Meet the Hosts: Rob Beckett & Romesh Ranganathan

Comedy duo Rob Beckett and Romesh Ranganathan are bringing their good humour and natural bon ami to this year’s ceremony as joint hosts.

BAFTA portrait 2023

BAFTA/Rachell Smith

While Rob Beckett and Romesh Ranganathan are not a traditional television doubleact, in the same way that the legendary Morecambe and Wise, French and Saunders or Vic and Bob are, they nevertheless make quite the comedy duo.

As demonstrated in five seasons of the BAFTA-nominated Rob & Romesh Vs (2019-), Ranganathan’s dry humour and acerbic realism complements Beckett’s more joyful exuberance and quick-witted optimism, making for entertaining television.

Together, the challenges they have faced include training with the England football team, taking on various Olympic sports with Team GB, fashion modelling, drag performing, creating art and learning ballet, to name a few. Despite the nonstop ribbing, their friendship clearly shines through.

BAFTA portrait 2023

BAFTA/Rachell Smith

It’s an onscreen chemistry born out of their off-screen friendship that developed on the standup comedy circuit. They have known each other for more than a decade, coming through the comedy club system at the same time, often meeting at various open mic gigs when starting out. That must seem like a lifetime ago now, given how the British public has embraced their comedy and their ever broadening output.

Their obvious talent saw them break into television around the same time too, becoming regular guests on such panel shows as 8 Out of 10 Cats..., Have I Got News for You and A League of Their Own – the latter hosted by Ranganathan since 2020. As two of the UK’s top comics, both have also naturally featured on Taskmaster, albeit in different seasons – Ranganathan competed in season one (2015), with Beckett going on to win its third season (2016).

Rob Beckett at the BAFTA Television Awards 2021

BAFTA/Charlie Clift

More recently, Ranganathan has been host of The Weakest Link (2021-) and has co-written sitcom Romantic Getaway (2023) with comic Katherine Ryan, which they also both star in. Ranganathan has steadily been building up his acting credentials, including supporting roles in comedy series King Gary (2020-2021) and feature film Cinderella (2021). His stand-up special, The Cynic, filmed in his hometown of Crawley, was recently released on Netflix. It’s supported by a 30-minute making of... documentary, too.

Beckett, meanwhile, hosted celebrity couples challenge series Unbreakable (2022), served as a judge on celebrity drag competition Queens for the Night (2022) and has a weekly slot on BBC Radio Two (2022-). His touring podcast with fellow comic Josh Widdicombe, Parenting Hell, is one of the biggest in the UK, with 3.5 million downloads a month. A bestselling book based on the podcast was released at the end of 2022.

Romesh Ranganathan with his award at the BAFTA Television Awards 2021

BAFTA/Charlie Clift

This evening, the dynamic duo are taking on BAFTA’s Television Awards – they already have form with live shows, having successfully co-hosted the Royal Variety Performance in 2019. They also both have experience of attending BAFTA’s Awards: Beckett has been a citation reader at the Games Awards in 2014, 2015 and 2018 as well as the Television Awards in 2021; while Ranganathan has won twice, for The Misadventures of Romesh Ranganathan in 2020 and The Ranganation in 2021.

Hosting an Awards show is clearly well within their skillset. Let’s just cross our fingers they’re not helping with the dinner service after the show –we all remember the comedy of errors that was Rob & Romesh Vs Restaurants.

WORDS: Toby Weidmann