Romesh unboxes his new role for CALM

To the sound of ominous music a wooden crate is passed to a delivery driver to be ferried to the house of comedian and professional grump, Romesh Ranganathan, who is less than pleased to be woken at 3am.

The bleary-eyed Ranganathan answers the door with a cheery, “What the shit is this?” before a solemn unboxing of the crate reveals that he has been chosen for the role of patron of CALM, the suicide prevention charity, spearheading a mission to save lives.

Directed by Great Guns' Calum Macdiarmid, who also directed last year's #TellaMate spot for CALM, the 100-second spot is an example of how the charity approaches things in a different way, reaching more people and breaking down the stigma around suicide using humour and pop culture.

A witty script, alluding to the idea of Ranganathan being the begrudging recipient of his position, inspired Macdiarmid to indulge in some cinematic melodrama. The film’s humour is enhanced by the use of music, which enabled the team to set a tone that would normally require a blockbuster budget, and to switch it on and off to complement the comic elements.

“This campaign was a fantastic opportunity to craft a narrative that felt compelling and intriguing before turning it all upside down with the introduction of Romesh and his blunt Crawley accent," said Macdiarmid. "He was great on set - though he first explained he'd been bundled into a car by his agent and didn't know what he was doing there. With these kinds of projects, I find the best thing you can do is simply make the film as funny as it can possibly be, worrying less about the darkness of the subject matter, but knowing that if you can make the film entertaining it will do some good for the world.”