Paul Merton in China was a four-part television series broadcast on Five commencing from 21 May 2007. It follows the journey of Paul Merton

Paul Merton

Paul Merton is a British comedian, writer, actor and television presenter. Known for his improvisation skill, his humour is rooted in deadpan, surreal and sometimes dark comedy...

, comedian and writer, and his interpreter Emma, as they voyage across the country, exploring Chinese culture

Culture of China

Chinese culture is one of the world's oldest and most complex. The area in which the culture is dominant covers a large geographical region in eastern Asia with customs and traditions varying greatly between towns, cities and provinces...

, expansion and change from Mao Zedong

Mao Zedong

Mao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung , and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution...

's reign. The series was a hit for Five and Merton confirmed on Michael Parkinson

Michael Parkinson

Sir Michael Parkinson, CBE is an English broadcaster, journalist and author. He presented his interview programme, Parkinson, from 1971 to 1982 and from 1998 to 2007.- Early life :...

's show that a second series entitled Paul Merton in India

Paul Merton in India

Paul Merton in India is a television show broadcast on Five in the United Kingdom and Fox History & Entertainment in India. The first episode was aired on 8 October 2008. It follows comedian Paul Merton as he travels around India. The series was commissioned after the success of the previous series...

had been commissioned. The theme music from Channel Five's advertisement is Michel Legrand

Michel Legrand

Michel Jean Legrand is a French musical composer, arranger, conductor, and pianist...

's Di Gue Ding Ding, which was also used as the theme music to Heston Blumenthal's

Heston Blumenthal

Heston Marc Blumenthal OBE is an English chef and owner of The Fat Duck, a three-Michelin-starred restaurant in Bray, Berkshire voted Best Restaurant in the UK by The Good Food Guide 2007 and 2009, and voted best restaurant in the world by Restaurant magazine in 2005...

 series In Search of Perfection aired concurrently on BBC Two

BBC Two

BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...

. All four episodes were released on DVD

DVD

A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

 in late October 2008.

Production

• During his time making the documentary in the country he was continuously escorted around by government appointed officials, as many documentary makers in the country are, thus Merton was mostly limited to what the officials wanted him to document.

• While staying in a Chinese hotel the staff were told to expect the arrival of a "Western celebrity". When Merton and his interpreter arrived at the hotel, he was greeted personally by the owner thinking he was Paul Martin
  Paul Martin
  Paul Edgar Philippe Martin, PC , also known as Paul Martin, Jr. is a Canadian politician who was the 21st Prime Minister of Canada, as well as leader of the Liberal Party of Canada....
  
  , the former Canadian Prime Minister, as Martin is Merton's real name.

Ratings

The first episode was watched by 2 million viewers and was the 5th most watched show on Channel 5. The second episode gathered 1.58 million views and was the 6th most watched show on the channel. The last two shows gained 2 million and 1.85 million viewers and were placed 6th and 5th respectively.