...and why she was on painkillers for the whole shoot

Aisling Bea has told how she struggled to kiss Romesh Ranganathan on screen, because they were such good mates.

Bea appears in the new series of Ranganathan’s BBC  sitcom Avoidance – but said their 15-year friendship  made it 'totally harder’ to be intimate.

‘It’s all about a man going through a divorce and then in comes my character in series two – sparks fly,’ she tells Jonathan Ross on his ITV1 talk show, which airs tomorrow.

‘The two of us had one scene where we had to kiss for the first time for as long as Jessica Knappett [who plays Ranganathan’s  ex wife], who is an amazing actress, came in the back and we’d split our heads apart and Jess would be there.

‘It took longer for her to open the door than we thought! I knew I was doing bad kissing.

‘When they finally called "cut". I said "You’re not going to tell Josh Widdicombe, James Acaster and all the lads about us kissing are you?".’

Bea also explained that she was recovering from surgery at the time of filming, to fix a shoulder injury sustained  when she got knocked off her bike during lockdown.

‘I was supposed to have keyhole surgery on my shoulder from an accident two days before [filmimg] but when I went in, they found out my arm was hanging off,’ she said. 

‘They had to go in and totally reconstruct my shoulder while I was asleep.  We were scheduled to film for a week and a half. Out of my head on painkillers. I just remember it as one long day. We had to make my sling part of the character but I really couldn’t move very much.’

• The Jonathan Ross Show airs tomorrow on ITV1 and ITVX, while Avoidance series two is available to view on BBC iPlayer now.

Published: 12 Apr 2024