Romesh & Shanthi React To Idris Elba's Apology

21:53Romesh Ranganathan:does it feel like what the hell Yeah, go on, go on, Ben. Now, does it feel like there's something left still unfulfilled, though? Yeah, yeah. Like, this is a great first step. Yeah, I want to see him in person, and I don't mind apologising to him, and give him all my blessing. Can I say something quite controversial? Yeah. And you and the menagerie won't agree with me or like this, okay? If I was him, I wouldn't come on the podcast. Yeah, you are, you! Why would you say that? what do you think you are what do you think what do I think I am if it happened like that I wouldn't have come to the podcast what the fuck is sorry no it's alright it's okay don't start showing self-awareness now at this late stage it is otherwise not like that that day you are saying nothing happened like that the way you imagined yeah it did happen I all psyched up and I wanted to see him and he said some other chap, gentleman or whatever, I don't want to say the bad word, and said something and he walked off.

23:00Romesh Ranganathan:Yeah, so the other person you don't want to say a bad thing about, Tom Hiddleston? You are so special to me. Both of you, Ramesh and Dinesh, okay? Okay, I was about to say Idris. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

23:15So, somebody ignored you. It hurt me. That's why all this...

23:20Romesh Ranganathan:Okay, I can't get into this again but he did not ignore me I'm not a liar but that was a misunderstanding and Shanti is a very protective mum mum has distorted the information I don't know if she had an accident or something but she's remembered the story differently anyway the point I'm trying to make is Idris sent us a hamper he didn't need to do that and if I was a betting man I wouldn't bet on him coming on the podcast but you would invite him now would you? Idris I'd love you to come on the podcast I don't see why you would and I could understand completely if you refused from your point of view but we would love to have you on the podcast but equally Would you go to a party if someone invited you to it like that?

23:58Romesh Ranganathan:Would I go to a party if the host mother had wanted me off publicly on a podcast? Probably not. What's the value? I'll be honest. Point and counterpoint. Anyway, I shouldn't have said that. We would do like a special like record for him. We'd put a third chair in. Yeah. Oh my god Imagine if he's listening to this now He's like fucking hell Put me in the car He's heading Winging his way over I'll get a chair

24:37Romesh Ranganathan:No sorry guys I know I said I wouldn't do the podcast But apparently they'll get me a chair I thought I was going to have to squat

24:45You're putting him down now

24:46Romesh Ranganathan:I'm not putting him down You are You're totally misunderstood You are not in race. How do you know what he's going to say? Are you predicting? I'm just, I'm speculating. But it'd be the first. Why he won't come? What's the, just an answer. I've been very crystal clear about it. What is it? You went in on him, two footed. He didn't do anything wrong. You really annihilated him on this podcast. You said you hate him. I hate him. A direct quote, and we can VAR this if needs be. when he appears on the TV in his advert, I change the channel. It is. I hate him. Oh. When the advertisement comes on the telly, I switch it off.

25:27Romesh Ranganathan:So you've said all of that completely apropos of nothing. He's done nothing wrong. And then, now he's sent a hamper, suddenly I love him. He's not going to come on the book. Not because of the hamper. Not because... So if the hamper hadn't have come, you would have done the apology, would you? If he...

25:48if he agreed to come in our podcast why does he have to do something for you to apologise I want to see him in person now we get to the bottom of it

25:59Romesh Ranganathan:you want to see him I want to see him yes why not what's wrong with that there's nothing wrong with that but that's not a reason for him to come on you behave like that you are a resolver I won't go why not I've said it. Anyway, the point is he's not going to come on. Idris, you're a legend. I love everything you do. So does mum. We'd love to have you on the podcast. Please come on. But you won't. Okay. Now for a special part of today's show. Gentlemen, don't do that. It's a beautiful invitation. He will accept it. Okay. Take my word for it. All right. I will do it. He won't. Now for a special part of today's show.

26:42Romesh Ranganathan:Stories That Make You Feel and it's brought to you by Hulu on Disney+. So we've all been there, getting all emotional in front of the screen. Laughter, tears, joy. Mum, have you and I ever cried watching something in front of you? No, never, never. You don't cry in front of me. You must have cried on your own. You've definitely made me cry. After I've been round, I go home and cry for a bit. Why? What did I say to you to become emotional? Just, you know, we have some. Like what? Just, I don't know. Look, I don't know. I'll have to, I can't remember now, but I'll talk to my therapist and get him to give me the files.

