Paul Merton in Europe - Season 1

First aired: 1/11/2010 6 episodes

Episodes

1. Germany

Aired: 1/11/2010

Beginning in Germany, Paul meets the leader of a political movement known as the Apple Front, before enjoying a 'chess boxing' match in a Berlin sports hall. Next, he meets a former truck driver who practises the dying art of giant bunny breeding, and samples the delights of naked bowling. The first leg of Paul's tour ends with a bizarre spa treatment in a hotel on the Austrian border.

2. Germany & Ireland

Aired: 1/18/2010

In this instalment, Paul visits an American Indian Club in the former GDR before exploring the Wunderland miniature railway in the affluent city of Hamburg. His last stop in Germany is a visit to a family who make wooden sex toys! The next leg of the journey is the Republic of Ireland, starting in the ‘rebel’ county of Cork. Paul meets a solicitor called Colin who dreams of competing as a female synchronised swimmer, and an Irish monk who has opened an alternative sculpture park

3. Ireland

Aired: 1/25/2010

In Ireland, Paul drops in on Father Ted's house, visits a Brazilian enclave and meets some businessmen who are selling Irish dirt to America

4. Italy

Aired: 2/1/2010

Paul heads to Milan to see how the city’s twin loves of football and fashion have joined together with the concept of a footballer living in a department store. He watches a violent game of medieval football before meeting a group of men who have shed their macho image by learning housework. In Rome, Paul visits the spot where Julius Caesar died and encounters a self-styled ‘TV terrorist’.

5. France

Aired: 2/8/2010

Paul Merton continues his tour of Europe. In France, Paul meets show jumpers who perform without horses, hears from a playwright who lived in a zoo with a panda, and learns the bittersweet story of a heartbroken graffiti artist. In Champagne, Paul discovers that boundary changes could make some locals very rich indeed. The intrepid explorer also visits a macabre museum devoted to the horrors of the world, and catches up with the man who has invented the world’s first full-body rollerblading suit.

6. Spain

Aired: 2/15/2010

In the final episode, Paul travels to Spain, where he encounters a former monk who has spent the last half-century building a gigantic church singlehandedly. At a bullfight, he witness a spectacular display of acrobatics that leaves the animal in one piece. Elsewhere, Paul takes part in a gigantic human tower, learns about the legacy of the Civil War and tries his hand at flamenco.