An Idiot Abroad

Season 3 Mon BBC Brit (*120) 21:00 Repeats Sat BBC Brit 12:35 Lifestyle

Karl Pilkington hates travelling. And that’s what makes him the perfect host of comedy-themed travel show An Idiot Abroad (2010-2014). It’s based on the books by his comedian friends Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant (who’re also the executive producers and pop up in the show) and they send Karl on ridiculous adventures. At least the 44year-old takes things in his stride, for the most part…

“The shark episode (season 2 epi1

sode 3, 2011) was not fun,” Karl says. He was cage diving with Great White sharks in Australia and adds that “I genuinely feared for my life. I was ready to call it quits right there”.

The one place that does scare the 2

comedian, TV host and radio personality is the hospital – in 2006 he had kidney stones removed and says that there’s no other pain like it.

Karl says that “the smartest thing 3

I did was start dating her” – he’s talking about his long-term girlfriend Suzanne Whiston. They’ve been in a relationship since the early ’90s.

And although Suzanne’s twitter 4

profile @SuzanneWhiston says that she’s “the proud wife of karl”, Karl said just last year that “I don’t see the point of weddings. A lot of money that could go into your mortgage. Or you go to the court on the cheap and then what?”

Not that Karl has much to worry 5

about with money – his company Round Ed Productions with 47-year-old Suzanne had £2.5 million (R43 million) in its bank account in 2015.

So what’s the best experience 6

he’s had on An Idiot Abroad? “We were in South Africa on safari (season 2 episode 5, 2011) and someone had a pet hippo. I got to massage it,” he says.