27:20Romesh Ranganathan:Today, mum and I are going to dig into what Hulu stories have really made us feel something. Mum, only murders in the building. Have you watched it? No. Okay. So it's set in one building in New York. Steve Martin, Martin Short, Selena Gomez, the three of them are like how it starts off at the very beginning of the first series they're all staying in this building different apartments and there's a murder in the building hence the name and they basically end up through a series of kind of uh different things happening they end up starting to investigate it themselves um and it is uh i think it's as close to a perfect shows you can get it is okay there is a bit so basically they they what's so good about it is one um you know like when you read like a really good cozy crime book that is like it's it's cozy crime like really kind of you're invested in um in like them solving the murder but also it's just it's so funny it's it's so incredibly fun there was a moment in the first series first season where Steve Martin, he's kind of been like anesthetized or something.

28:41Romesh Ranganathan:And so they're wheeling him around, right? And he's just got his legs up like this and he's just flopping about. His face and his physical position in that one scene was funnier than my career. I could not believe how funny it was. It is so... That show is incredible. It is incredible. And then it's got so many like twists. It's really good that the misdirect in that show is unbelievable. It's great. It's a Romy recommend. I mean that. I think you should watch it. In fact, I think... What's the title? I forgot. Only Murders in the Building. Only Murders in the Building. Only Murders in the... Building.

29:20Romesh Ranganathan:I think we should watch Only Murders in the Building together. And then I can explain it to you. Okay. I'm ready. I'm retired. I'm waiting for my son to invite me. Free for you. My time is for you, but you never invite me. Okay, cool. Make sure you check out A Lifetime of Great Stories with Hulu on Disney+. Copyright 2026, Disney and its related entities. 18 plus subscription is required. Teens share everything. That may include the bacteria that can cause meningococcal disease known as meningitis. Even if your teen's been vaccinated in the past, they could still be missing meningitis vaccinations.

29:59Romesh Ranganathan:Ask your teen's doctor or visit meningitis.com today. Sponsored by GSK. Happy? I'm happy. It's time for... We need a jingle for this. Shall I make one up now? You could. Listener questions, listener questions. Looking for some queries and suggestions. I did some. That's good. It's good. What do you think, Shanti? No. Okay. You knew that was going to happen, didn't you? I had no idea. Do you want to come up with a jingle, Mum? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, okay, go on. No, both of us. Okay, well, why don't you start?

30:38Romesh Ranganathan:What do I say? Well, just try and make up a song that's called Listener Questions. No. Okay, cool. Thank you so much. That's improv.

30:53Romesh Ranganathan:It's like being in Second City. A lot of people do Yes And. One does, Nor Because.

31:03Romesh Ranganathan:All right. So we move on to listener questions. Keep sending us your WhatsApp messages and voice notes to 07731 623355 or email podcast at rangaby.com. And don't forget, if you haven't already, please like and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. It really means a lot to us. Now, the team have asked me to pass on an important message. And sorry to get serious for a moment, but it's in relation to a listener question we had from a few weeks ago. They're quite upset about it. please could you not send any more photographs of your toenails. Okay? We had a discussion a while back. A while back?

31:38Romesh Ranganathan:We had a discussion a while back. It's like the Australia special all over again. We had a discussion a while back about toenail fluff, and we queered whether it's real. We do understand it's real. The team are actually getting quite upset. Every time they go to check the emails, then there's a picture of a toenail. One of them has got like a real sort of phobia. So please don't upset the chimps. Okay, we have got a voice note from Matt with one T. Okay, let's hear it. What's going on? Just watched the latest episode and that picture of Shanti. Shit! She was a killer back in the day. How did Ramesh come out of that?

32:24She was breaking hearts. so uh my question on the back of that is uh my wife uh we're kind of entering into our 40s early 30s moving into the 40s and uh she likes she tends to go on about plastic surgery a lot kind of not afraid to age you could say and uh i think my i'm wondering how how have you shanti uh dealt with aging gracefully as you have um not so gracefully for you romesh something you've dealt with your whole life but shanti you've aged very well but aging happens to us all how's that something you struggled with is that something you had to process yourself or was it just natural and you were fine with it?

33:23Thanks, Matt.

33:26Romesh Ranganathan:Matt, fuck you for getting in touch. Can I tell you the thing I enjoyed the least about that voice note? But in all seriousness, thank you for your voice note, Matt. I'm sorry that I'm so appalling to look at. I don't mind you complimenting my mum about how attractive she was. I would love it if you sounded less breathy when you were doing it. Okay? That's the honest truth.

