Within the scope of five‘s modest ambitions, Paul Merton in China was certainly a success. And with good reason; it may have been a rather unorthodox travel show – with as much emphasis on the ‘Paul Merton’ bit of the title as the ‘China’ bit – but it was informative, sought out some genuine eccentrics, and it was always fun to witness Merton’s look of horror as he was told what was in his evening meal.

It’s not surprising then that five have signed Merton up for two more travel series, one in India and the other in Germany. Do you think they’re possibly trying to ratchet up the humour with that second one? He has an itinerary for both trips, but has already thought of a few people to visit himself, and you imagine that they’re the ones that will turn out to be the most interesting. Oh, and five’s senior programme controller Chris Shaw calls the progamme “a totally new style of topical adventure show”, not travelogue. Just so you know. [via Chortle]