Summary

Popular UK writer and comedian Paul Merton is famous for his surreal, quirky sense of humour delivered with deadpan wit. So naturally on his travels through India, he is keen to seek out the bizarre and unexpected. Here he presents his typically idiosyncratic perspective on a land of startling contrasts: India has a space programme, is a leader in the IT revolution and is one of the biggest nuclear powers in the world, yet its population still worship rats and snakes.

Never has a country and presenter been better matched, as a surreal and intense journey gets underway from crowded city streets to the harsh beauty of rural India, from the rugged terrain of the North to the sultry heat of the South. With an unerring instinct for the surprising and amusing, Paul discovers a picaresque collection of oddballs and eccentricities you won’t find in any travel brochure.

Don’t miss a moment of Paul’s Indian adventure – a series which sees him hang out with a gang of eunuchs; dine with convicted criminals in a high security prison; learn to ‘rock’ on stage Indian style, meet India’s numerous world record holders (including the man who had 18 concrete blocks smashed on his groin with a sledgehammer) and get swamped by thousands of naked holy men at a remote hilltop festival.

Facing angry elephants, delinquent monkeys, spitting cobras and holy rats along the way, Paul finds the ‘alternative’ India. Journeying right into the heart of a country where anything can happen and usually does, Britain’s most unlikely explorer reveals what makes this emerging superpower so unique.

Paul Merton is a multi-award-winning comedian and novelist. His critically acclaimed previous travelogue on China received a BAFTA nomination for Best Factual Series.