34:03Romesh Ranganathan:Because this is how it sounded. Her arm. Oh, God, your mum was a... Fucking hell, she was a cracker back in the day, wasn't she? Oh! She's fucking not like you, not like you. She's so fit.

34:26Romesh Ranganathan:Anyway, thanks for your message. Mum, how have you dealt with ageing? We know that you don't really like to talk about your age. But I think it's fair to say, a lot of comments on the podcast about how great you look. Yeah. So is that something you're conscious of? I mean, obviously you take a lot of effort with your appearance. I do. From my school days, I loved to wear nice clothes. But in my head it came that if you want to wear nice clothes, you have to be slim and fit. So I started following. Then I came here, came to England. I used to read a lot of magazines. They say, you take these vitamins, you take that vitamins and look after your hair.

35:18I'll give you one advice. If you want to have your hair, have zinc. I haven't taken zinc for a long time. Even with the difficult period, I looked after myself. Another thing I thought, I have to be alive for my boys. So I really, really looked after myself and ate the right food. I didn't eat any, all this rubbish food like cakes and things. And I did look after myself.

35:48Romesh Ranganathan:But now, obviously you're, what, 75, 76. So how are you? I'm not 70, fucking 76. Why do you raise my age? What pleasure do you get? Well, that's fun.

36:05Romesh Ranganathan:but do you ever like have you ever as you've got older started to become paranoid about how I was how aging is how aging is affecting your looks does that bother you at all it does bother me it does bother me so have you done anything to try and to slow that down or counteract that I have I have been doing it yeah I have been doing it but I can't tell you what it is okay you had a facelift year before last didn't you I never had face lift. Okay. Do I look like alien? No. But was it 2009 full BBL, wasn't it?

36:46Please don't believe what Romesh says. I've never done anything like that. Mum, I don't think it's anything to be ashamed of.

36:53Romesh Ranganathan:Do you not remember? What? When you came around, you go, do you think I've got more junk in the trunk? I do exercise for my bum. Yeah. I do. I do. Yeah. So are you against plastic surgery? I am against plastic surgery. There's natural things that you can keep your skin young. But if somebody can afford it and they feel self-conscious about something and they're worried about something and they get it changed, there's nothing wrong with that, is there? If I'm saying the wrong thing, I want all of you to forgive me. So many celebrities, they have so much money. Yeah. They don't look young. When the age comes, it starts to show.

37:35Romesh Ranganathan:Yeah. So it's a God's gift to look after your skin and things from young age. But you can't be in ageing. Just accept. Keep your heart happy, man. You try that. Everything will work out. Good advice. Yeah. I'm not against plastic surgery. I don't want you to have plastic surgery. Okay. If you want to correct your eye, that's fine. but for the face it'll be like this, isn't it? Yeah, that's what I want. That does look nice. What's up, little bitches? Welcome to the Thursday edition of the Robert Shrag and Nathan Show. I'm here with my mum, Shanti. How's that look? Is it a little better? Horrible.

38:22Romesh Ranganathan:You should do a bit more at the top as well. Yeah. Alright. Yeah. How's that? Do I look younger? Yeah, you do. You know what I want to get? The little tear trough. Get all that sorted out. I look like a fucking panda. Naturally, you can do that. Huh? Naturally, you can do it. You can't. Not in as quick a way as you can do with... What I'm saying is, look, I'm not going to get plastic surgery, but I wouldn't be against it. If I suddenly got to a point where I thought, do you know what I mean? I'm just going to... I would get it. Rameen, if you have your stomach flat and keep skin. Every day you clean your skin and do the facial exercise, you'll be winning.

39:05Romesh Ranganathan:Okay. Thank you so much for your voice note, Matt. I thought, I mean, you were sort of joking about how, I'm hoping you were joking about how hideous you think I am. But just have a think about the fact that people that host podcasts are people as well. All right? I have self-esteem and personal issues. and when you sort of voice note in, you know, about how fit someone's mum is while you're clearly masturbating, it's insulting, okay? And people who work on podcasts as well. Would you be? We're all people. We're all people. We're all people. I think you play fast and loose with the word people there.

39:46Romesh Ranganathan:Fucking monkeys. Okay. We've got a WhatsApp message from Carolyn and an accompanying photo. So, what the fuck? It's going in and out by itself now. This is a Bumble dating profile. And now it looks like I'm on Bumble. It's a man in his, is this his main photo? Yeah, would be. Okay, let's hear it. So it's a picture of me next to a man. Hi, Ramesh and Shanthi. Huge fan of pretty much everything you do. I want to take this opportunity to thank you for being a constant source of fun and inspiration in my life. You're very welcome. What a beautiful opening to that message, Mum. Yeah, beautiful, darling.

