Rob and Romesh Vs season 7 reunites comedians Rob Beckett and Romesh Ranganathan for a new three-part series and, when What to Watch joins them for an exclusive interview, it’s clear the duo's friendship is stronger than ever. But that doesn't mean they're not going to put it to the test!
Here, Rob, 38, and Romesh, 46, guide us through what’s in store and explain why they’re fired up as they embark on a new set of challenges…
Rob and Romesh Vs season 7 — release date
The first episode of the Rob and Romesh Vs season 7 is available on NOW, Sky Max and Sky Showcase from 9pm on Wednesday 28 August 2024. Subsequent episodes will be available weekly.
Rob and Romesh Vs season 7 — episodes
In this seventh series Rob and Romesh push themselves in three new environments as they take on the worlds of Hollywood Stunts, Heavy Metal and Ultimate Fighting Championship.
Episode 1 — Hollywood Stunts
In this opener Rob and Romesh meet superstars Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt in London, train with their The Fall Guy director, David Leitch in LA, and agree to be set alight by his stunt team in a Universal Studios backlot. Yet, this isn’t the highlight of their Vs Hollywood Stunts outing. The daring duo return home with big plans to show off their new skills on Hollyoaks.
(Check out our interview below for more on this!)
Episode 2 — Heavy Metal
The comedian chums are faced with a completely different challenge for their second outing of season 7 - singing live at the Download UK Festival in front of 50,000 heavy metal fans.
After agreeing to perform Metallica anthem Enter Sandman on stage with Scottish band Bleed From Within, Rob and Romesh set off to learn the iconic song. Fortunately some famous faces are on hand to give them pointers including Queens of the Stone Age and Wheatus. After one drink too many to relax their nerves, will the duo prove a hit with the hard rock crowd or as unpopular as a portaloo after a three-day festival?
Episode 3 — UFC
The lads undertake UFC training with English mixed martial arts professional and UFC champ Leon Edwards. Then it’s off to Los Angeles for a Route 66 road trip to Sin City, AKA Las Vegas, with UFC Hall of Fame legend Michael Bisping for International Fight Week. After grappling with the training method known as Animal Flow, our lads go head-to-head in a UFC challenge on the rooftop of the Eiffel Tower on the Las Vegas strip. Who will know their anaconda choke from their 12-to-6 elbow?
Rob and Romesh Vs season 7 — interview with Rob Beckett and Romesh Ranganathan
You seem to have a lot of fun on this series, but does it test your friendship too?
Rob: “I think doing something very stressful, like being set on fire or performing a song in front of 40,000 heavy metal fans, makes our friendship stronger. I don’t think I could do it without Rom, because he supports me as a friend but he also cracks me up, so it brings us closer together.”
Romesh: “Yes, as we do more of these challenges we take each other right to the very edge and, just as there’s going to be a full breakdown, say something supportive. That’s the formula! Also, as the money goes up, you can’t help feeling it’s worth being friends with each other.”
The series opener takes you from Hollywood to Hollyoaks. What more can you tell us?
Romesh: “It’s the journey that everybody hopes for. A journey that starts with Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt and finishes with us doing a TV stunt on Hollyoaks! We really got on well with Ryan and Emily, but I think they do so much PR they're good at making you feel that you're the only people they've ever spoken to and that you have a connection with them that nobody else has done in an interview. I reckon as soon as they walked out they couldn't even remember it happening.”
Rob: “I mean, we had to sit in a room for three hours waiting for them to pop in for ten minutes, but apart from that we've got on really well. To be honest I was distracted by how sexy and attractive Ryan Gosling is, he has this aura around him. It’s disgusting that a man can wander around being that fit and funny. Normally the fit ones don’t have a personality as well but he does - it’s a joke!”
Romesh: “He must have been ugly when he was younger, you just can't explain the charisma otherwise.”
You do something many people would say ‘No’ to by agreeing to be set on fire. Was that as terrifying as it sounds?
Romesh: “The truth is I’ve been surprised by what we've been able to do, in terms of putting ourselves through it. Most of the time we perform par to expectation, but extreme stuff like the fire stunt in this episode is so mad, it tests your fear, anxiety and your nerves to the absolute limit.”
Rob: “I actually didn’t want to do it, but when I saw Romesh ahead of me on fire and could smell it and feel the heat, I knew I couldn’t stop there. I definitely wouldn't have been able to do this a few years ago. I had to calm my breathing down and tell myself that these are professionals, who do this all the time, because you don’t want to have a panic attack when you're on fire.”
How was your experience of performing at Download UK?
WTW note: Romesh Ranganatan reveals that he was in a rap metal duo called First Conviction when he was younger during the second episode of season 7.
Romesh: "It doesn’t sound as extreme as being set on fire, but Rob finds any kind of music performance utterly horrifying. Even when we’re just talking about it you can see he doesn't feel comfortable from his body language.
"I love music and have grown up with it, but Rob hasn’t so he finds it anxiety inducing. I was looking across at Rob during the performance - and he was really giving it some! There’s no way he would have done that even two years ago. It was amazing to see and a really proud moment as a friend."
Do you think your comfort zones have changed over the course of making the series?
Romesh: "‘I’ve learned that the production company doesn't care about comfort zones! I think our boundaries of what's acceptable have moved as we’ve become slightly hardened to it. I mean, there's stuff that we've done in the most recent series that we would never have dreamed of doing in the early series."
What do you think is the secret to the show's popularity?
Romesh: "One of the things Rob and I have accepted is that people watching the show want to see us go through a real ordeal. It's not fun watching two people just have a whale of a time, what you want is humiliation. Rob and I are essentially two clowns in the circus – but that’s showbiz!"
Fans have two specials to look forward to later this year. Do you ever think about how the series might end?
WTW note: The boys will be back on our screens in the coming months for two more challenges when they go behind the lens as part of the Natural History Museum’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest and also step up to the oche to face the UK’s best darts players in a high-pressure shoot-out.
Romesh: “Rob and I often talk about how the more series that we do, the more high anxiety, embarrassing and humiliating the things that we do are, and you can only go back to that well so many times. There will be an episode at some point where we just completely break down. It will be a really dark ending, fade to black, and there’ll be a caption saying, ‘And that was the last episode they ever did.’ Then you never see us again!”
Rob and Romesh Vs season 7 trailer
We are still waiting for a trailer to Rob and Romesh Vs season 7, but as soon as one is released we will add it to this guide.
