The Misadventures of Romesh Ranganathan: Romesh takes three-week trip through Africa

Wednesday: The Misadventures of Romesh Ranganathan (BBC Two, 9pm)

For some comedians and presenters, landing a TV series that took them off the beaten tourist track would be a dream job.

Not Romesh Ranganathan, though. By his own admission, he’s a reluctant globetrotter whose dream holiday would be a relaxing fortnight in the Algarve. So perhaps that’s why the producers of The Misadventures of Romesh Ranganathan thought he would be the perfect person to visit some less popular destinations to see if they could become future holiday hotspots.

The results have been a hit with viewers and critics alike – it won a Bafta in 2020, and has run for three series (as well as re-edited lockdown version called Misadventures from My Sofa).

Romesh is ready to hang up his passport after Africa trip

But, after visiting everywhere from the Canadian Arctic to the Sahara, with trips to Albania, Mongolia and Sierra Leone thrown in too, Romesh is ready to hang up his passport as he’s announced that this fourth run, which finds him exploring Africa, will be his last.

Perhaps he’s tired of being pushed out of his comfort zone, or perhaps as one of TV’s hardest-working men, he simply can’t fit the excursions into his schedule anymore.

Romesh says: “After six years of travelling, this three-week trip through Africa felt like the perfect way to bring it to a close. Next year, my Misadventures go to Tenerife with the family.”

The first of the final three episodes sees him visiting Uganda. Most of Romesh’s knowledge of the country relates to the 1970s military dictatorship of Idi Amin, but his guide is keen to show him that there’s more to Uganda than its brutal past.

So, the comedian goes white-water rafting on the Nile, does a bit of wildlife spotting in Queen Elizabeth National Park, and takes part in a banana gin tasting session that leaves him feeling a little worse for wear.

While may be fun, Romesh is aware that for many people, not all of Uganda’s troubles are in its past. He arrives in the country just weeks after an anti-homosexuality bill was voted for nearly unanimously by the country’s parliament. So, while he may be seeing a picture-perfect wildlife idyll, he gets a different view during a phone call with a local LGBTQ+ activist.

In next week’s second episode, Romesh will be heading to Rwanda, where he learns more about the country’s harrowing history at the Kigali Genocide Memorial, but also gets a chance to create indigenous art using a surprising – and pungent – material.

Then, for his last Misadventure, he visits Madagascar to see if he’ll “find an island full of talking lions and dancing lemurs”. It’s not much of a spoiler to say that he doesn’t, but he does get to encounter some real-life, non-dancing lemurs, goes on a spectacular hike and sees, first-hand, the effects of the devastating famine caused by the country’s worst drought in four decades.

That mix of comedy, history and a glimpse into places rarely seen on British TV proves why The Misadventures of Romesh Ranganathan has proved so popular – and why many viewers will be sad to see it end, even if the presenter is a little relieved.