Telly fans will be left devastated after a top comic has confirmed his BBC show has been axed.
Romesh Ranganathan has announced his hit show Avoidance is not returning. His self-written hit comedy was first broadcast on the Beeb in June 2022 and sees him play awkward lead character Jonathan.
Addressing his fans, Romesh said on Tom Davis Podcast, that he was following in the footsteps of another beloved BBC show. He said: "Thankfully the comissioners have taken care of that for me.
He added: "We're following The Office model - just like two and done." The Office only aired for two six-episode series, and some Christmas specials before ending. It made household names of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant.
Meanwhile 46-year-old comedian Romesh has weathered many ups and downs over the years - and his seldom-seen wife has been by his side every step of the way. Romesh is married to wife Leesa, with the pair first locking eyes while working at a secondary school in Crawley. She was in the drama department, while he taught maths - but the connection between them proved to be pure chemistry.
After tying the knot in 2009, the happy couple went on to welcome three children - Theo, Alex, and Charlie. Their youngest born at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, while Romesh was performing at The Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Offering his words of marital wisdom with the Mirror in 2018, Romesh said: "The key to a happy marriageis myself being absent for long periods of time. My wife Leesa and I will celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary next year, but if my comedy gigs petered out and I was around the house more, we'd 100 percent be getting divorced. As a husband, I'm much more appealing when I'm not actually there at all."
Leesa tends to stay out of the spotlight, however, Romesh has offered a little insight into their marriage - even divulging a few personal details about their bedroom antics. In a 2020 column penned for The Guardian, Romesh recalled one stand-up routine where he'd joked about their 'sex life, or lack thereof."
Romesh wrote: "I have a vivid memory of seeing her face in the audience, looking completely calm, and then glancing across to our friends, who looked utterly horrified at the prospect of going out for dinner with a couple they now knew were definitely not having sex when they got home."
Thankfully, Leesa views such candid confessions as 'just comedy', Romesh admits that some of her pals think he's 'a b******'. Reflecting on what sex is life one decade into a marriage, Romesh continued: "Sex is a bit like making a risotto: it's always nice, but a lot of the time you really can't be arsed. In the past, you might have cleared an evening for it; now you try to fit it in early, so that you can watch two episodes of a box set before bed."
All jokes aside, it's clear Romesh is grateful to Leesa for all her support over the years, and believe he wouldn't have had a successful comedy career without her by his side. In an interview with Marie Claire in 2018, Romesh said: "When I started doing stand-up, I resigned from my job as a maths teacher and, three days before I was due to leave, my dad passed away.
"I wasn't able to focus on work, we couldn't pay the bills and our car was taken away, but Leesa never showed a lack of faith. I felt I'd put us through a bad patch and not for a very noble reason – being a comedian is a very vacuous thing to decide to do – but she came to all my shows and gave me feedback. Without her support, I wouldn't have been a comedian."
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