How Romesh Ranganathan overcame troubled past after homeless struggle & why humour pulled him through tragic death shock

IT’S a family bond that has seen them face heartbreaking betrayal, homelessness and a tragic death – now Romesh Ranganathan and his mum Shanthi have become a favourite TV double act.

Postal worker Shanthi is fast becoming a celebrity in her own right and has a starring role in the 46-year-old comedian’s new prime-time comedy series Parents Evening, cementing their position as mum and son comedy double act.

And Romesh says the huge changes he and his family experienced during his turbulent childhood are what led him to a career in comedy.

“Three things happened very, very quickly,” he told DJ Annie Mac on her podcast Changes.

“One was that our house got repossessed because my mum and dad couldn’t keep up the payments anymore. 

“My mum also found out that my dad had been seeing another woman for quite a while so their relationship was thrown into turmoil. My dad got arrested and sent to prison. 

“Those three things happened very, very quickly. It went from being proper textbook, comfortable childhood. And then everything just went very, very quickly. [Everything] kind of got turned upside-down.”

Family betrayal

Romesh’s parents moved to the UK from Sri Lanka in 1970. He was born in Crawley, West Sussex eight years later.

The family was doing well enough to afford to send Romesh and his little brother Dinesh to private school.

However, when Romesh was 12, his father Ranga announced that he was leaving Shanthi for another woman.

Just a few months later, Ranga was arrested for fraud and sent to prison for two years.

It led to the family’s home being repossessed and they were forced to live in a local B&B for 18 months before finally moving to a council house.

“My dad went to prison. My mum, brother and I ended up in one room in a B&B. I didn’t have a sofa – the view of the telly was from the bed,” he told the Radio Times.

While his parents were desperately trying to find a way to pay for boys’ tuition fees, Romesh was so ashamed of his home he resorted to getting a friend’s mum to drop him off elsewhere so nobody would find where he lived.

“It was like that scene where Rodney from Only Fools and Horses gets dropped off at a different house because he’s too ashamed to show Cassandra where he really lives,’ he told Annie Mac.

“That’s what I did. I asked them to drop me off at this house down the road and then waited on the driveway for them to go.”

He eventually moved to a comprehensive school – where he would later go onto teach before quitting to pursue his comedy career.

But he later revealed he was happy to move on because he was being bullied. “Without getting too dark, I was racially abused. So, I wasn’t that bothered about leaving,” he said. 

There was more heartache to come for the family. Upon his release from prison, dad Ranga started running a pub in Grinstead, East Sussex, before suddenly dying of a heart attack.

It was his brother Dinesh who found their dad but Romesh says it was the family’s dark sense of humour that helped them to deal with the tragedy.

Speaking about his mental health struggles on the Original Penguin X Campaign Against Living Miserably Under the Surface podcast, Romesh said: “Sometimes you can use humour to deflect and that’s something to be aware of. 

“I think it can be really useful. I have a very dark sense of humour, and my family have a very dark sense of humour. 

“For example, when my dad passed away, my brother came home and found my dad collapsed after he had a heart attack and passed away. 

“I turned up and immediately started crying and the next day we were round at my mum’s house and dealing with the aftermath of that and people coming round. 

“My brother subjected me to a 10 minute roast about the sounds I make when I cry. 

“And we were properly laughing about it. He goes, ‘Listen man, we’ve got to talk about some of the sounds that you were making, it was mad! I’ve never heard noises like that come out of a person!’ and we just started laughing about it. 

“And I know it sounds super dark but that almost felt cathartic. We were going through this horrible thing, but you can still find light in it and we can still joke.”

Money feud

Despite their shared dark comedy, Romesh and Dinesh fell out over money problems after their father’s death.

Romesh had left teaching to try and make it as a comedian, and wasn’t making any money.

After his dad passed away, the family finances were precarious.

“My dad passing away caused massive problems with me and my brother,” Romesh explained. “We had this situation where we found out our financial situation was a house of cards, and we weren’t sure what was going to happen to the house.

“At the same time I wasn’t making any money from comedy, and it was a really high-pressure situation. My brother felt like I wasn’t doing enough to help out.”

But the brothers later repaired their rift – which was no doubt a huge relief for mum Shanthi.

Romesh credits his tough life experiences for giving him the perfect grounding as a comedian, saying he wouldn’t have been as successful if he hadn’t been through the mill.

It went from being proper textbook, comfortable childhood. And then everything just went very, very quickly

Romesh Ranganathan

He told Annie Mac: “I don’t think I would have been a comedian if I hadn’t had gone through what I’ve gone through. I do think there is something in it. 

“You look at the very best comedians, the people that really, really have changed it or amazing at what they do and they’re just wired slightly incorrectly. 

“The best comedy routine is when somebody takes something you know and looks at in a completely different way. And in order to be able to do that, you have to have a brain that is wired like that.

“That is what pain does, it kind of spins you out a little bit, kind of puts you in a different mindset.”

It was whilst working at Hazelwick School as a maths teacher that he met wife Leesa, a drama teacher. They married in 2009 and have three sons together Alex, Charlie and Theo.

He often uses his family in his jokes, however, any material that references his wife is said to require strict approval. 

He once said that his mum brings over “care packages” of food to his house after Leesa has cooked a meal.

He also joked that the secret to their lasting marriage is the fact that his job means he isn’t at home very often.

He said: “The key to a happy marriage is myself being absent for long periods of time.”

Leesa even gave birth on the other side of the country thanks to Romesh’s career – having Charlie at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary while Romesh was performing at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

He added: “If my comedy gigs petered out and I was around the house more, we’d 100 per cent be getting divorced. As a husband, I’m much more appealing when I’m not actually there at all.”