Travel show host Toby Amies bared all in a bid to road test the theory of six degrees of separation.

The 36-year-old visited Sydney, Havana, New York and Paris on a whistlestop tour for the unique travel programme.

His adventures were designed to test the idea that everyone in the world can be reached through a chain of social acquaintances - a maximum of six people.

In each programme, Toby is introduced to one of the locals, who then introduces him to another person until he becomes immersed in a string of adventures.

For example, the first episode shows him rolling up at Bondi Beach not knowing a soul. He meets artist and amateur surfer Mai Long, which leads him to do catering at the Sydney Arts Festival, swim with dolphins and sail in a twilight yacht race.

After waking in a nude B&B, he takes on former Australian heavyweight wrestling champion Big Phil Picasso in the ring.

Toby, who lives in Kemp Town, Brighton, said: "I had to take all my clothes off for one scene at the nude B&B. It was a lot of fun and it was shot with some decency.

"I think there was a strategically placed coffee pot protecting my modesty. A very large coffee pot, obviously."

Toby has already packed more into his 36 years than most people do in a lifetime. He interviewed the Sex Pistols and Madonna while working for MTV, has lived in New York and Arizona and hung out with Quentin Tarantino.

He said: "For me, travel is definitely about adventure. When I was growing up, I used to really hate the Rough Guide programmes, they were just too cool.

"In this programme we go somewhere with an open mind and a friendly attitude. We don't go to force our own culture on to others but to learn about their cultures."

Toby, who has an Australian mother and English father, became interested in the media while growing up in Chelten-ham, Gloucestershire.

His first job was on a B Sky B music show called Power Station. He graduated from runner to presenter in a couple of months, working with co-presenter Chris Evans.

When that folded and Toby's parents moved to Arizona, he decided to join them, working as a DJ before uprooting to LA at the age of 26 "because I felt I needed a proper job".

He got one at US record company MCA Records, working with stars such as Salt 'N' Pepa (he confesses to fancying band member Spinderella but said he was too shy to ask for her phone number).

While there, he was involved in promoting the Pulp Fiction soundtrack and ended up meeting director Quentin Tarantino.

After an interview with Eighties porn star Traci Lords, he was snapped up by MTV Europe. He later went to New York to present a music show and recently worked on Pink's live DVD. During his three years with MTV Europe in London Toby interviewed stars such as Madonna, Bono and Pavarotti and had his encoun-ter with the Sex Pistols.

Toby's interview marked the band's reunion in 1996 but ended with red races all round.

He said: "Just before the interview I went into the gents and there was Johnny Rotten at one of the urinals.

"I went up and said, 'All right Johnny?' We had a brief chat and I told him who I was. As we were leaving, he looked at me and said: 'We're gonna make you famous'.

"After about two minutes of questions, Johnny said: 'That's it, the interview's off,' and stormed out."

Toby and the camera crew chased round the building in a vain attempt to continue the interview but were unable to pin the group down.

The incident has not tainted Toby's impression of the star. He said: "Punk rock's really important to me, Johnny's a massive hero."

There were no such snubs in his interviews for Six Degrees.

His favourite place was Havana because everyone was so friendly. Toby was filmed visiting a Havana rodeo and falling head over heels for Cuban catwalk model and soap star Yoandra Suarez.

He said: "Cuba's a fantastic place but bizarre.

"There were lots of power cuts while we were there. We were told that whenever the TV in Miami shows anything anti-Castro, the whole country has a power cut. If you're going to have a dictatorship, that's the way to do it, isn't it?"

Toby moved to Brighton after falling in love with the city during a visit three years ago. He has a photography exhibition called Brighton Gently Askew at the Hanbury Ballroom in Kemp Town as part of the Brighton Festival.

For his next project, he is planning to make a horror film set in Brighton. He can be seen in four programmes in the Six Degrees series.