Romesh Ranganathan stars in new Avoidance

You have to hand it to Romesh Ranganathan. To millions of comedy fans, he’s a dry and droll addition to smart panel shows such as Taskmaster and QI, but as anyone who’s been enjoying this bittersweet comedy – which he co-wrote and plays the lead in – now knows, there’s more to him than funny one-liners.

In case you missed the previous three episodes, we’ll let Romesh explain the plot. “Avoidance is about Jonathan, a conflict-avoidant beta male, who is so frustrating to live with that his partner leaves. He is then forced to try and sort himself out, for the sake of this son. He ends up staying with his sister and her wife… it’s funnier than it sounds. It’s supposed to be funny with a bit of heart, but I’d settle for mildly diverting at this point.”

The show is also the first BBC outing for Romesh’s production company, Ranga Bee, and he says: “It’s cool but it does add extra anxiety when you know that any issues are something you need to worry about. I didn’t enjoy the idea that if I moaned about anything I was essentially slagging myself off.”

The idea for the show was actually born several years ago, as he explains: “Every now and then we (he and co-writer Ben Green) would dip back into it and develop it further. Eventually we decided to put it together as an idea for the BBC. Ben, Neil Webster, Shaun Pye, Kefi Chadwick and myself thrashed out storylines and ideas, and then eventually wrote individual scripts before poring over them to make sure our characters seemed like real people. Then we spent the rest of the process worrying it was all rubbish.”

Luckily their fears have been completely unfounded and audiences have lapped up Jonathan’s emotional rollercoaster of a journey. As for any similarities between him and Romesh? “His conflict-avoidant beta maledom is based on my own character, but I would like to think I hide it a bit better than Jonathan does” he quips. “The fact that Ben agreed it would be a good starting point for a comedy suggests I don’t.”

When asked about his favourite moments from shooting the series, Romesh offers his usual blend of courteous honesty, followed by a witty zinger about himself: “I think the first scene with Kieran who plays Spencer – he was who I filmed with on the first few days. He was just so natural and brilliant and I remember thinking we were onto something good with him. It was a really nice moment, swiftly followed by waves of anxiety about my own performance.”

Hopefully his confidence will be boosted and we’ll get a second series – assuming things aren’t tied up neatly by the end of this initial run.

To this week’s instalment then, and we catch up with Romesh’s alter ego as he is gobsmacked when Claire picks Spencer up from Dan and Courtney’s and gets into an unknown car driven by a mysterious man. Jonathan rings his son and learns the driver – named Steve – is cooking a curry, prompting a jealous and threatened Jonathan to drive over and spy on the house.