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Uncle Thiru

Episode 1 of 6

Romesh Ranganathan takes a ramshackle odyssey around his parents' homeland of Sri Lanka. Romesh receives a traditional blessing in Kegalle and meets his Uncle Thiru.

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 has decided to change all that by sending Romesh on an odyssey around the motherland. Not that he's that happy about it.

Romesh is sent to receive a traditional blessing in Kegalle, only to discover after having his head rubbed with a chicken that it might actually have more in common with black magic than the traditional Hindu ceremony he thinks his mother had in mind. He goes to meet his Uncle Thiru, who may or may not be his uncle, and may or may not be related to him at all... in fact what Thiru seems more interested in is getting Romesh to invest in the elephant poo paper factory than in getting to know him. After attempting a potentially character building stint of stilt fishing, Romesh sets up an activity of his own.... Going rogue in the capital Colombo to perform with local rap act MBZ.

30 minutes

Last on

Fri 19 Feb 2016 01:30

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Credits

Role Contributor
Presenter Romesh Ranganathan
Series Producer Benjamin Green
Director Benjamin Green
Executive Producer Emily Hudd
Executive Producer Iain Wimbush
Production Company Rumpus Media Ltd

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