The Moaning of Life

Why do people have children? That's the puzzler bothering world-weary philosopher Karl this week. Travelling the globe, he tries to understand why couples feel the need to become parents, visiting a fertility festival in Japan and a natural birthing centre in Bali - where he lends a hand with a delivery - and meets an LA couple looking to take the next step.

Karl aims to get to the bottom of his relative lack of a vocation, and visits an 85-year-old Japanese inventor to discover whether he has what it takes to become a genius. When the results prove less than encouraging, he sets his targets a little lower by trying his hand at becoming a traditional Japanese handyman. On the opposite end of the spectrum, he hangs out with a self-made millionaire in South Africa and jets off to Los Angeles to strut his stuff in a Hollywood fashion show. Karl makes a favourable impression on brazenly ostentatious South African playboy Kenny. Kenny's the kind of guy who sits on a throne at home and is keen to show off his wealth to the cameras, so Karl receives the full rap-star treatment. He sips champagne by the pool, rides in a helicopter and gets a facial. And then moans about it all.

Karl ends his journey with a look at differing attitudes to death. He visits Ghana, where he shops for a customised coffin, before attending his first-ever funeral and the accompanying parade. He also meets members of a community in the Philippines who live and work with the deceased, is taught how to cry and deal with grief by a professional mourner in Taiwan, and returns to Britain where he creates a memorial. The last part of Karl Pilkington's Sky One travel show, set in the Philippines, has been pulled in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan.