Avoidance cast - Series 2 is "Romesh Ranganathan at his finest!"
26 March 2024 - BBC
Jonathan (Romesh Ranganathan) is back and he’s reinvented himself. He may have a new body, a new hobby, and a lot of lycra, but he’s still stuck avoiding conflict and all the mess that causes. Jonathan is determined to win back his ex-partner Claire (Jessica Knappett) and rebuild his family and make son, Spencer (Kieran Logendra) happy. However, any chance of their love rekindling is complicated by new love interests Brett (Matthew Lewis) and Megan (Aisling Bea). Meanwhile, Jonathan’s sister, Dan (Mandeep Dhillon) and her wife Courtney (Lisa McGrillis) are expecting a baby and feel anything but ready.
Avoidance (6 x 30) is a Ranga Bee production for BBC One and BBC iPlayer. It was commissioned by Jon Petrie, Director of BBC Comedy. It was created by Romesh Ranganathan and Benjamin Green, who also directs. The series is written by Romesh Ranganathan, Benjamin Green and Jessica Knappett. The producer is Andrew Harvey and the Executive Producers are Michelle Farr-Scott, Romesh Ranganathan, Benjamin Green. The BBC Commissioning Editor is Tanya Qureshi. Series one and two of Avoidance are distributed internationally by BBC Studios.
Episode 1 will air on Friday 5 April at 9.30pm on BBC One, all six episodes will be available as a boxset on BBC iPlayer.
Interviews with the cast
Romesh Ranganathan
What can you tell us about the new series of Avoidance?
The new series of Avoidance takes place a year after the end of the first series. At the end of the last series Jonathan told Claire he didn’t want to get back together and we find him a year later regretting his decision. He has made some changes to his life, he’s tried to improve himself so I guess you could say he’s had a glow up! The other big thing that’s happened is that Courtney and Dan are expecting a baby – so those are the two big things to expect. Spencer is very much, in keeping with Avoidance, the most settled and stable character in the whole thing.
I think with series 2 the big change, apart from the pregnancy, is that Jonathan thinks he has made improvements – he is still the avoidant character that he always was but he’s tried to make changes and improve himself. Whether those improvements have made any real difference remains a source of debate between Jonathan and the other characters in the show!
What was your highlight from filming?
One of my highlights from filming is in Episode 3 where Claire and I go to another couples’ house and they are arguing. It’s basically us trying to stop Spencer from having a sleepover there as we don’t think it’s age appropriate, but that episode with the arguing and the back and forth is one of the funniest scenes I’ve ever been involved in. Another highlight is having to sing Nelly’s ‘Hot In Here’ about 37 times for Episode 1.
Jessica Knappett
What can you tell us about the new series of Avoidance?
What I can tell you is that it is even funnier than the first series, it’s Romesh Ranganathan at his finest! We've got new characters, we’ve got more actors, there’s a lot more love, romance and complication. This series is truly a Rom-Com (pun absolutely intended!).
We’re a year on in this series, so we left it that Jonathan and Claire tried to get back together, Jonathan was still living out of the house with his sister. We are still in that place, except I guess that Jonathan’s less sad about the break-up and he has managed to piece himself back together a bit, but he’s still very much in crisis and that’s why there’s so much lycra. We are moving the story on and basically we’re seeing now a kind of love square (not triangle) and the two new characters, a love interest for Claire (Brett played by Matthew Lewis) and a love interest for Jonathan (Megan played by Aisling Bea) - these two actors are amazing and very funny.
What was your highlight from filming with Romesh again as well as the rest of the cast?
I really enjoyed working with Luke McQueen, I think he’s such a talent, such a funny actor and it was really, really fun seeing him and Louise Ford (who is also absolutely hilarious) have more than just a moment to shine, they get an entire episode.
Do you have any funny moments from filming?
A highlight for me was probably the first time I saw Romesh in lycra! Also we have a really nice way of working because Benjamin Green is the writer and the director and Romesh is the writer and they’re all on set, so you know you can mess around and change things and improvise and just explore stuff and just really have fun. So that’s why it was such a great show to make and I think you can feel that energy on the screen, most of my scenes are with either Romesh or Matt and they’re just very funny actors so my main responsibility was trying not to laugh. I hope you enjoy the series...over and out!
Lisa McGrillis
Do you relate to your character at all in this new series?
I’ve had two babies myself, so obviously I know what it is to be pregnant! Playing Courtney is just like an alter–ego, I love playing her because she has no filter, zero filter. She gets irritated by everyone and everything and there’s something just so refreshing about playing someone like that, somebody who says exactly what they think all the time! She doesn’t try and filter anything, but even more so now she’s pregnant. She goes to NCT classes and she just thinks this group of people are ridiculous, she has no time for any of them, or how earnest they are. I loved playing the scenes where she was doing the NCT stuff because it was brilliantly written.
