Season 1
Paul Merton in China is a British travel documentary television series produced by Tiger Aspect Productions which follows the journey of Paul Merton, comedian and writer, and his translator Emma, as they voyage across the communist state, exploring Chinese culture, expansion and change from Mao Zedong's reign.
The series originally aired in the UK on Five from 21 May to 11 June, 2007. There are four 60-minute episodes in the series.
Paul Merton in China premiered in South Africa on SABC3 on Saturday 9 August 2008, at 18h00.
Synopsis
Paul Merton is not really what you’d call a seasoned traveller. He’s more of a home bird. But his rapier, absurdist, and uniquely British wit is beloved by many.
Best known as a cornerstone of the BBC television’s Have I Got News For You, he does of course tend to read a lot of newspapers, and monitor a lot of news broadcasts.
So in the course of being exposed to a panoply of world events barely a day goes by without him being bombarded by at least one item on China, invariably somehow connected with the country’s apparently unstoppable rise to economic world domination.
In fact, according to everything Paul reads, hears and sees, China will, within his lifetime, easily eclipse America as the global super-power.
So Paul has decided it’s time to look at China for himself. He wants to gain some first-hand experience of the nation that will soon be providing a whole new set of cultural values and influences on the way we in the West live our lives.