Asian Provocateur: Season 1, Episode 2

1 - 2: Uncle Ragu

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 Shanti says - he's a coconut. Sri Lankan on the outside but British on the inside.

Now Shanti 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.

Romesh is sent to Batticloa to meet his Uncle Ragu who has been given a mandate from Romesh's mum. Keen for him to explore the spiritual side of his background, she's given Ragu a long list of things she wants Romesh to do. They visit the village where his Mum grew up and Romesh is slightly taken aback to discover that not only is everyone living there related to him, they're related to each other too.

Ragu and Romesh join a 200km barefoot pilgrimage to Kataragama, where there is a holy festival. Romesh finds himself surrounded by people piercing odd and frankly disturbing body parts and meeting a man possessed by a snake who he thinks might be able to fix his lazy eye.

However, Romesh is quickly leading Ragu astray - persuading him to desert their pilgrimage after an hour because 'his knees hurt' and questioning how good an idea it is to get his mouth speared together at the festival.

Is Romesh going to become the good Tamil boy his mother hopes? Will he uncover a deep-rooted spiritual connection with the land of his forefathers? Or will he remain the perpetual teenager and lead his Uncle Ragu astray?