An Idiot Abroad charts Pilkington's reaction when visiting the New Seven Wonders of the World as well as to the situations he's placed in, the country's cultural habits and idiosyncrasies. It was stated by the shows producers that Pilkington has no prior warning about these situations.[3] Gervais commented: "This is a (more real) documentary than most others you'll ever see on television. We don't plan it, he doesn't know what's going to happen.[3] The ongoing theme of both the television series and the book is that Karl Pilkington indicates he has no interest in global travel and so Merchant and Gervais make him travel, for the purposes of the documentary, while they themselves stay in London and monitor his progress.[4][2] There is an official podcast,[5] to accompany the programme and book of An idiot Abroad. Pilkington, Gervais and Merchant had previously worked together on The Ricky Gervais Show on XFM.