40:28I love it.

40:28Romesh Ranganathan:You know, think about that, Matt. Yeah. Question. As you can see whilst browsing on my dating platform yesterday, I was stopped in my swiping tracks when I saw your face as a possible match and definitely paused for a moment while my brain functioned that it wasn't your profile but the gentleman next to you. Disappointing, to be honest. I've been divorced for six years now. I'm 47. Although happy and settled on my own, it would be nice to start dating, but I find myself in the habit of swiping in the evenings almost as a pastime or game on my phone. It's so irritating when men put multiple people in their profile and they have to work out who you're attempting to be attracted to.

41:03Romesh Ranganathan:I know you haven't done online data. Have any tips on how I can try and stay invested either online or in real life? I don't hate men at all. Quite the opposite. Shanthi, how do you decide whether to bother or not or just leave it to the universe? Ramesh, how do you feel about being on someone's profile pic? Thanks for any advice. Carolyn, so mum, that is the photo. So the guy on the right, that's his dating profile. And he's used that picture. What do you think? That's bad. I don't like it at all. Why did you put your picture next to him? Well, look, there's two ways of looking at it. One's incredibly positive.

41:41Romesh Ranganathan:One's incredibly negative. The positive one is that he thinks that I have some sort of cachet and that posting up a photo of him next to me suggests that he's a mover and shaker and that might make him more attractive. The other more negative interpretation of that is people often say you're more attractive when you're next to someone ugly. And he's thought, if I put myself next to Romesh, and I think Matt, our previous messenger, would probably agree on this, then I look a little bit better. That's the other interpretation of why he's done that. I leave it up to you to decide which. Do you know him?

42:20Romesh Ranganathan:Do I know him? Yeah. No. Oh. No. You're not friends? No, I'm not friends, no. No. He's obviously, I think it's, can I, I'll be honest with you, I think it's a weird thing to do. I think it's strange. I don't see how, but to be, to give it context, I don't understand, I actually don't understand, for adults, I don't understand why any adult asks to get a picture with anybody, is the genuine truth. In terms of like a celebrity, I'm happy to do it. I don't understand the psychology behind it. Like if you're in a shop and you see somebody you recognize and you like, I don't get asking them for a photo.

43:00Romesh Ranganathan:I don't understand that. And I certainly wouldn't put it on a dating profile. Why did he put you, a graphic lady? Would that make more sense? It's his dating profile. He's putting himself out to tender. Oh, right. Yeah, okay. And so he's like, he's going, by the way, Ben, I'm seeing what you're doing. Why did you just close up on my face so intensely there? I slipped when I did it. You didn't slip. Look, why? You've just... I think you didn't think I could see the screen, but you really, really... And you're doing it again. You closed in right on my face. Why? You look very different, that's all.

43:42Romesh Ranganathan:Well, that was my play here. Today you look exceptionally good. You do look great. Yeah, I must admit that. And you took some time to do your face and the hair. Who done your hair? Well, I've got my hair. Actually, nobody's really commented. I've cut my hair really short to make it lower maintenance. You like it? You prefer it? You look so good. Thanks. It's because I just thought I'm getting older now. Who gives a fuck about my hair? I know what I mean. You don't look after yourself sometimes. So I used this opportunity to tell you, oil your body oil my body then I'm not a pharaoh no you try that have a bath after that sorry it doesn't really relate if you can't hear that anyway carry on oil my body oil your body oil your body oil your body yeah and do the facial exercise yeah why do you not think I look after this eat lots of nuts my son nuts.

44:47What's that? Oh my God, the nut's name is not coming.

44:51Romesh Ranganathan:Hazel? Walnut. Walnut. Walnut. It looks like a brain. Yeah. For your brain function, have plenty of nuts. Yeah. Sunflower seeds. Yeah. And so many other nuts that grind it and make it. I got it at home. Yeah. Little brown nuts. Nuts and dates. Yeah. I have one bowl every single day. One bowl of nuts and dates. Yeah. Who told you to do that? I learned back home. Okay. Yeah, from my mum. Okay, but the other thing you learned back home from your mum was to feed your dogs curry, which has been pointed out to us as incredibly dangerous. They loved it. They, honestly, all men, fish curry, everything.

