The Misadventures of Romesh Ranganathan - Season 1

In this first episode, Romesh gets an insider's guide to Haiti to find out if his preconceptions about the Caribbean island are right, or if there is more to the country than the "sensational headlines" he's seen on the news.

For years all that most people in Britain have heard about Ethiopia is famine. And drought. And Bob Geldof singing about famine and drought. Now comedian Romesh Ranganathan is heading to East Africa to discover if this reputation is justified. Is Ethiopia really a food-starved dust bowl? Or will Romesh find a warm welcome and place of unique natural beauty there?

Met by local anthropologist Mike Tamerat, Romesh heads on a journey across this vast country, visiting ancient rock churches, scientific oddities, Rastafarians and camels to get a unique insider's guide. Along the way he experiences local wellness treatments that he worries will damage his reproductive capacity, an eye cleansing doctor and traditional rhyming jazz musicians who have a lot of fun insulting him in front of an audience.

But as he tries to get to grips with the country, he also encounters a side to Ethiopia that makes him question its undoubted beauty and fun - an oppressive political regime that has resulted in decades of turmoil and a country that stands on the brink of change. Bob Geldof wanted to feed the world and asked if they know it's Christmas time. Ethiopians do know it is Christmas time - they have one of the largest Christian populations in the world. But will he find any food? And beyond his stomach, will he find anything worth traveling there for?

Comedian Romesh Ranganathan travels to Albania to get an insider's guide to the country and to find out whether his own preconceptions about the Eastern European outpost are right. From a brief glance at anatlas, Albania has everything - it has beaches on the same coastline as Greece and Croatia, hills to trek in and stunning mountains. But for some reason all the average Brit knows about Albania is the old black and white clips from the communist era. And most of those have been mistaken for clips shot in Moscow.

On arrival, Romesh does indeed discover a country that is bleak and miserable, but then again, it is raining. And even his native Crawley seems a bit lacklustre in the rain. Guided by local TV presenter and journalist Erjona Rusi, Romesh is taken on a whistle-stop tour of the country. He visits the beaches (apparently stunning in the summer, but when Ramesh arrives it is -10 degrees) and is hosted on a unique homestay in a beautiful isolated shepherd's village, where he is sent out on overnight wolf patrol and then embarks on a treacherous seven hour journey into the mountains.

Along the way, Romesh tries to discover why Albania has remained a stubbornly unfashionable holiday destination, while many other formerly communist nations have leapt ahead. Romesh meets those at the extremes of this unique country, from the rural farmers to the billionaire playboys who live in the cities next to supermodels. He ends up with sheep poo mysteriously smeared across his back and, in a move he will doubtless come to regret, a tattoo emblazoned across his forearm. He finds a people desperate to throw off their reputation as the home of eastern mafia gangs, lots of Raki and a level of hospitality that he describes as 'second to none' as he gets an insider's guide to Albania.