An Idiot Abroad
| An Idiot Abroad | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Also known as | 'An Idiot Abroad 2: The Bucket List An Idiot Abroad 3: The Short Way Round' |
| Genre |
Travel documentary comedy |
| Directed by | Richard Yee Krishnendu Majumdar Jamie Jay Johnson Benjamin Green Luke Campbell |
| Starring |
Karl Pilkington Ricky Gervais Stephen Merchant (series 1–2) Warwick Davis (series 3) |
| Theme music composer | Vik Sharma |
| Opening theme | "Seven Wonders" |
| Ending theme | "The Wrestler" |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of series | 3 |
| No. of episodes | 19 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) |
Ricky Gervais Stephen Merchant Richard Yee Krishnendu Majumdar Dan Goldsack |
| Producer(s) | Richard Yee Krishnendu Majumdar Luke Campbell |
| Running time | 60 minutes (inc. adverts) |
| Production company(s) | Mentorn Media (Series 1) RiSK (Series 2-3) Me & You Productions (Series 3) |
| Distributor | Passion Distribution |
| Release | |
| Original network | Sky 1 |
| Picture format | 16:9 (HDTV 1080i) |
| Audio format | Dolby Digital |
| Original release | 23 September 2010 – 14 December 2012 |
| External links | |
| Website | |
| Production website | |
An Idiot Abroad is a British travel documentary/road trip comedy television series broadcast on Sky 1, as well as a series of companion books published by Canongate Books, created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant and starring Karl Pilkington. The ongoing theme of both the television series and the books is that Pilkington has no interest in global travel, so Merchant and Gervais make him travel while they stay in the United Kingdom and monitor his progress.
Originally entitled Karl Pilkington's Seven Wonders of the World,An Idiot Abroad documents Karl Pilkington's journeys to foreign countries under the guise of visiting the New Seven Wonders of the World. Though the New Seven Wonders of the World include the Colosseum in Rome, this is not one of Pilkington's destinations; instead he visits the Great Pyramids in Egypt (which is the last of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World to remain intact). Most of each episode focuses on Pilkington’s reactions to cultural differences and idiosyncrasies in the countries he visits. Gervais and Merchant call Pilkington during each trip, to assign him tasks often not related to why he believed he was visiting the country. These include training as a luchador, travelling the desert on a camel, and dancing with a samba school in a Carnival parade. It was confirmed by the show's producers that Pilkington has no prior warning about these situations. The camera man coaxes him along. Gervais commented: "This is a [more real] documentary than most others you'll ever see on television. We don't plan it, he doesn't know what's going to happen."
A book entitled The Travel Diaries of Karl Pilkington was published shortly after the series. It was authored by Pilkington and gives a deeper insight into his feelings on what he was experiencing.
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