Similarities wise, I think I was probably a bit angry when I was pregnant too...especially towards the end, I’d say I was furious with everyone! I think I’ve just got more of a filter than Courtney, but it was so much fun to play. I loved the scene where she’s going into labour, she didn’t even try and do any breathing, she just screams her way through it. I have to say I was in slight denial myself about what labour was going to be, but I think when it came to it I hadn’t really got my head around what I was supposed to do. So I’d say there was a bit of similarity there too! I loved playing those labour scenes because actually I was quite shocked about how emotional it was when I was acting giving birth and then them putting a tiny baby on me, I burst into tears... so that was good!
What was your highlight from filming with Romesh again?
There were so many highlights from filming, but I have to say there is a very funny scene that takes place on a rowing boat (without giving too much away)...but it was very funny and it involved Mandeep!
Mandeep Dhillon
How was filming with the cast for series 2?
So much fun, I love them with all my heart. Jessica Knappet, Lisa McGrillis, Romesh Ranganathan and Ben Green are actually my friends, so it was such a joy to get to be back on set with them. Obviously Kieran Logendra (Spencer) is incredible and was so much fun to work with, he’s such a beautiful kid!
I really enjoyed working with the new cast members, I loved working with Aisling Bea (Megan), she’s really cool and funny and working with Matthew Lewis (Brett) was really fun. Everyone just sort of got on with each other really well, it was like I just ended the year on set with my friends, it didn’t feel like work at all!
Do you have any funny moments from filming?
The only day I did not like, was the day we had to film in a lake...it’s a well-known fact that I have a phobia of wet mud. I hate wet grass and wet mud, it makes me feel sick! There were a few moments where I had to act surrounded by mud, and I didn’t enjoy that. But the cast being there and laughing with me make it ok. The scene with me and Lisa when we find out whether our baby is a boy or a girl...we just couldn’t keep it together. I think I’m probably one of the most unprofessional when it comes to this cast, because I corpse in near enough every scene!
Aisling Bea
What made you want to join Avoidance for series 2?
Romesh Ranganathan! I love Rom and this is our third thing we've done together, we did a little comedy short for iPlayer about eight years ago now – I think that was one of the first things Romesh was making, and then we were briefly together in the first iteration of Jo Brand’s show ‘The Damned’ and that then went off to be replaced as Romesh went on to be a superstar.
Working with Rom has in all honesty surpassed my expectations in terms of him as an actor and what incredible range he has which has been really lovely to see. The other big revelation has been the rest of the cast obviously, but also Benjamin Green our brilliant director who is so incredibly kind and lovely and this job has done my heart the world of good. Jessica Knappett is also a very close pal, she is stunning and an amazing writer on this as well, so it’s been great to pop in with all these guys.
What was your highlight from filming with Romesh and the rest of the cast?
I think the smaller scenes with myself and Romesh were really lovely, because we’ve been pals and worked together for so long but we haven’t had a lot of one on one and when you’re on a set filming, there’s lots of down time in between takes. So it was just nice to get a bit closer as pals really on this, so that’s been a lovely part of it which I didn’t expect!
Matthew Lewis
What can you tell us about the new series of Avoidance?
Well, I play a character I’ve absolutely never played before - the third wheel in a love triangle that audiences will root against on behalf of the main character. Basically, as Jonathan decides he’s going to get Claire back he discovers, cruelly, that she has a new boyfriend, played by me! And he’s got no chance. Brett, my character, is sort of the antithesis to Jonathan, he’s the anti-Jonathan. He’s a proactive, do it yourself, no nonsense guy and avoidance isn’t really in his vocabulary. Unlike me also actually, who put off doing these answers for as long as I possibly could!
What made you want to join Avoidance for series 2?
They asked me to and said they would pay me to do it so already I was interested. I hadn’t seen the first series when they sent the script for series two. Being in the US you can miss out on some BBC gold now and then. Fortunately, my old friend Michelle Farr who produced Bluestone 42 (the best job I ever had) also produced this. She gave me a call and once I knew Michelle was doing it, I knew it’d be good. So she sent me a link to the first series which I really really enjoyed. Having watched that, I was able to read series two with Romesh’s and Jess’s voices in my head and it made the whole thing funnier.
What was your highlight from filming with Romesh and the rest of the cast?
There was a real collaborative atmosphere on set and the creative team all very graciously included me in a lot of it. Myself, Rom, Jess and our director Ben would often break down a scene together, try and come up with jokes, make each other laugh and ultimately just make each scene as tight and as good as we could before we rolled cameras. Between us, there’s a wealth of experience making TV and between them, a wealth of experience making people laugh. To be welcomed in to that creative process and encouraged to be a part of it was a real highlight for me but if the show is rubbish then I really had nothing to do with any of it and it was all them three.
Do you have any funny moments from filming?
The whole series is funny! Genuinely, the whole experience was a laugh. Rom wearing Lycra for an awful lot of the shoot was a good choice. I’ve had to do that before, so I didn’t envy him. I reckon he pulled it off better than I did to be honest. It’s all about committing and owning it, and he did, arse pads and all.