An Idiot Abroad : The Travel Diaries of Karl Pilkington

About the book

Presenting the Travel Diaries of Karl Pilkington: Adventurer. Philosopher. Idiot. Karl Pilkington isn't keen on travelling. Given the choice, he'll go on holiday to Devon or Wales or, at a push, eat English food on a package holiday in Majorca. Which isn't exactly Michael Palin, is it? So what happened when he was convinced by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant to go on an epic adventure to see the Seven Wonders of the World? Travel broadens the mind, right? You'd think so... Find out in Karl Pilkington's hilarious travel diaries. 'He is a moron. A completely round, empty-headed, part-chimp Manc.' RICKY GERVAIS

Reviews

Genius or mental case? Prepare to be amazed Esquire

Quotes

Genius or mental case? Prepare to be amazed * * Esquire * * The funniest man on the planet * * Spectator * * Not many idiots could make something this funny * * Guardian * *

Karl Pilkington Biography

Karl Pilkington (born 23 September 1972) is an English presenter, comedian, actor, producer and author. After working with Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant as producer on their XFM radio show, Pilkington became a co-host of The Ricky Gervais Show. He presented the Sky travel comedy series An Idiot Abroad and the Sky 1 travel comedy series The Moaning of Life. He made his acting debut in Gervais' comedy-drama series Derek and co-founded the television production company RiSK Productions alongside Gervais and Merchant. He also co-created, co-wrote, and starred in the comedy series Sick of It.

Early life

Pilkington was born on 23 September 1972 in Sale, Greater Manchester. He grew up in the Racecourse Estate neighbourhood of Sale, and has an older sister and older brother. Very little is known about his family, but he has discussed having a close relationship with his parents, having shared stories about his mother and father holding multiple jobs. However, he was never close to his siblings, which he attributed to being 10 years younger than them; he once said that it had been "years" since he had last talked to them. He attended Ashton-on-Mersey School in Sale. He said that he never liked school and struggled with the system, at some point losing all interest in it. He has claimed that he only attended school to sell items to his schoolmates, usually video games that he had purchased and made copies of. He said, "I wasn't going to school to learn, I was going to earn." At the age of 15, he dropped out of school to work as a cassette and disk printer through a Youth Training Scheme program.

Career

Early work

Pilkington moved to London to work as a producer at XFM, where he was later promoted to head of production. While there, he unintentionally caused Gail Porter to leave the station in tears after only one show; he criticised her performance, which Pilkington defended as an attempt to encourage improvement. After several years, he began work on The Ricky Gervais Show. Initially, Pilkington was solely the programme's producer and rarely spoke on-air, but as Gervais and Merchant began to frequently invite him to make cameo appearances, Pilkington's quirky persona came to light and his popularity increased. He was eventually included as a main presenter on the broadcasts, with large amounts of airtime devoted to his unusual thoughts on various subjects, often due to his misunderstanding of science and nature, and childhood stories. He created many features for the broadcasts, including Monkey News, Rockbusters, Educating Ricky and many others.. Rockbusters, in particular, garnered the most attention, with regular emails being sent to the station from listeners in the hopes to win prizes. These prizes were often mundane and low quality and were often referred to as things Pilkington "picked up from around the office". In December 2005, Pilkington stood in for two BBC Radio 6 Music shows for Nemone, co-presenting wi ... Read full biography