A curiously engaging and well-balanced show with a very hard to describe format. Essentially, it's a chat show, between Romesh, two celebrities/comedians and about twenty random members of the British public. Also his mum. Sort of like an inverse Gogglebox.
The discussions are usually topically and frequently mundane - but Romesh's bracingly open banter and the diverse quirks of his "hand-picked" nation help smoothe it into something genuinely very fun to watch. In the first series there was also a strangely placed celebrity "note taker" who sat amidst the crowd which didn't seem particularly necessary.
Forced due to circumstance to operate via multiple video calls for the second series onward the format got a strange new vitality and became weirdly comforting - like a weekly hang-out with friends. I've heard a few people referring to it like that and in increasingly fraught times there's something oddly cathartic about it all. I'm adamant that they need his actual gang in the title sequence though - not that bundle of actors. I want Pride of Wales jumping out of a helicopter and like... Wheeler Dealer doing flips.
The discussions are usually topically and frequently mundane - but Romesh's bracingly open banter and the diverse quirks of his "hand-picked" nation help smoothe it into something genuinely very fun to watch. In the first series there was also a strangely placed celebrity "note taker" who sat amidst the crowd which didn't seem particularly necessary.
Forced due to circumstance to operate via multiple video calls for the second series onward the format got a strange new vitality and became weirdly comforting - like a weekly hang-out with friends. I've heard a few people referring to it like that and in increasingly fraught times there's something oddly cathartic about it all. I'm adamant that they need his actual gang in the title sequence though - not that bundle of actors. I want Pride of Wales jumping out of a helicopter and like... Wheeler Dealer doing flips.
