Mangan and Joly to star in travel series

Comedian Dom Joly and comic actor Stephen Mangan (pictured) are to star in a series of travel documentaries for Five.

The series, Rough Guides to Ultimate Escapes is a spin-off to its previous Rough Guide series. Joly and Mangan are to star in two episodes of the four part series.

Joly, who came to fame via his anarchic hidden camera show Trigger Happy TV, will be attempting to climb an active volcano in Nicaragua and ski down the ash slope on the other side. Mangan, star of Green Wing and Never Better, will attempt to cycle around the mountain terrain of the Himalayas of Bhutan.

In the other two episodes, Olympic rower James Cracknell will be bungee jumping off a bridge in Venezuela and will attempt to climb the highest mountain in the Andes, while television presenter and director Ashley Hames will try to trek across a jungle in the Philippines.

This will not be the first time Five have broadcast a travel series featuring a comedian. Last year, its series Paul Merton in China proved popular; and two spin-off series featuring the HIGNFY captain visiting Germany and India have now been commissioned.