45:31They loved it.

45:32Romesh Ranganathan:But apparently onions are toxic to dogs. They didn't die. No. Well, they did eventually, didn't they? They're not still alive, are they? No. No. I mean, how many years ago? 40 years ago. Well, how long were they supposed to live and how long did they live? But when my mum left Sri Lanka and came to stay with me, she wasn't happy, she had a stroke and everything. The dog, the following day, he died. What do you mean? Looking for my mum. Oh, okay. Very sad he was, and he died. Mum, you've made it quite clear on a number of occasions you're out of the dating game, aren't you? I have got in my head what kind of man I need.

46:13I still haven't found one. The shape, the size, the height, everything.

46:19Romesh Ranganathan:The sort of man who might maybe send you a hamper. How have you not made the connection what John's going at? The hamper. The sort of man that might send you a hamper. No. It is too exceptionally good looking. Too good looking for you? Yeah. Really? Too good looking for me. Such a turnaround. Idris, who'd have thought? Just a hamper that was clearly on clearance on the website. I am not talking because he sent me hamper. The way you are creating the story. I'm not. I'm creating the story. You are. This is wild behaviour from you. So nice of him. Yeah. And to say sorry that it happened. Yeah. And I misunderstood.

47:04I don't fall for the hamper. I've genuinely...

47:08Romesh Ranganathan:Tough shit, Idris. You didn't fall for it, dumbass. You tried it, but mum don't play that shit. You failed. What do you mean fall for it? I used the wrong word. Oh, right. At the kindness of his heart, he sent the hamper. Anyway, John was saying, do you fancy Idris? You clearly do, but you think he's too... I don't fancy. Because I always think about my age. Yeah. Why would I fancy a younger man? then it's not right it's not right but Tom Selleck or someone like that Tom Selleck anyway forget hypotheticals you're out of the dating game but that's not to say that you should be Karen you know okay can I just say very quickly because we're almost out of time here but one of the big negatives of dating profile or whatever the apps is that you start treating people as disposable.

48:06Romesh Ranganathan:I think that's the big thing of it. So that's what's happened to you. You're scrolling through like it's TikTok. Do you know what I mean? So I would, if I had any advice to you, that not I've ever been on one of those, it could be in my future, the way things go, not that I've ever been on one of those. But what I would say is, you know, invest a bit more time in looking at those people as individuals rather than just, you know, things. And if you do, what I would also love you to do is could you get in touch with that guy, maybe match with him, and then when he invites you to message, say, Ramesh Ranganathan does not approve you using his photo in your profile picture.

48:44Romesh Ranganathan:Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. We should stop that, shouldn't we? Yeah, that's not nice at all. No, horrible. You could sue him. I don't think you can. Why? Why, man? I don't understand this system. Yeah. He used your photograph in his profile picture. Yeah. I don't think that's right. You can sue him. You can't. Who told you that? Well, there's not the... Because they haven't passed anything in the legal system that's called the Shanti Doesn't Think It's Right law. It actually has to be based on an actual law. I've got a feeling in my waters about this. Oh, well, in that case, we'll rule in your favour.

49:22Romesh Ranganathan:It's not illegal what he's done. Okay. I didn't know that. Okay, well, listen, this episode is petering out like the end of a pop record. that is all we have time for thank you so much for joining us see you next week guys see you next week love you all love you all

49:44Romesh Ranganathan:come on the show Idris see you later come on Idris Idris is the best we'll put your chair Idris Idris Idris Idris Idris Idris come on Idris Idris Idris Idris he will come I'm going to bed thinking about it he will definitely come if he doesn't come I'll go and get him okay cool that's cool so that's you know what I love to do is I love to finish the ep with a kidnap threat thanks for listening thank you thank you so much for watching and listening to this episode. Before you go, if you've enjoyed this episode and you've not subscribed, that's a bold decision. Crazy behavior. Follow and subscribe to the Romesh Ranganathan show wherever you listen.

50:38Romesh Ranganathan:It helps me, really, like really helps me. It helps the team and it costs you absolutely nothing. We drop episodes every Monday and Thursday. Mondays I'm joined by great guests. Thursdays my mum, Shanti, joins me to answer your questions and family dilemmas. We'll see you Monday with another great guest and back here with mum on Thursday. If you've got a problem you want to solve or a story you want to share, send it to podcast at rangaby.com, voice not or text us on 07731 623 355. We can't promise good advice, but you might end up on the show. See you soon.