Comedy series Avoidance for BBC One

Romesh Ranganathan creates, writes and stars in new comedy series Avoidance.

Ranganathan stars in this warm and bittersweet comedy series about a man with severe conflict avoidance issues who is forced to change for the sake of his son.

Jonathan’s (Romesh Ranganathan) life revolves around his nine-year-old son Spencer, and he’s always deferred the big and small decisions to his partner Claire (Jessica Knappett). So when Claire asks him to leave, Jonathan realises he has no home, no friends and no ambition. Except one: to try to preserve his son’s happiness in the face of his parents’ break-up.

Jonathan takes Spencer and runs away. But he only gets as far as the home of sister Danielle (Mandeep Dhillon) and her wife Courtney (Lisa McGrillis). Over the course of the series, the unlikely foursome gradually becomes a loving but utterly dysfunctional family unit. Can a Beta male find some backbone? And can Jonathan avoid passing his failings (and his really bad dress sense) on to his son?

Romesh Ranganathan:

“[Benjamin Green, Co-creator and Co-founder of Ranga Bee] and I first conceived this idea in 2017 and have been thinking about it on and off ever since, so if it disappeared after one series it would be really annoying. If I say the BBC have committed to three series in this quote, do they have to honour that?”