Asian Provocateur
Series 1
Episode 5: King Kong
30 minutes
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 asks Romesh to fulfil a dream of hers and see him perform in a Sri Lankan Tamil drama. Despite a lukewarm reception on set, Romesh decides he could do a better job. He ignore the requests of his mum to take cooking lessons and climb Mount Sigirya, and spends the week trying to create his own Sri Lankan movie. A movie that ends up involving a cast of snake charmers, dancers, his Uncle Ragu and a dwarf internet sensation. Show less