There's going to be a blank square where my mum should be...
For those who aren’t familiar with it, could you tell us a bit about the show?
The show is essentially myself and couple of celebrity guests, looking at news and things that are pricking the public's conscience, all with the help of 20 members of the British public. They come from all different walks of life - we try and get as broad a cross section of people as we can so that we get a full range of views.
We basically navigate our way through what's happened in the week. Some of that might be political - like in the last series we talked about the Tory leadership race - but it’s more likely to be to be non-political, just things that are bothering people.
For example, there was a survey we did last series about whether people specifically wash their legs or not in the shower. It turns out that a lot more people than I thought just presume it’s going to be naturally taken care of.
One of the highlights of the last series was that one of the members of the Ranganation, Metalhead, revealed he got a tattoo of me on his leg. Then on the last episode I got a tattoo of him on my leg to reveal to him and it was a lovely little moment. He's convinced that it wasn't real, but I can promise it is. I do have his silhouette on my leg.
What can we expect from the ‘lockdown version’ of The Ranganation?
All of the essential ingredients will be exactly the same as normal. So we're going to have the Ranganation, we're going to have my mum and we're going to have special guests. The only difference will be the setting because where doing it from my house.
I do want to point out that on The Ranganation set, the logo is my face. There’s a possibility we’re going to have that on our show, but I want to make it clear I didn't happen to just have that! That is something that’s being sent to me. I’m very concerned that people will think I’m some sort of narcissist with memorabilia lying around the house!
A lot of the old faces will be back, but we also wanted to bring in new people. The Ranganation are the reason that I love the show. I realise it sounds backwards to talk about how the show is about this group of people who you've named after yourself - there’s sort of a faux humility in that. But I do think the show stands and falls by them.
Last series, they were so great, and I think having people that are open to expressing their opinions means we can discuss things properly. Sometimes the conversations and discussions go in a way that you weren't expecting, or people believe things that you didn't think people believe.
So I'm very excited about chatting to them again. They always surprise me. The great thing about all of those guys is they're not trying to say anything for the benefit of TV. They're just saying what they think which is always better.
Do you think there'll be technical challenges working with your mum?
I just can't imagine how it's going to work! I mean I know theoretically she's supposed to be on the show. She’s currently at the stage where she still can't buy stuff off Amazon, and that is one of the most intuitive point-and-click systems in the internet's existence, so the idea that she is going be able to log on to this thing I find incredible.
I think it’s just going to be the Ranganation, my guests and a square that says ‘Shanthi’ on it as we haven’t managed to get her connected. We’re going to have to record her saying things like ‘I didn’t like that’, ‘You should be a lot nicer’, ‘Can you speak more slowly" - just a series of stock phrases that my mum says. Oh, and ‘Shut up!’ – that would be a good one.
W the rest of the family be involved in any of the show and how do they feel about it being filmed from the garage?
Well they have expressed annoyance at me using various parts of the house to broadcast from. I've been doing Facebook Lives and since my kids have got the best internet in the house I've been doing it from their rooms. They’ve found that very annoying.
I think they're fascinated by the idea that we’re going to make a TV show from our house, they find that incredible. They’re going, ‘You’re going to do a TV show from that garage? The garage you and Mum were arguing about clearing out a couple of weeks ago?
If you could invite anyone in the world to join The Ranganation who would it be?
My dream guest would be Sir Patrick Stewart. I think he's a lovely man isn’t he? But also quite opinionated and he’s quite a passionate bloke as well. He’s doing these poetry readings on social media at the moment, I think it’s his way of helping and contributing. So yeah, I think he’d be great.
How do you get ‘show ready’ before filming?
I do have this weird mental exercise. I read about it somewhere, to get yourself mentally sharp you have to, as quickly as possible, think of something that begins with every letter of the alphabet. And then you try and think of 10 boy’s names and 10 girls’ names, it’s really weird. You know like a little jumping up and down before you... like a… warm-up. Warm-up. I can’t believe I couldn’t think of the word ‘warm-up’. But that's essentially what I do every single time. Every gig, every time I'm doing a panel show, I go through that to wake myself up because by my nature I’m so lethargic.
Do you have any ideas what topics - other than the obvious - will be covered in series two?
One of the things I'd like to discuss is our etiquette on social media. I read a book by Jon Ronson, So You've Been Publicly Shamed. It’s about people who’ve been called out on social media for something they tweeted and the judgment and the hate mobs on social media, people really getting enjoyment out of laying in on someone.
I think that’s happened more and more and I think that everybody feels that way. I know we’ve had these ‘Be kind’ things where people are trying to stem the flow of that. I’d be interested to know if the Ranganation feel the same way and if they feel there’s a need to make social media a bit nicer because I feel it’s a bit of a wasteland out there.
How do you hope audiences will react to the new series?
The Ranganation is the ideal type of show for the times that we’re in because you're going to see people discussing the situation and also other things. It’s a combined kind of escapism and also a reaction to what we're going through
In a weird way, the context makes it even more important than in the first series, but also you're going to see me struggle to make the same show in a garage. I mean that's the main reason to watch, I think!
• The Ranganathan returns to BBC Two at 9.15pm on Sunday.
Published: 8 May 2020