World of Weird

It’s a weird world out there. In this programme, our intrepid reporters have searched the globe to bring us some of the most extraordinary characters, bizarre situations, and remarkable phenomena the planet has to offer.

Comedian Joel Dommett takes the most unsettling trip of his life - to Tokyo to uncover the bizarre Japanese phenomenon of fake families. He meets the agents where you can rent fake family members – actors who will pose as your parents, or relatives to save you face or make you look better at social occasions, even weddings. Across Japan, ‘Rent-a-family’ companies work to discretely provide clients with pretend friends, siblings and even parents for social occasions. To rent a parent for one session costs around £150. After witnessing how it works, Joel finds his acting skills put to the test as he’s roped in to becoming a fake brother-in-law for one client. It’s a truly weird and high-stakes business.

Journalist Billie JD Porter goes to Mizoram the most remote part of India, to track down the world’s largest family. Comprised of father Ziona, his 39 wives and 94 children, the super-sized family live together in a purple mansion high in the hills of India near to the Burmese border. Billie, an only child, arrives hoping to present Ziona with a gift from London - a ‘World’s Greatest Dad’ mug. She uncovers a weird world of military-style birthday celebrations, children reciting daily prayers and hymns written by dad, and bagpipe bands.

Comedian Matt Rudge is fascinated by the end of the world, but his intrigue is put in perspective when he heads to one group’s 40-acre secret fortress where they rehearse for disaster situations. These are some of the gun toting ‘doomsday preppers’ in the US – people who spend thousands of dollars preparing for Armageddon. Matt is given a code name, gets kitted up and throws himself right into the action.

My Little Pony is a world-wide phenomenon, and presenter Michelle de Swarte gets to know some of the more surprising fans: ‘Bronies’, adult males who obsess about the little plastic horses. There are estimated to be as many as 12 million Bronies around the world. Michelle heads to Baltimore to come face to face with some of them at BronyCon, the world’s biggest convention of My Little Pony fans.

Elsewhere, meet Colombia’s bull-fighting dwarves, and the Texan couple whose 2,500lb pet buffalo Wild Thing watches TV in their house.