, and actor. His style of comedy is deadpan and often self-deprecating.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Davis (actor)</span> British actor and comedian (born 1979)

Tom Davis is an English actor and comedian best known for his role as DI Sleet in the BBC Three comedy Murder in Successville, and as Gary King in the BBC sitcom King Gary.

Lucy Ann Beaumont is a British actress, writer, and stand-up comedian from Kingston upon Hull, England. Her performance is based largely on anecdotes about Hull and the wider Northern England region. She was a finalist on So You Think You're Funny in 2011 and won the BBC Radio New Comedy Award in 2012. Her 2014 debut show at the Edinburgh Festival, We Can Twerk It Out, was nominated for that year's Best Newcomer Award.

<i>Mum</i> (TV series) British television series

Mum was a British sitcom written by Stefan Golaszewski that centred on the recently widowed, suburban 59-year-old Cathy and her family, following her husband's death, airing on BBC Two from 2016-2019. Each episode is named after a calendar month in the year, except series three which is set over just one week. The series features Cathy's supportive lifelong friend Michael, and her family: son Jason and his girlfriend Kelly, Cathy's brother Derek and his new partner Pauline, and Cathy's in-laws.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spencer Jones (comedian)</span> English actor, comedian and writer

Spencer Jones is an English actor, comedian and writer. He has performed regularly at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and in 2017 and 2019 was nominated for the main prize in the Edinburgh Comedy Awards. He was co-creator and co-star of the BAFTA-nominated CBBC comedy Big Babies, and had a regular role in the sitcom Upstart Crow.

<i>Judge Romesh</i> British comedy television show

Judge Romesh is a British comedy television show broadcast on Dave. It features Romesh Ranganathan settling disputes in a fictional civil court. The show is unscripted, and the claimant and defendant are generally members of the public, although some cases are between celebrities. Ranganathan is assisted by the bailiff, Tom Davis, and a clerk—Kerry Howard in series 1 and Jessica Knappett in series 2.

Lisa McGrillis is a British actress.

Darren Harriott is a British stand-up comedian from Oldbury, West Midlands. He was nominated for the Best Newcomer Award and Best Show Award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2017 and 2019 respectively.

Tim Renkow is an American actor, writer and comedian. He plays the leading role of Tim in the TV series Jerk, which he also co-wrote.

The Misadventures of Romesh Ranganathan is a BBC Two comedy travel documentary presented by Romesh Ranganathan. In 2020, it won a British Academy Television Award for Best Features.

Henry Paker is a British comedian, writer and illustrator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kai Samra</span> Stand up Comedian

Kai Samra is a stand-up comedian from Handsworth, Birmingham. His comedy dissects life as a young, working class, British Asian.

Avoidance is a British comedy drama television series made for BBC One starring Romesh Ranganathan, Lisa McGrillis, Mandeep Dhillion, Jessica Knappett and Kieran Logendra. The show consisted of six episodes and was broadcast in consecutive weeks from 10 June 2022. A second series was commissioned in May 2023.

References

  1. Richardson, Jay (18 May 2018). "Romesh Ranganathan pilots topical BBC Two panel show". Chortle . Retrieved 30 June 2019.
  2. "Romesh Ranganathan to host new BBC panel show pilot". British Comedy Guide. 18 May 2018. Retrieved 30 June 2019.
  3. "The Ranganation ordered by BBC Two". British Comedy Guide. 23 August 2018. Retrieved 30 June 2019.
  4. "'I pretend I consider the public equals...'". Chortle . 14 May 2019. Retrieved 30 June 2019.
  5. 1 2 "There's going to be a blank square where my mum should be..." Chortle. 8 May 2020. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  6. "The Ranganation". British Comedy Guide . Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  7. "The Ranganation is back - from Romesh's garage". Chortle. 7 May 2020. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  8. "Romesh Ranganathan back with new series of topical comedy show The Ranganation". The Irish News . 8 May 2020. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  9. "The Ranganation set to return to BBC Two and BBC iPlayer for third series". www.bbc.com. Retrieved 8 February 2021.
  10. "BAFTA TV 2020: Winners of the Virgin Media British Academy Television Awards and British Academy Television Craft Awards". www.bafta.org. 3 June 2020. Retrieved 27 May 2021.
  11. "Winners of the RTS Programme Awards 2021 announced". Royal Television Society. 16 March 2021. Retrieved 27 May 2021.
  12. Guide, British Comedy (27 May 2021). "Friday Night Dinner wins at Broadcast Awards 2021". British Comedy Guide. Retrieved 27 May 2021.
  13. "BAFTA TV 2021: Nominations and Winners of the Virgin Media British Academy Television Awards and British Academy Television Craft Awards". www.bafta.org. 28 April 2021. Retrieved 27 May 2021.
  14. "Weekly top 10 programmes BARB". www.barb.co.uk. Retrieved 20 August 2019.
  15. "The Ranganation". bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 14 October 2022.
  16. "The Ranganation". bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 21 October 2022.
  17. "The Ranganation". bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
  18. Do you wash your legs in the shower? | The Ranganation - BBC , retrieved 11 August 2019
  19. Should plastic straws be banned? | The Ranganation - BBC , retrieved 11 August 2019
  20. Should homework be banned? | The Ranganation - BBC , retrieved 11 August 2019
  21. Do you believe in UFOs? | The Ranganation - BBC , retrieved 11 August 2019
  22. The staggering number of UK adults sleeping with a soft toy 🤯 | The Ranganation - BBC , retrieved 11 August 2019
  23. Trying to answer stupid job interview questions | The Ranganation - BBC , retrieved 11 August 2019