The Misadventures of Romesh Ranganathan returns to BBC Two and iPlayer for a fourth three-part series, with Romesh set to travel to Africa
May 10, 2024 – “After six years of travelling, this three week trip through Africa felt like the perfect way to bring it to a close. Next year, my Misadventures go to Tenerife with the family.” — Romesh Ranganathan
BAFTA-winning factual entertainment series, The Misadventures of Romesh Ranganathan, will return to BBC Two and iPlayer for a fourth three-part series later this month, with everyone’s favourite reluctant globetrotter set to travel to Africa to experience a taste of life in Uganda, Rwanda and Madagascar.
In 2018, producers challenged Romesh – whose idea of a nice trip away is two weeks in the Algarve – to venture way beyond his comfort zone and travel to some of the most naturally beautiful but not traditionally tourist-friendly places on earth for the first series of Misadventures. Since then, he’s traversed countries from Colombia to the Canadian Arctic – even picking up a Best Features BAFTA for his efforts along the way.
With Romesh now having ticked a dozen destinations off the bucket list he didn’t know he had, he’s travelling over 5000 miles away to visit the final three places on the list, before deciding to finally hang up his passport for good. His African journey begins on the mainland in Uganda (episode 1) before moving on to Rwanda (episode 2) and culminates in the island nation of Madagascar (episode 3).
Romesh says: “After six years of travelling, this three week trip through Africa felt like the perfect way to bring it to a close. Next year, my Misadventures go to Tenerife with the family.”
Prior to visiting, Romesh’s only knowledge of Uganda is the 1970s military dictatorship of Idi Amin, but his guide is keen to show him there’s much more to the country than its brutal past. Cue a white water rafting trip on the Nile, some wildlife spotting in Queen Elizabeth National Park, and a banana gin tasting session that leaves Romesh a little worse for wear…
However, arriving in Uganda mere weeks after an anti-homosexuality bill was voted for nearly unanimously by the country’s parliament, Romesh struggles to reconcile the picture-perfect wildlife idyll being presented to him with the fear and oppression described during a phone call with a local LGBTQ+ activist.
In Rwanda, Romesh gets his hands dirty trying to create indigenous art using a surprising – and pungent – sculpture material. On a nighttime safari trip, he gets breathtakingly close to a pride of lions, and he also learns more about the country’s harrowing history at the Kigali Genocide Memorial.
And in his final Misadventure, Romesh is keen to discover if he’ll “find an island full of talking lions and dancing lemurs” in Madagascar. Spoiler alert: he doesn’t. But he is taken on a spectacular hike through the Grand Tsingy; meets some real-life lemurs (and a “lemur whisperer”); and sees, first-hand, the effects of the devastating famine caused by the country’s worst drought in four decades.
The Misadventures of Romesh Ranganathan was commissioned by Catherine Catton, Head of Commissioning, Factual Entertainment and Events. The series is produced by Rumpus Media (part of the STV Studios family), with Emily Hudd and Morgan Roberts serving as Executive Producers and Chris Cottam as Series Director. The Commissioning Editor is Ricky Cooper.
The Misadventures of Romesh Ranganathan returns to BBC Two and iPlayer later this month.
Source
BBC TWO
