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Asian Provocateur

Series 1

Episode 3: Uncle Rubaharan

Duration: 30 minutes

First broadcast: on BBC ThreeLatest broadcast: on BBC Three HD

Comedian Romesh Ranganathan considers himself British through and through. He grew up in Horsham, doesn't speak a word of Tamil, doesn't know any of his relatives, has no idea about his cultural heritage and has almost zero desire to go to Sri Lanka. Like thousands of other British children of immigrants, he knows very little about the land where his parents came from. As his mother Shanthi says - he's a coconut. Sri Lankan on the outside but British on the inside.

Now Shanthi wants her son to connect to his roots - so she's decided to change all that by sending Romesh on an odyssey around the motherland. Not that he's that happy about it.

Shanthi uses Romesh's trip to try to settle a long-standing bugbear - trying to get him to lose weight. She has entrusted this task to his Uncle Rubaharan, who introduces him to the ancient Sri Lankan martial art known as angapora, which sees Romesh being put through his paces by a 14-year-old martial arts expert. Whilst in the area, Romesh also visits his mother's home which has been taken over by a religious sect, but this is mere respite between having a traditional Ayurvedic enema and joining the hunter-gatherer tribe of the Veddas, to go on one of the most bizarre hunts ever witnessed. Show less

Contributors

Series Producer:
Benjamin Green
Director:
Jamie O'Leary
Executive Producer:
Emily Hudd
Executive Producer:
Iain Wimbush
Production Company:
Rumpus Media Ltd

Genres

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