Comedian Romesh Ranganathan surprises Shirebrook Academy student with video call

Ben Madeley was surprised when Romesh Ranganathan popped up onto his screen during a mentoring session.

A Shirebrook Academy student got a big surprise when TV comedian Romesh Ranganathan dropped in on a video call to congratulate him for focusing on his studies amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Ben Madeley is a huge fan of Romesh and couldn’t believe his eyes when the star appeared on his screen.

Romesh told him: “I have no doubts that you’re going to achieve your ambitions and you’re going to go on to achieve really great things. I just wanted to say to you I wish you the very best of luck with that.”

The star offered Ben the opportunity to go on one of his shows when they start up again and meet him afterwards.

Year 11 student Ben, who is studying maths, hopes to go on to Oxford or Cambridge university.

Ben was being mentored by Adam Joseph-Kerr of the education charity The Access Project when Romesh popped up on screen. The video call was filmed for a fundraising evening organised by the charitable foundation Impetus which aims to transform the lives of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Ben spoke about how TAP was helping him to keep up with his studies during lockdown: “The Access Project has been incredible, I have a tutor called Michaela Wood and she’s brilliant, we do maths every week pretty much...it’s helping me to keep a schedule together.”

His mentor, university access officer Adam Joseph-Kerr said: “Ben typifies a lot of what The Access Project students are about, incredible predicted grades and he was on track to do really well in his GCSEs. He’s really ambitious and he knows he wants to study at a top university.”