Romesh Ranganathan and Jessica Knappett on the new BBC sitcom Avoidance

In his new BBC sitcom Avoidance, Romesh Ranganathan plays a  man with severe conflict avoidance issues, who is forced to change for the sake of his son after his wife Clare – played by Jessia Knappett – splits up with him. Here they both talk about the show...

Tell us about your new series Avoidance and what audiences can expect from the show?

Avoidance is about 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. 

This is your first series with your own production company Ranga Bee for the BBC, how was that?

It’s cool to have a production company, 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. 

Tell us about the writing process for Avoidance. 

Ben Green and I had a version of this idea about five years ago and every now and then we 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. 

Do you have any similarities to your character Jonathan? 

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. The fact that Ben agreed it would be a good starting point for a comedy suggests I don’t. 

Do you have any favourite memories from filming?

I think the first scene with Kieran [Logendra] 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. 

You have some great talent involved, when you wrote it did you have the casting in mind?

We didn’t have people in mind specifically, but we were lucky that in each of the main roles, the cast had taken the characters beyond how we even imagined they could be. Jess [Knappett], Lisa [McGrillis] and Mandeep [Dhillon] are the most incredible actors, and they brought their characters to life in a way that had us all buzzing. We have really lucked out with them - every day they were looking at scenes and how to approach them and improve them. 

How was filming with your castmates? Have you worked with any of them before?

I worked with Lisa on King Gary and thought she was amazing, and worked with Jess on Judge Romesh, which I thought went well, but she has since told me I seemed a bit stressed on that, and I thought I was being charming, so I’m glad we’ve had this experience to wash that away.

I watched Mandeep in After Life and thought she was excellent, but had never worked with her. Kieran is of course a megastar in the making.

Jessica Knappet

Tell us about Avoidance and what audiences can expect from the show?

It’s a naturalistic sitcom about Jonathan, a conflict-avoidant Dad, played by Romesh, who separates from his wife (me) and moves in with his sister (Mandeep) and her wife (Lisa) who hates him.  Quite a lot of people don’t like Jonathan and he’s trying to figure out why that might be and become a better person. A lot of the comedy comes from the fact that he has a hard time owning up to his terrible mistakes and the convoluted ways he evades facing the awful truth.

Do you have any similarities to your character? 

Yes. In contrast to Jonathan, Claire’s not afraid to say and show exactly how she feels, which is something I can relate to. For an actress I am actually very bad at disguising my emotions, something my husband knows all about.

Claire’s openly aggravated by Jonathan from the moment we meet her, which has been really fun to play. I love the honesty of being beyond pretending and playing nice in a relationship. I totally get that - I would call it communication but my husband would call it shouting. She’s not immune to making bad decisions herself, though, as we find later in the series.  Again, relatable.

Do you have any favourite memories from filming?

Romesh and Ben Green (director and co-writer) were really open to us improvising which there isn’t always much time for in television. I really enjoyed any scene where Claire was putting Jonathan in his place, especially because Romesh in real life is all about the withering put-downs.

It was fun sparring with him and it’s such a buzz when you’re given the freedom to ad lib a bit, especially when the person you’re playing opposite happens to be one of the funniest comedians in the UK. That said, I’m pretty sure most of it was unusable because we were just laughing instead of acting but the main thing is we enjoyed ourselves.

How was filming with your fellow cast mates? Have you worked with any of them before?

It was so nice to have a small core cast. We all got on really well, Mandeep and Lisa are really positive, naturally funny people and it was always a good vibe on set. Romesh is incredibly relaxed, or really good at pretending to be anyway.

I think because Rom and Ben have worked together for so long and they created the show together, they were so confident about what they wanted and they are both very good at bringing out the best in people. It was one of the happiest, most laid-back sets I’ve ever been on. I think there is a relaxed tone to the show because of that.

Do you think Claire’s relationship to Jonathan, and also Spencer will be a relatable one that isn’t often shown in TV?

Yes Claire and Jonathan’s relationship is possibly so relatable that we are going to trigger a thousand separations!

She has a really good relationship with her son and wants to protect him and I think what’s heart-breaking and might be relatable for lots of people is that struggle with what’s right for her personally, the relationship and what’s right for her child.

Something I really loved about Claire’s character was that she isn’t the cliché nagging ex, she’s confident and sarcastic but she also has her own doubts and fears and she remains compassionate towards Jonathan, despite the fact that he is completely useless.

• Avoidance starts on BBC One at 9.30pm on Friday June 10. Interview courtesey BBC Press Office.

Published: 31 May 2022