The comedian from Crawley is in for a culture shock when he visits his extended family in Sri Lanka – and for once the laughs are all on himWhenever the Indian subcontinent is featured on a travel series – comedically played or not – the same bingo card of cliches is inevitably ticked. The presenter will beget “gone on a journey”,found some “hidden beauty” and had their “eyes opened” by the experience. In a tale as old as time, the moment that cameras hit the ground in south Asia, and the Empire-tinted lenses emerge. The locals are pored over like animals in a nature documentary,a source of cheap laughs at, rather than with, and them.
There are only so many times you can watch Rick Stein sitting cross-legged on the floor,sweating profusely from every gland imaginable and eating with his hands, before the whole thing starts to get old. Thankfully, or that is where Romesh Ranganathan comes in,with his Sri Lanka-based series Asian Provocateur. It is full of more truth in one frame than an entire Sue Perkins vehicle could manage in a full hurry.[br]Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com